Betrayal - From the Depths of Hell All the Way to Heaven — Bonus | Ashley's Story

Episode Date: December 20, 2023

The Betrayal team checks in with Erin for an update on her family, her therapy practice, and how she is doing after a recent big life change.   If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal Team, email us at [e-mail].   To report a case of child sexual exploitation, call The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's CyberTipline at 1-800-THE-LOST  If you or someone you know is worried about their sexual thoughts and feelings towards children, reach out to stopitnow.org  In the UK reach out to stopitnow.org.uk See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, it's Joel and Matt from How to Money. If your New Year's resolution is to finally get your finances in shape, we've got your back. Prices, they're still high. And the economy is all over the place. But 2026 is the year for you to get intentional and make real progress. That's right.

Yeah, each week we break down what's happening with your money, the most important issues to focus on. And the small moves that make a big difference. Kick off the year with confidence. Listen to How to Money on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm John Polk. For years, I was the poster boy of the conversion therapy movement. The ex-gay who married an ex-lesbian and traveled the world telling my story of how I changed my sexuality from gay to straight. You might have heard my story, but you've never heard the real story. John has never been anything that gay, but he really tried hard not.

to be. Listen to Atonement, the John Polk story on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Dr. Jesse Mills, host of the Mailroom podcast. Each January, men promised to get stronger, work harder, and fix what's broken? But what if the real work isn't physical at all? I sat down with psychologist, Dr. Steve Poulter, to unpack shame, anxiety, and the emotional pain men were never taught how to name. Part of the way through the Valley of Despair is realizing this has happened, and you have to make a choice whether you're going to stay in it or move forward. Our two-part conversation is available now. Listen to the mailroom on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, for wherever you get your favorite shows.

I'm Andrea Gunning, and this is Betrial Bonus Episode 4. Update on Aaron. Before the bonus starts, I want to tell you that more stories of betrayal will be coming in 2024. So we want to hear your stories. And although we've talked about marriages and marriage, parent relationships, we are open to any betrayal that has changed your life in a meaningful way. If you're open and want to share your story of betrayal, email me at Betrayalpod at gmail.com. That's Betrayal P-O-D at Gmail.com.

And of course, if you want to write in and just share privately, this email account can continue to be a safe space for you too. Okay, so on to an important update on Erin, one of the women you got to know last season. We received so many wonderful emails expressing support and concern about her. Let me give you a quick recap of her story. Erin is a family therapist. She was married to Joel and they lived with her two kids in Texas. Joel was an explosive specialist for the military.

Erin knew her husband was struggling. Her marriage was in trouble. And after a fight, Erin's intuition kicked in. I decided to look at his computer and I went into his recently deleted files. and that's where there was just a plethora of pictures. Like Little Miss Country USA, all different ages, all different looks. It was so many people he had collected. I clicked on one and it was this little girl who I'd never seen before,

don't recognize it all, standing naked on a beach. she had a look on her face like, this is not me being cute and playing on the beach. No, it was inappropriate. So I actually took a picture of her from the face up because I just needed to prove to myself that I wasn't crazy. And then I took a picture of the names of the files. And then I shut it all down and I put it all back.

What Aaron found was the tip of the iceberg. She took her two small young children and fled. She drove to the airport and flew back to her hometown in California, seeking solace and family support. Her mother was deceased and her two brothers and father did not offer the safe haven she was seeking. After almost three years, her husband was prosecuted. He pled guilty to 25 felony charges of child pornography. He was sentenced to eight years and he only did three. One piece of Erin's story that really affected our listeners was how to have.

how difficult it was to start over. She lost her livelihood and her husband's income. At one point, Erin applied for welfare. Then there was her family. Although there were many family members who helped and supported her, her nuclear family did not seem to find Joel's crimes as troubling and serious as she did. We heard from so many of you.

Mothers, a former prosecutor, other victims, all rooting for Erin, and even listeners who wanted to send her financial support. Erin read all of it. I was blown away. I've not felt that kind of support since my mom was alive. And that was like the whole nation counteracting what I had grown up believing with kind of a low self-esteem and second-guessing my every move. And so I really think that motivated me to go, you know what?

I'm really doing my best here. And so it was really miraculous. And I can't tell you how healing this podcast was for me. One thing that really gets me is when people wrote to me and they said, I wish I had a mom like you. My mom was great. My mom was amazing. She had cancer for 26 years and she never dropped a ball.

I mean, she was really, really fantastic. And I always wished that everyone had a mother like her. It's an honor to her also that I'm making good choices and that I'm looking out for my kids and that I keep them number one. Once Aaron's ex-husband Joel was released from prison in Texas, he moved in with his parents. It was only about a mile from where Erin and her children were living. When he got out, I got the restraining order

and he got awarded visitation with the kids in a supervised physical. Erin managed to avoid those visits while other parental litigation was still pending. Then the lawyer called me and said he just got arrested again. And when we looked it up online, it did mention possession of child pornography. And I still don't know the details of all of that. But it sounds as though he may have had his first parole check. the first time in a year, and they found some things on his phone like social media, which we've learned is a common way that people share CSAM material.

New year, new goals, and in this economy, a better money plan is more necessary than ever. I am Matt, and I'm Joel. We are from the how to money podcast, and every week we help you to spend smarter, save more, and make sense of what's going on out there. If you want 2026 to be the year you finally feel, and control of your money. We're here to give you the tools and advice to help you make it happen. Listen to How to Money on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, I'm Dr. Priyanko Wally. And I'm Hurricane de Bolu. It's a new year. And on the podcast's health stuff, we're resetting the way we talk about our health. Which means being honest about what we know, what we don't know, and how messy it can all be. I like to sleep in late and sleep early. Is there a chronotype for that or am I just depressed? We talk to experts who share real experiences and insight.

You just really need to find where it is that you can have an impact in your own life and just start doing that. We break down the topics you want to know more about. Sleep, stress, mental health and how the world around us affects our overall health. We talk about all the ways to keep your body in mind, inside and out, healthy. We human beings, all we want is connection. We just want to connect with each other. Health stuff is about learning, laughing, and feeling a little less alone. Listen on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

A new year doesn't mean erasing who you were. It means honoring what you've survived and choosing how you want to grow. It means giving ourselves permission to feel what we've been holding and knowing that it's okay to ask for help. I'm Mike Dolorotia, host of Sacred Lessons. This podcast is a space for mandatory. We talk openly about mental health, grief, relationships, and the patterns we inherit, but don't have to repeat. Here, we slow down. We listen.

We learn how vulnerability becomes strength and how healing happens in community, not in isolation. If you're ready to let go of what no longer serves you and step into the year with clarity, compassion, and purpose, sacred lessons is your companion on your healing journey. Listen to Sacred Lessons with Mike Delo Rocha on America's number one podcast network, IHeart. Follow Sacred Lessons with Mike Delo Rocha and start listening on the free IHeart Radio app today. Joel LaVelle Callahan was arraigned on September 26, 2023, in the Superior Court of Fresno and assigned a public defender. He denied the public defender so that he could hire a private criminal law attorney. and he has a private family law attorney, which has bought him quite a bit of time out in the free world.

Erin has kept moving forward and stayed focused on building a healthy life with her two kids. She's a licensed therapist in California. My private practice is what I would consider very successful and very comfortable and able to give my children the life that I want without needing child support or relying on that. Erin moved her family a few hours away to a beach community for a fresh start. That is just like going from the depths of hell all the way to heaven. I've already seen so much healing happening in myself, which I think trickles down to them as well. They love where we live.

They said it's like being on vacation every day. We have a lot more fresh-grown local produce here. So another part of our healing was having better nutrition. So we're working on diets. We're working on mental health. We like to go to the park a lot. We feel safer. Erin lived in fear for a long time.

At one point, she felt she needed to be armed. A year ago, I was walking around with a gunstrap to my person. You know, I had my concealed carry weapons permit, and I didn't even want to leave to go to the office without that. And out here also, like, we live in a very safe area that I feel like we can sleep with the windows open and hear the ocean outside. Her son has become a top runner in his school. Her daughter just won an award for writing. They're thriving.

Still heartbreak sneaks up every once in a while, especially around the holidays. Thanksgiving just passed by. My brother hosted Joel and his family for Thanksgiving, whereas we were in a town with no familiar faces. and, you know, no one familiar to celebrate that with. And that's just like, you just continue to keep stabbing me in the heart. Erin does not want Joel to have rights to the kids at all. Her fight in court is for him to be removed as a parent. I'm prepared to fire on all cylinders,

but I hope for my sanity that I don't have to keep proving why he shouldn't have visitations more than he's trying to prove why he should. I genuinely think I'm probably still doing more to help Joel than anybody else is, you know, how much of a privilege is it to say, I've got our kids, I will take great care of them while you take the time to figure your life out or clean your life up or whatever you've got to do. I can't make our kids not love him. I can't make them disown him or anything like that. And so if they want to have a relationship with him when they get older or they have questions about their health or whatever, that is still on the table. And so all I'm trying to do is keep them out of that equation so that they're not affected and give them a nice, comfortable life so that they don't have to endure everything that he's putting them through. I'm trying to give him and my children both the space that they need to get healthy.

And myself as well. I mean, I've been severely damaged with trust and trauma through a lot of this. And so we need to be able to untether in order to show up for one another. How do you measure recovery for someone who consumes CSAM? Do services provided in prison cure the addiction? It's something we talked about during the series. and there isn't a clear answer. His whole case was precipitating on the fact that they thought he was reformed,

and clearly he's not reformed. And I think it's a lot of people who don't work in mental health that don't know what is required to treat addiction or treat this type of abusive behavior. Maybe they do think church is enough. maybe they do think that court consequences are enough. But I know through direct experience, having worked with people with similar attributes, that that is not enough. You need a lot more accountability, a lot more hand holding out of that.

Because, you know, he didn't become addicted to things in a day. He's not going to recover in a day. So I just wish that there was more mental health woven into that equation so that they could look at it from that perspective. But I am not convinced and his re-offence just supported what my feeling was this whole time. It was really good to find out how Aaron has been doing since Betrayal Season 2 first dropped. We'll be back soon with an update on Ashley Lytton. You can always reach out to our team at Petrials. POT at gmail.com.

That's Betrayal P-O-D at Gmail.com. Thank you for listening. Betrayal is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group and partnership with I-Hart Podcasts. The show was executive produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fasin. Hosted and produced by me, Andrea Gunning,

written and produced by Carrie Hartman, also produced by Ben Federman, Associate producer, Kristen Melkiri. Our I-Hart team is Ali Perry and Jessica Kreincheck. audio editing and mixing by Matt Dalvecchio, Trails theme composed by Oliver Baines, music library provided by Mide Music,

and for more podcasts from IHeart, visit the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Joel and Matt from How To Money, if your New Year's resolution is to finally get your finances in shape, we've got your back. Prices, they're still high, and the economy is all over the place.

But 2026 is the year for you to get intentional and make real progress. That's right. Yeah, each week we break down what's happening with your money, the most important issues to focus on, and the small moves that make a big difference. Kick off the year with confidence, listen to How to Money on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm John Polk. For years, I was the poster boy of the conversion therapy movement, the ex-gay who married an ex-lesbian and traveled the world telling my story of how I changed my sexuality from gay to straight. You might have heard my story, but you've never heard the real story.

John has never been anything but gay, but he really tried hard not to be. Listen to Atonement, the John Polk story on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Dr. Jesse Mills, host of the Mailroom podcast. Each January men promise to get stronger, work harder, and fix what's broken. But what if the real work isn't physical at all? I sat down with psychologist, Dr. Steve Poulter to unpack shame, anxiety, and the emotional pain men were never taught how to name. Part of the way through the Valley of Despair is realizing this has happened, and you have to make a choice whether you're going to stay in it or move forward. Our two-part conversation is available now.

Listen to the mailroom on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human.