Betrayal - Alicia | Betrayal Weekly

Episode Date: September 4, 2025

Running a dance studio was Alicia’s dream. Her husband's secrets would tear it apart.   If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal Team, email us at [e-mail] and follow us on Instagram at @betrayalpod To access our newsletter and additional content and to connect with the Betrayal community, join our Substack at betrayal.substack.com.     See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. I'm Cheryl McCollum, host of the podcast Zone 7. Zone 7 ain't a place. It's a way of life. Now, this ain't just any old podcast, honey. We're going to be talking to family members of victims, detectives, prosecutors, and some nationally recognized experts that I have called on over the years to help me work these difficult cases. I've worked hundreds of cold cases.

cases you've heard of and thousands you haven't. We started this podcast to teach the importance of teamwork and solving these crazy crimes. Come join us in learning from detectives, prosecutors, authors, canine handlers,

forensic experts, and most importantly, victims' family members. Come be a part of my zone 7 while building yours. Listen to Zone 7 with Cheryl McCollum on the IHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, everyone.

I'm Andrea Gunning, host of Betrayal. And I'm excited to bring you a brand new season of Betrayal Weekly. I'm also excited to tell you that you can now get access to all episodes of Betrayal Season 1, 2, 3, and Betrayal Weekly and every single episode of Betrayal Season 4 ad-free and one week early through the IHeart True Crime Plus subscription. Available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Plus, you'll get access. to other char-topping true crime shows

you love like the real killer, the girlfriends, American homicide, they're in gone South Street, burden of guilt, murder on Songbird Road, the Idaho Massacre, Paper Ghosts, and more. So don't wait, head to Apple Podcasts, search for iHeart True Crime Plus, and subscribe today.

Hi, everybody, I'm Erica Lance from the Turning River Road. I'm excited to share that you can get access to all episodes of seasons one, two, and three of the turning, 100% ad-free, and access all episodes of the Turning River Road one week early through the IHeart True Crime Plus subscription. To celebrate the summer season, we're offering a 30-day free trial to the IHeart True Crime Plus channel. This offer is available for a limited time, so don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts, search for IHeart True Crime Plus, and subscribe today. The U.S. Open is here, and on my podcast, Good Game with Sarah Spain. I'm breaking down the

players, the predictions, the pressure, and of course the honey deuses, the the signature cocktail of the U.S. Open. The U.S. Open has gotten to be a very wonderfully experiential sporting event. To hear this and more, listen to Good Game with Sarah Spain, an Iheart women's sports production in partnership with deep blue sports and entertainment on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by Novartis, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports Network. When it started to go a little too far, he would sometimes show up the studio wearing bandages on his hands.

And he would say that he was mastering how to manipulate and start fire from his hands. I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Betrayal, a show about the people we trust the most and the deceptions that change everything. The students reached out to me and they were the ones who told me they got out of a cult. That's Alicia. It isn't her real name. We've had to anonymize every person. We've had to anonymize everyone in this episode. And you'll see why in a minute. Oh, my goodness, I don't know where to start. Let's go to the beginning, I guess. Alicia grew up in the 80s in a chaotic home. One of her parents struggled with addiction.

So Alicia ended up helping raise her older brothers, and in a way, raising herself. I pretty much had to be the provider, maybe cook food or meals as much as I could. So that was a little stressful as a younger kid. When she was seven years old, her dad signed her up for dance, and it changed her life. It definitely saved me. In one of her very first classes, Alicia remembers feeling out of place. I was the little scraggly kid in the back. It was funny because one time I went to class and I was wearing jeans and I was like mortified because I didn't have my tights or anything.

But the dance instructor put her. Alicia at ease. She made me feel seen and like it was okay. And, you know, I was just there to dance. And no one was looking at me to try to judge me. She was awesome. And then after that, I was hooked. That instructor became a mentor.

She stayed my role model all the way through my dance career at that studio until I pretty much graduated high school. It was a classical studio, so Alicia trained in ballet, tap, and jazz. From age seven on, she joined every class she could. It was a way for me to escape what was going on at home. It was my way to walk into the studio and just be somewhere else, be something else. I was able to escape through the music, through the movement. It just became my safe space. When she went off to college, she kept dancing.

And eventually, she began teaching it. It became this full-circle moment of being able to do the things that my mentor had done for me, give that back to a kid that might have not felt seen. She returned to her childhood studio after college. I wound up venturing back to my old studio, that I originally grew up at. I wanted to make kids feel empowered, to make them feel good about themselves,

express themselves in the ways that they needed. Alicia had dozens of students. One of the standouts was a young dancer named Kim. One of our students was Kim. I started working with her when she was 12 or 13 years old. I remember her being this fun, quirky, sassy girl. But Kim was incredibly talented. She just had this natural ability to her, this natural flexibility that people only dream of. She was always really willing to like work hard and I knew she

would go far. I knew she was going to make it. Alicia took her under her wing. That year, Alicia met another dancer. We're going to call Kevin. He was Alicia's age, just finishing college. Kevin It was cute, and I thought it was pretty impressive to see someone that could dance as well as he could. He had that natural ability and that natural talent, and there's something attractive about that, like especially seeing a guy dance in that way. Kevin wasn't trained in a classical studio. He was mostly self-taught, and he was mesmerizing. His specialty was hip-hop, so all the traditional styles of hip-hop.

which would be breaking, popping, locking, B-Boying. It was something that was new to me being more of a traditionally trained dancer. And he definitely made it seem effortless. They started off his friends, taking classes, going out, and bonding over their tough childhoods. He would ask me questions about my upbringing and wanted to know a lot about what happened. growing up and he was very attentive with that. I told him my life story and that I didn't have the best upbringing and how I had to grow up pretty quickly. And then it turned out that he wound up having the same type of family issues. They both had a parent that struggled with

addiction and Kevin seemed genuinely interested in hearing about Alicia's background. Alicia was amazed to meet someone who shared her love for dance and also had a traumatic upbringing. For the first time, I felt seen and I felt heard in a way that others couldn't really understand. And it felt very validating. But I didn't pick up on his signals about, you know, getting a little bit more than just friends. After a few months, Kevin confessed his feelings for her. He bought flowers, wrote love notes, and made mixtapes. He even got me this necklace.

It was like a little diamond pendant necklace that he said symbolized. shedding my last tear and that he wouldn't ever hurt me, so I would never have to cry again. And that's when I took the leap of faith, and we started up the relationship. He just seemed like this very kind, very sensitive person, and he seemed like a hopeless romantic, despite all the mistreatment that he experienced at home. So it was pretty much the same thing as me. Kevin had big career ambitions. This was the late 90s, and he wanted to work with pop stars

like InSink and Britney Spears. But he was struggling to find long-term work. So Alicia brought Kevin into the studio where she worked to teach hip-hop. I approached the studio owner, and he thought that it would be a good idea. So Kevin had a couple of classes to start with, and he was great at it.

Kevin's classes became a hit. Alicia's student Kim enrolled. Kim had her sight set on becoming a professional dancer. And Kevin saw the same potential in her that Alicia did. They started to have a bond in a relationship and he wanted to help her as well. The studio was like a little family. Mentoring Kim and students like her brought them closer. Kevin and Alicia spent every day all day at the studio.

She was really falling for him. He would bring out the best of me, and he let me be myself. Like, I was able to be fun and quirky, and he encouraged that. You know, I never felt self-conscious around him. He would always look at me in ways that made me feel like I was the only person. A few years into their relationship, he surprised her with a trip to New York, made a reservation at a famous restaurant. windows on the world.

It was on the top floor of the World Trade Center. And that night at dinner? All of a sudden, he got down on one knee, and then I look up behind me, and my best friend standing there recording, and he popped the question. He was very nervous, but he said that he wanted to be my partner for the rest of my life.

I don't know if I even remember hearing the rest of what he said, because I just started crying, and I was just overwhelmed with joy, and it just felt like such a special moment. She felt like she was marrying her best friend. Getting married, I always pictured having somebody that is going to make me feel safe because that's something that just growing up with childhood trauma

is one thing that you don't always feel all the time. The wedding day was emotional, Even though Kevin had a tense relationship with his family, they all came to celebrate him. I started walking down the aisle and I saw him. I became emotional because I could just see our future together and us building this great family. And he started getting emotional. So it was just us trying to get through our vows and being so choked up. I was a little embarrassed by that because I thought I could try to compose myself.

And you don't want to have like an ugly cry in your wedding pictures. But it almost felt like that. Some of their dance students even came to the ceremony, like Kim and her mom. Just looking out and seeing her and some of the other students that were so excited for us to get together, it was great to be able to include them in that. Once they were married, Alicia encouraged him to visit his parents more often. They didn't live far. But Kevin still harbored resentment about his childhood.

When he was around his family, he was a shell of himself. And he would sulk and he would change his whole personality on the way there because he was upset about even having to go there and he was going to have to put on a fake face and pretend that everything was okay. So they kept their visits to holiday weekends. Those were the only times that we would go over there. But when he was at home with Alicia, Kevin was animated and loving.

They started daydreaming about raising kids together. He always knew that I wanted to have kids and have a family of my own. That was one of the things that we always talked about. They already knew they both loved kids. They were surrounded by them every day. One of their star students, Kim, had become Alicia's teaching assistant. And Kevin was helping Kim get her dance career off the ground. So we kind of played the dual role of mentoring her.

And then eventually she started assisting some of his classes. as well. By this point, Kevin had been with the studio for years. He just became the staple at the studio, and all these kids just flocked to him for guidance and inspiration. The kids loved him. The parents all loved him. But there was one person that didn't quite love him, and that was my mentor. They didn't seem to be clicking for some reason, and I thought that was unusual. They just were not really on the same page. Kevin's theory was that this older teacher was jealous of how popular his classes were. And not too long after that, that's when one of the kids started saying something to their parents about the conversation that Kevin had with them in the classroom.

A parent complained about something Kevin said to a student. We don't know what it is because Alicia never got the full story. Kevin denied saying anything inappropriate, but the studio owner decided to keep an eye on Kevin. And a few months after that... The owner decided that he was going to let him go. He said that there were some artistic differences and that it was time to part.

Kevin called Alicia outraged. Kevin pretty much made me feel like they were ganging up on him and that no one understood him and they were jealous. It seemed like a horrible misunderstanding. And she believed Kevin when he said this was rooted in jealousy, especially considering... The parents and the kids were still very supportive of Kevin. They couldn't believe what happened,

and they started attacking the studio owners, saying to him that he didn't know what he was doing, he didn't know how to conduct business, how can he let him go. At first, Alicia assumed she would keep her job, and Kevin could find a new place to work. But for him, this was a matter of right and wrong, and he wanted Alicia to be on his side. He said this environment was supposed to be my second home

and like my family and look how they're treating my husband. So I had no other choice but to support him at that time. So then I had to leave the studio as well. I was heartbroken because I hear it was this community that just felt like such a safe space for me, someplace that I grew up at for pretty much my whole life at this point. Everything that I had worked hard for, you know, now it's all gone. Heartbroken, Alicia turned in her keys and left the studio she'd grown up in.

At the time, I felt very hurt because I felt like no one really came to me and said anything. Looking back, I realized the only version of the story I was getting was Kevin's story. So, of course, I'm going to believe him. He's my husband, but he was hiding something from me, something bigger, something darker. I'm Cheryl McCollum, host of the podcast Zone 7. Zone 7 ain't a place. It's a way of life. I've worked hundreds of cold cases you've heard of and thousands you haven't.

We started this podcast to teach the importance of teamwork and solving these crazy crimes. Come join us in learning from detectives, prosecutors, authors, canine handlers, forensic experts, and most importantly, victims' family members. Listen to Zone 7 with Cheryl McCollum on the the IHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, everybody. I'm Erica Lance from the Turning River Road. I'm excited to share that you can get access to all episodes of seasons one, two, and three of the turning 100% ad-free and access all episodes of the Turning River Road one week early through the IHeart True Crime Plus

subscription. To celebrate the summer season, we're offering a 30-day free trial to the IHeart True Crime Plus channel. This offer is available for a limited time, so don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts, search for IHeart True Crime Plus, and subscribe today. Hi, everyone. I'm Andrea Gunning, host of Betrayal. And I'm excited to bring you a brand new season of Betrayal Weekly. I'm also excited to tell you that you can now get access to all episodes of Betrayal Season 1, 2, 3, and Betrayal Weekly, and every single episode of Betrayal Season 4 ad-free and one week early through the IHart True Crime Plus subscription. Available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Plus, you'll get access to other char-topping true crime shows you love, like The Real Killer, The Girlfriends, American Homicide, They're in Gone South Street, Burden of Guilt, Murder on Songbird Road, the Idaho Massacre, Paper Ghost, and more. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts, search for iHeart True Crime Plus, and subscribe today.

The U.S. Open is here, and on my podcast, Good Game with Sarah Spain, I'm breaking down the players from rising stars to legends chasing. history. The predictions will we see a first-time winner and the pressure. Billy Jean King says pressure is a privilege, you know. Plus, the stories and events off the court and of course the honey deuses, the signature cocktail of the U.S. Open. The U.S. Open has gotten to be a very fancy, wonderfully experiential sporting event. I mean, listen, the whole aim is to be accessible and inclusive for all tennis fans, whether you play tennis or not. Tennis is full of compelling stories of late. Have you heard about icon Venus Williams' recent wildcard bids? Or the young Canadian Victoria Mbocco making a name for herself? How about Naomi Osaka getting back to form? To hear this and more,

listen to Good Game with Sarah Spain, an Iheart women's sports production in partnership with deep blue sports and entertainment on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. After Kevin was fired from the studio, his favorite students rallied around him. He'd been working with many of them for years, and they wanted to keep taking his classes. The next step seemed obvious for Kevin and Alicia. That's when I was saying to him, oh, I always wanted to open up my own dance studio. I decided that, hey, now we had the opportunity to create that safe space of our own,

so we can do it the way that we wanted to. Why not just give it a go? Their own studio. It would be a pre-professional program. No expensive costumes or recitals. Just dance. We turned this pretty empty warehouse, which was 6,000 square feet into this beautiful studio.

They wanted to prepare kids for real careers in dance, and Kevin was perfectly positioned to make that happen. Since he was one of the only male hip-hop dance, teachers at the time. We wound up establishing his own hip-hop company. They had 100 students upon opening. Many of his former students put down a deposit to join Kevin and Alicia's new studio. With Kevin being the lead instructor, they needed a plan for oversight and safety, for everyone's sake. I had observation windows, I had cameras, because you always want to make sure that the parents feel comfortable and feel safe, especially with a male teacher, because

You know, you always hear stories of different things happening, and I never wanted that to ever be an issue. He never wanted that to be an issue. So I always had those things in place. So we didn't ever have to worry about that. Alicia was thrilled when Kim came on board to help them open this studio. Kim was now a college student, and she became their first employee. She started out helping me with the front desk. doing those types of things at first,

then we started to give her some classes of her own since she didn't really have that before. And we definitely became a lot closer. Alicia managed the business, while Kevin worked tirelessly to recruit a hip-hop crew. And when the group was assembled, it was undeniable. The crew had the it factor. Once we got up on our feet,

his hip-hop crew started doing a lot of performances all over the area. These kids were really turning heads and winning a lot of different awards and were pretty much neck and neck with some professional dancers on the scene and they would get recognized because they were so young at the time

and people couldn't believe how good they were. The kids and Kevin's crew ranged in age from 13 to 19. They were a bunch of kids who came from diverse backgrounds, who all were able to rise up above adversity and beat life's obstacles. Within two years, the kids were winning national titles, booking huge auditions,

even making it onto TV shows. I didn't even expect it to blow up the way that it did, especially around this particular crew. I felt like I was on cloud nine. Things were coming together, so it was just thrilling, to be the studio owner. Like, it felt really good.

In the chaos of starting a new business, Alicia and Kevin's marriage started to drift. There wasn't any intimacy. I was realizing that we were more friends than anything, more like business partners than a married couple. Along the way, Alicia had put one of her own dreams to the side. At this point, I am now in my 30s, and I just wanted to go back to the original goal of having children of my own.

But Kevin seemed more interested in his crew than starting a family with Alicia. So there came a breaking point, and I built up enough courage and strength to have that conversation with him. She finally sat him down and told him that she wanted to separate. She was bracing for his emotional reaction, but Kevin seemed completely unfazed. He pretty much just looked at me and said, okay, I'm like, what? How is that possible? I couldn't believe it. I'm like, well, maybe he didn't hear me. Maybe it just didn't hit him. I just couldn't believe it. And then he said, okay, well, well, what do you think I should do, just move out? I said, okay, yeah, I guess. I was just still baffled at the fact that he was just so calm.

about it. He just said, okay. Kevin moved out that night, and they stayed amicable through the whole divorce process. It was shockingly easy. After we decided to separate, I almost had a sense of calm come over me, and I started to realize that I didn't need to still be in a relationship with him in order to keep the studio going. The dance students and their education was the most important thing to both. both of them. There were only a few uncomfortable moments, like with Kim. It was a little awkward for her to be in the middle of our split because she was really good

friends with him. She just became a little bit more distant. Alicia felt as though Kim was picking aside. And she noticed that with the students too. She chalked it up to them processing the divorce. But then all of a sudden, like a lot of the kids were starting to fight more and there was a lot of, like, tension, and there just seemed to be something that was off. Then one day, one of the younger students came to Alicia to talk one-on-one. The girl was in Kim's class. So I had a student approached me and wanted to talk to me.

She started saying that she didn't like the way that Kim and Kevin were acting and what they were doing was disgusting. How could they do something like that? And I really wasn't sure what she was talking about, but I let her vent and I just listened to her and I tried to just let her finish what she was saying while not giving away the fact that I didn't know any of this at the time. What she was trying to tell Alicia was that Kevin and Kim were together. In the moment, Alicia maintained her composure. She didn't want the student to think she'd done anything wrong by coming to her.

I just told her, don't worry about it, we'll figure it out. After the conversation ended, Alicia was shaken. She assumed the girl must be confused. Kevin had known Kim since she was 12 or 13. They even had her at their wedding. I couldn't even process the thought of them being together. The thought of it just made me sick. I just didn't understand.

And I didn't know if it was even true. But her gut told her to check the security cameras. So she did, starting with the previous night. It was a late night session. Everyone was hanging out in the lobby. And that was the first time I noticed him. He was like rubbing her back. But the way that he was doing it, like very, like loving, that kind of thing,

I was like, okay, whoa. So I was freaking out. It made me start to question everything. I was furious. I was nauseated. I didn't know what to think or what to do. At this point, Kim was in her early 20s. Kevin was nearly 40.

So Alicia felt like she couldn't do anything about it. I just had to maybe even step back at this moment and say, okay, well, we're all adults here. Like, she wasn't a minor or anything at the time. and she was a young adult, and what am I going to do? Kevin and Alicia's divorce had been finalized a few months prior. For her own sanity, she needed further confirmation that this was really happening. So the next night, she followed them after rehearsal.

I waited in my car, and I followed them to the diner, and I waited there until they finished eating. So I literally sat in my car, like in the side part. parking lot, waiting for them to come out. And when they came out, they started to embrace and that's when they started to kiss. It was true. I just couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that this person who I had mentored from such a young age was now with my ex-husband. It wasn't just betrayal. It was something deeper. It was a contamination of her whole reality. The past 10 years with Kevin, their business together.

It all started to look different. There's no words to describe the feeling of him being with somebody that we both mentored. It was creepy and disgusting. She couldn't go to Kevin because now she didn't trust him. She was questioning everything. So Alicia reached out to a trusted former student who was now an adult. I asked her how long Kevin and Kim were together, and her whole demeanor completely changed, and she just let out this big sigh, and she said, it's been some time now.

It's been probably going on for several years. She said that it was something that was just not spoken of, but it was known. It was kept a secret for so long. But now that I knew about Kevin and Kim, then that's when it seemed like the right time for people to come and start telling me more. Word spread among former students that Alicia knew about the affair. And one by one, they started contacting her. The students reached out to me. They were the ones who told me all about what was happening.

What was happening? went far beyond Kevin and Kim's relationship. They were telling me that they got out of a cult. I'm Cheryl McCollum, host of the podcast Zone 7. zone seven ain't a place it's a way of life i've worked hundreds of cold cases you've heard of and thousands you haven't we started this podcast to teach the importance of teamwork and solving these crazy crimes come join us in learning from detectives prosecutors authors canine handlers forensic experts and most importantly victims family members listen to zone seven with

Cheryl McCollum on the IHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, everyone. I'm Andrea Gunning, host of Betrayal. And I'm excited to bring you a brand new season of Betrayal Weekly. I'm also excited to tell you that you can now get access to all episodes of Betrayal Season 1, 2, 3, and Betrayal Weekly and every single episode of Betrayal Season 4 ad-free and one week early through the IHart True Crime Plus subscription. Available exclusively on Apple Podcast.

Podcasts. Plus, you'll get access to other char-topping true crime shows you love, like The Real Killer, The Girlfriends, American Homicide, They're In Gone South Street, Burden of Guilt, Murder on Songbird Road, The Idaho Massacre, Paper Ghosts, and more. So don't wait, head to Apple Podcasts, search for iHeart True Crime Plus, and subscribe today. Hi, everybody, I'm Erica Lance from the Turning River Road. I'm excited to share that you can get access to all episodes. of seasons 1, 2, and 3 of the Turning 100% ad-free, and access all episodes of the Turning River Road one week early

through the I-Heart True Crime Plus subscription. To celebrate the summer season, we're offering a 30-day free trial to the I-Heart True Crime Plus channel. This offer is available for a limited time, so don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts, search for IHeart True Crime Plus, and subscribe today. The U.S. Open is here, and on my podcast, Good Game with Sarah Spain, I'm breaking down the players from Rising Star,

to legends chasing history, the predictions will we see a first-time winner, and the pressure. Billy Jean King says pressure is a privilege, you know. Plus, the stories and events off the court, and of course the honey deuses, the signature cocktail of the U.S. Open. The U.S. Open has gotten to be a very fancy, wonderfully experiential sporting event. I mean, listen, the whole aim is to be accessible and inclusive for all tennis fans, whether you play tennis or not. Tennis is full of compelling stories of late.

Have you heard about Icon Venus Williams' recent wildcard bids? Or the young Canadian, Victoria Mboko, making a name for herself. How about Naomi Osaka getting back to form? To hear this and more, listen to Good Game with Sarah Spain, an IHeart Women's Sports production in partnership with deep blue sports and entertainment on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. After she found out about Kevin and Kim's affair, it was like the levy broke.

Former students who Alicia thought had left the studio on good terms began telling her about an entirely different side of Kevin, one that was completely hidden from her. They were telling me that they got out of a cult. A cult? That word hit Alicia hard. It seemed Kevin had gone to extreme lengths to keep. Alicia in the dark. Now, she had to get to the bottom of what was going on. So she began asking former students what happened. And then I started to piece a lot of the story together. Kevin told his crew that he used to be a backup dancer for Britney Spears and other pop artists, which wasn't true.

He would pull up a video and basically someone was standing there in the background and he would say, oh, look, that's me. It was an incredibly powerful lie, because the students all dreamed of an opportunity like that, and it made them want to do anything to impress him. Then Kevin would initiate what he called life chats. He would approach a student after class

to talk about their goals and dreams. They would be flattered that he was interested in them. And after that, he would talk to them a lot over the internet that through messenger, he would get them to open up to him and tell him everything he needed to pretty much understand who they were. Kevin tailored his influence to each student. He became whatever that student needed most.

Some people needed a best friend, other people needed a therapist, other people needed someone they can confide in. Then a father figure for some, because some of them come from broken home, so then he would become that. He would shape-shift into whatever each student needed him to be. After that connection was established, Kevin wanted to be in constant communication.

It became like a 24-7 connection with him. Like he wanted them to always write back if he texted them or if they had group chats going. And he had a lot of different chats and different side conversations going on all the time. So they never really had any real privacy because he would always be involved. And then he would get really upset if they never texted back or they didn't respond. He made it clear to the students that he could make or break their careers. And when they wouldn't reply to his texts, he would tie it into, well, if you have an agent, then, you know,

you have to be able to respond right away or you lose your job. So then it just became a normal thing. Then he started controlling what they wore and how they looked. He would try to change the way they were dressed. Some of them needed to develop a little bit. bit more and change their look or their style or their hair or whatever, he would relate it back to that's how it is in the dance industry. And then he would find ways to use more of the manipulative tactics. Manipulative and highly inappropriate tactics. Because after he had

emotional control over the students, Kevin started talking to the kids about sex. and their sexuality. He said it would help them become a better dancer. And keep in mind, some of the students were as young as their teen. He would say that they needed to learn how to masturbate, and he would teach them how to do that. He would show them the pictures and the videos to clarify what he meant, and then they had the report back,

so he can tell them if they did it right and if what they were experiencing was right. He was able to tie that all back to dance because it would make them able to express themselves. And, you know, it was normal because you wanted to be able to do that as an artist. He said that it would help them to be a more sensual dancer. He started manipulating their romantic and sexual relationships with each other. He started to encourage them to date each other.

He would set up different group chats with different people to have them talk about sex and getting together. He would even... drive students over to other people's houses for them to have sex. So they weren't of age because they weren't driving at the time. So he would drop them off. A lot of times he would drive students home from dance. They would get permission from their parents.

And those were the drives that some of them said that they felt uncomfortable in a way where, you know, like when someone's trying to hit on you or trying to suggest something, like they kind of got that feeling, but they just didn't engage in that. felt like if they were to give a green light, something could have happened. Alicia was deeply concerned if Kevin ever touched them inappropriately. But when she asked the students about it directly, they all said no. He would tell some of them, I know two in particular, that he was their soulmate and that they were Twin Flames and they had a deeper connection.

Like he was the only person that would understand what they went through from their past life experience. Past life. Not as in their past a few years ago, but as in a lifetime they lived before this one, one that only he could see, one where they were always meant to find each other. He was morphing into all these different personas from the good mentor to the peer to you know, the father figure, to the friend, to now all of a sudden this enlightened figure. A light warrior.

Kevin told the students he was a light warrior, that he had superhuman abilities, that he had a divine power. He would sometimes show up the studio wearing bandages on his hands, and he would say that he was mastering how to manipulate and start fire from his hands. Another time he showed them a video of him supposedly turning on a street lamp with just his mind. There were times where he would make them stand outside and look at these lamps to see if they can do it too. One time he came into the studio in a wheelchair because he said he was very weak from controlling things with his mind. He also claimed to have visions. He would tell them he could see when they were having sex because he can see their oras.

He would encourage them to try things with each other, and he was the puppet master making a lot of that happen. By the time Alicia learned the full extent of it, Kevin wasn't just a dance coach. He was a profit. And she started to understand why the students had stayed silent for so long. Their whole world was tied up in the dance crew. A lot of them said that they've invested so much time and money

that they felt like they couldn't leave, and then they would lose all their friends and everything they ever known. To keep the kids quiet, Kevin used threats and intimidation. He made sure that the cost of leaving wasn't worth it. Leaving meant exile. Kevin also made them believe

that leaving the crew or breaking his rules would ruin their chances of dancing professionally. After they were telling me all these stories, it made me face what was happening, and then I realized, Wow, like he is not a mentor. He's pretty much a monster. And he cannot be around these kids.

That's when I decided I needed to go and talk to a lawyer. She got a recommendation for a criminal lawyer and drove to his office right away. He basically told me that I probably should shut the studio down immediately. So I left his office. I immediately contacted my father. I told him a little bit of what was going on. Her dad met her at the dance studio. He came and he helped me change the locks.

I grabbed all the stuff, like the files and the stuff to contact families and parents and anything I can get my hands on. And it was early afternoon. I remember it clearly was a Friday. And I know he comes to the studio around four. And sometimes he might come a little bit early and I was literally shaking.

And I grabbed what I could and I put a sign up on the door saying we were no longer in business, and then I ran out of there. I don't even know how he made it to my car because I thought I was going to pass out because I was so petrified that he was just going to pull up and see me and chase me down once he saw that sign on the door. I had no idea who he was or what he was capable of. She drove home, and a few hours later, Kevin called Confused.

When he asked what was going on, she just said one sentence. You can talk to my lawyer. And that was the last time I ever talked to him. and had any correspondence with him. After she closed down the studio, Alicia braced herself for calls and emails from the parents of her dance students. But to her surprise,

she was met with radio silence. That's the part that I still don't understand that no parents really came to me or said anything. It's possible the parents didn't turn to Alicia because they thought she was in on it. or at the very least, turning a blind eye. She knew she'd done the right thing by closing the studio. Once I closed down the studio, it finally gave permission for the ones that were struggling to leave,

the ones that were coming to me saying they weren't sure, they wanted to leave. So it finally gave them the opportunity to leave and disconnect from him. But Kevin still had a grip on a devoted circle of students. He still had a handful of loyal followers. So he basically had them do all his dirty work and they were calling me and texting me, telling me how awful I was and how could I do this to them and that I was an awful person. I was so heartbroken. Hearing those things, I could cry now, actually. The only thing I could say to them was that I was sorry and that one day they will understand.

She couldn't undo what had happened, but she wanted to make. it right, and to keep Kevin from ever doing it again. Alicia and her lawyer took the case to the prosecutor's office. She started at the beginning with the revelation that Kevin and Kim were together. And I could immediately sense that he felt like, oh, you know, she's just upset because, you know, the situation happened and they weren't together. I felt like he wasn't really listening to me after that. She wanted to make it clear that this wasn't a campaign.

of a messy divorce. So after that conversation, I immediately wrote an email explaining everything that I was finding out. I gave him a list of names and different people that he could reach out to and talk to as far as students. Some students even reached out to the office directly to share their stories, but they never heard back. After a few months, Alicia's lawyer came back to her with bad news.

The prosecutor's office wouldn't be taking the case. I'm like, what does that mean? Like, I don't understand what that means. Like, how are you not interested in something that seems so significant, especially with kids involved, minors, teens? And he said they only go with cases that they feel like they can win. And they came back and said that it seemed mild on the list of sex crimes to them. he said if he was playing devil's advocate

that I came across as an ex-wife scorned who was trying to take down her husband and was jealous of him being with a younger woman. She was stunned. She thought about the students talking to the police. But then her lawyer explained, The prosecutor's office was the say-all-and-all. They were going to be the ones that would bring about charges.

So Kevin was never charged for anything. Even though Kevin was to be, telling kids to masturbate or manipulating them into having sex with each other, the prosecutor couldn't charge him with a crime. And for a few months after the studio closed, Kevin was able to keep his crew going out of his own space. He was pushing really hard with this new business that he had created with them and they all had to recruit 10 new people and if they weren't recruiting that he was flipping out and

they didn't want that because, like I said before, if you're on his bad side, you're on his bad side. Slowly, his remaining students began to leave. And when they did, the other students would direct them to Alicia. I was able to let them know that they were safe and that they can leave and that it's going to be okay. And one of the students who had sent me the text of telling me that I was the most awful person wound up texting me. And she apologized and she said she was so sorry for everything that she said to me. And I said to her, I'm like, I'm so sorry.

It's not you at all. I was the one that should have been there for you. Alicia's entire career had been about providing a safe space for kids through dance, a place for expression and growth. Kevin had taken all that was good and pure about that purpose and ruined it. Alicia felt like the only good decision she'd made in the end was to immediately close the studio. I felt completely embarrassed at the fact that I couldn't see these types of behaviors that were happening right underneath my nose.

And I know a lot of it isn't my fault, but it just really broke my heart for them. In a few months after the studio closed, students continued leaving Kevin's crew. It sent him into a tailspin. He moved back in with his parents. Apparently, Kevin was in such a dark place that one day his sister reached out to Alicia. She wanted to meet in person to better understand what was going on with her brother.

We weren't that close, so it just came out of nowhere that she actually wanted to meet up. The two women agreed to meet for coffee. Within their first few minutes, Alicia realized Kevin's sister had no idea what happened with the studio. She basically was just sitting there looking at me confused. I told her a little bit about the story of what I've been learning about Kim and Kevin and the relationship.

That's when she just started to cry and break down. She didn't really understand what I was saying, and she was like, I can't believe this is happening. And that's when I started to ask her questions about him. Alicia knew Kevin had a fractured relationship with his family. When they were married, they only saw his parents and siblings a handful of times. Sitting with his sister, it was clear she needed to start from the beginning. So Alicia brought up Kevin's past and his difficult childhood. And then I said to her, well, what about your dad?

Like, your dad's an alcoholic. And, you know, he was talking about all these times that he was in these fights with him. And he even told me about a surgery he had to go have because he had a broken rib from being kicked down the steps. And she's like, whoa, whoa, whoa. What are you talking about? My dad isn't an alcoholic. Like, he doesn't drink at all. And she's like, I can tell you, like, we.

had a really good upbringing. We had a good childhood. He had everything that he needed. Back when Alicia and Kevin first met, he told her about his traumatic upbringing and his alcoholic parent. It bonded them together because Alicia also had a troubled childhood with an alcoholic parent. But now she discovered that shared experience was fiction. A long con. He pretty much formed this persona that would trauma bond with me. and match all the things that I went through in order for us to become relatable, for us to become closer.

It was the same thing he'd done with the students. He told them whatever they needed to hear to trust him. This revelation brought a clarity about how deeply disturbed Kevin really was. Their entire life together was one lie built upon another lie. The only thing Alicia could do was Rebuild a New Life. Alicia went to talk to that old studio owner,

the one who had fired Kevin years ago. It was also the studio where they'd met Kim, back when she was 12 or 13. So when I asked him about Kevin and Kim, he said that there were rumors that they might have been together when she was underage. So regardless of whether he did,

did anything physically with her, that coercive control definitely started way back when she was young. Alicia sees Kim as Kevin's victim. She always has. It breaks my heart to know that he did that to her, and she was so special to me. In the years since, Kevin and Kim got married and divorced. Alicia tried to go back to teaching dance at her old studio. But it was never the same.

So I started trying to focus on what I can do to maybe help make the dance industry a little bit better. Today, she wants to help other studios catch what she didn't see. I want to spark a deeper conversation about the dance industry and how victims of abuse have gone through similar things in a very unchecked, highly unregulated system. And she teaches Pilates to senior citizens. That was a good way to give back and feel like I'm doing something positive while I'm working on trying to make change in the dance industry. We end all of our weekly episodes with the same question. Why do you want to share your story?

I wasn't able to have children of my own. So this is why this is such a passion project for me now. I want to help other students, other children feel seen, validated, and then create a safe environment for them to be able to enjoy dance. Because dance is something that is so powerful and it could be such a beautiful thing when you're able to express yourself freely and have a safe environment. This is my way of taking control of the situation that happened with me

and making it into something positive. On the next episode of Betrayal Weekly. The person that sent these letters out was saying, I have proof. So unless you confess your sins and repent, then I'm going to release some tapes. Before we end the episode, I have some exciting. news. Betrayal will be doing our first ever live show as part of the Virgin Voyages True Crime Cruise. We'll be answering listener questions and discussing them live on stage with Stacey and Tyler from Betrayal Season 3, as well as Caroline from season 4. So if you

have a question for us, please email us at Betrayalpod at gmail.com with the subject line listener question. And if you want to join us on the Caribbean Cruise, there are still spots available. Search virgin voyages.com slash true crime. If you would like to reach out to the betrayal team or want to tell us your betrayal story, email us at Betrayalpod at gmail.com. That's Betrayal P-O-D at Gmail.com. Or follow us on Instagram at Betrayal Pod.

You can also connect with me on Instagram at It's Andrea Gunning. To access our newsletter, view additional content, and connect with the betrayal community, join our substack at betrayal.substack.com. We're grateful for your support. One way to show support is by subscribing to our show on Apple Podcasts. And don't forget to rate and review betrayal. Five-star reviews go a long way. A big thank you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group and partnership with IHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fasin. Hosted and produced by me,

Andrea Gunning, written and produced by Monique Laborde, also produced by Ben Fetterman. Associate producers are Caitlin Golden, Olivia Hewitt, and Kristen Malkuri. Casting support from Curry, Richmond. Our I-HAR team is Ali Perry and Jessica Kreincheck. Audio editing by Matt Dalvecchio. Mixing and mastering on this episode by Dave Sayah. Additional audio editing by Tanner Robbins. Betrayals theme composed by Oliver Baines.

music library provided by Myb Music. And for more podcasts from IHeart, visit the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Cheryl McCollum, host of the podcast Zone 7. Zone 7 ain't a place. It's a way of life. Now, this ain't just any old podcast, honey. We're going to be talking to family members of victims, detectives,

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