Clues with Morgan Absher and Kaelyn Moore - Model in a Box: The Kidnapping of Chloe Ayling

Episode Date: July 15, 2026

In July 2017, British model Chloe Ayling traveled to Milan for a photoshoot and was kidnapped, drugged, and held captive for six days by a man claiming to represent the dark web group Black Death. When he suddenly released her at the British consulate, the case captivated Europe; and sparked intense scrutiny of Chloe’s story. Morgan and Kaelyn examine the timeline, evidence, and lingering questions behind one of the most controversial kidnapping cases in recent memory.Head over to our Clues YouTube channel to WATCH this episode: https://www.youtube.com/@CluesPodIf you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Clues to never miss a case! To hear episodes ad-free and released a day early, subscribe to Crime House+. Join at crimehouseplus.com or if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts, tap “Try Free” at the top of this show’s page. Clues is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios.🎧 Need More to Binge? Listen to other Crime House Originals including Crime House 24/7, Crimes Of…, Serial Killers & Murderous Minds, Murder True Crime Stories and more wherever you get your podcasts!Follow us on SocialYouTube: @CluesPod | @crimehousestudiosInstagram: @cluespodcast | @CrimehouseTikTok: @CrimehouseFacebook: @crimehousestudiosX: @crimehousemediaClues is hosted by Morgan Absher & Kaelyn Moore Instagram: @morgsyabsher | @itskaelynmooreTikTok: @twohottakes | @heartstartspoundingEpisode Sponsors:Apply to Year Up United today, and take the first step toward achieving the career you want. Visit https://www.YearUp.org to learn more.Visit https://www.minkycouture.com and use code CLUES at checkout for 50% off all full priced blankets. Get started now at ⁠⁠https://www.HelloAlma.com/CLUES With Shopify, nothing stands between your idea and a real business. So go make it one. Start your free trial at https://www.SHOPIFY.COM/clues.Save up to 52% off with code CLUES at https://www.gruns.co.

This is Crime House. A young mother books an overseas modeling gig, but when she arrives, she's drugged, abducted, and held for ransom by what seems to be a dangerous dark web crime syndicate. The media storms Chloe Ailing from the moment she arrives home and begins demanding answers from her. But once she's released, her nightmare just intensifies. Hi, welcome to clues, where we sneak past the crime scene tape to explore the key evidence behind some of the most of the moment. gripping true crime cases. I'm Kila Moore. I'm going to be the one digging deeper into the timelines, the backstories, and the court files released on these cases. And I'm your internet sleuth, Morgan Absher. I'm the one who's diving into anything I can find online to talk about those

lesser known details and pull out the threads that just don't add up. Don't forget to share your thoughts on social. Want ad free and early access to clues and the rest of the crimehouse lineup. Subscribe to Crimehouse Plus and get at least two bonus episodes from across Crimehouse every month. To join, go to CrimehousePlus.com. Or if you listen on Apple Podcasts, tap, tap, try free. at the top of the clues page. Now, let's get into Chloe Aileen's case and the clues that defined it. I feel like this is one where I was deeply upset doing my research. It's so frustrating.

So frustrating. It's the classic, well, I mean, we'll get into it. But there's so many times that I wanted to throw my computer across the room. I genuinely, I watched so many interviews that Chloe Ailing did. And again, you guys will see a lot of clips throughout this episode of these interviews. I've never been so mad. Like, throw the computer. Like, are these people idiots?

Like, Pierce Morgan has no ops. We're dead. I mean, the guy from 60 Minutes Australia, Liam Bartlett, dude, are you even listening to her? You're asking her the same question 10 times, victim shaming. Yeah. Victim blaming, like, galore. I'm like, what are we doing here? We're going to show you guys a lot of clips today from these interviews because

I want everyone to be sounding off in the comments on just what they think of them. Yeah. And you guys might have heard of this case before. You might have an opinion based on the media and what you saw out there. A lot of people still do in the comments. Going through comments on some YouTube videos is really, really jarring still. But when presented with evidence and going through this investigation, let us know if that changes for you. Let us know if you learned something knew that you didn't before. Without further ado, yeah. So like I said, we're going to be showing you guys some videos. You're also going to see some pictures and stuff that'll help you visualize the case. And if you're listening, you're going to see all that same stuff on our Instagram.

That's at Clues Podcast on social. And you should follow us there anyways. Yeah. And just a warning before we begin, this episode does contain discussions of kidnapping, stalking, essay, human trafficking, sex work. And as always, please just listen with care. Our case today starts on July 10th, 2017. 20-year-old British model, also new mom, Chloe Ailing, steps off a plane in Milan, Italy, where she's booked a photo shoot for a motorcycle ad that following day. After she collects her bags, Chloe lets her mom and her agent know that she made it there safely. Chloe's an experienced traveler. She is used to going places alone.

And plus, her agent, this guy named Phil Green, set up the gig for her. The client even paid her a fee of 1,200 British pounds in advance, equivalent to around $1,600 dollars in U.S. dollars today. And Chloe briefly met the photographer once before on a job in Paris. So she takes her taxi to a hotel where the client has booked her a room. And after checking in, she spends the day working out at the hotel, eating lunch and dinner and doing a little shopping in the Italian boutiques. The next morning, July 11th, she wakes up early for her 8.30 a.m. shoot.

She checks out of the hotel and takes her luggage with her since she's going to be flying back to the UK after she wraps the shoot. that night. She makes her way into the studio, which is an apartment in southeast Milan. Chloe has a little bit of trouble as she's trying to find this place, so she calls Andre the name of the photographer, but instead this guy named Daniel, who Chloe doesn't know, answers the phone. He tells her that Andre's running late, and he explains how she can get into the building. Chloe follows his directions, and finally, she sees this sign that says studio. She heads through the lobby, towards the unit. She has No idea that as she's walking into this building, there is someone behind her.

Suddenly, a black gloved hand is around her neck. Another covers her mouth preventing her from screaming. And then a second man appears from behind her as well. She's fighting for her life trying to get them to uncover her mouth and nose so that she can breathe. When suddenly, she sees them stick her with a needle. She feels it sink deep into her right arm and then everything fades to black. Now, before we get into where this story leads us, let's rewind a little bit and talk a bit more about Chloe. Now, Chloe Ealing, was born on June 14, 1997, and Colston, South London, which it's not exactly the best neighborhood in this area.

One in three children do grow up in poverty. Chloe wasn't as disadvantaged as some of her neighbors, but she wasn't exactly set up for success either. Her dad left when she was born, leaving her mom, Bayetta, Ailing, to raise Chloe alone. Bayeda was one of about 700,000 members of the Polish community that lived in the UK. Polish is actually the most common immigrant language there, but Polish people in England say that they have faced a lot of discrimination. There's also issues of underrepresentation and pressure to appear as English as possible. So Chloe started life already feeling like she was singled out by her peers for this difference. And on top of that, she did struggle in school,

mostly because she had trouble communicating. And that's because Chloe had a development mental disability. She had trouble expressing her needs. She often felt like she couldn't talk at all. Sometimes she knew exactly what she wanted to say, but she just couldn't make the words come out. It was so serious that her mom would often come with her on school trips just to act as Chloe's voice. And when Chloe could express herself, she noticed that people perceived her feelings and her expressions as wrong. They like didn't blend in with everyone else's. Adults scolded her for not showing enough emotion, and that really frustrated and confused Chloe. And it seemed like she was always getting in trouble for just being herself.

So Chloe, from a young age, really learned to keep her head down. She did as well as she could in school. She focused on her future. And for her at the time, that meant becoming a lawyer. And she was on track to pursuing that goal when life threw her a curveball. And that's at 17 years old, she found out she was pregnant. The father was her 18-year-old boyfriend, Connor Keyes. they stayed together through the birth of her son in November 2015, but they ended up splitting up just six months later.

Motherhood made it really hard for Chloe to focus on finishing her studies, and her dreams of being a lawyer were just not going to happen at that time. But she did have another passion that she could fall back on, at least, and that was modeling. More specifically, glamour modeling, and that really prioritized sex appeal. She knew her looks were a good fit for this. She had blonde hair that was big and would often be teased out, this hourglass figure. She had really high cheekbones. Plus, successful glamour models get to travel a lot, and she really wanted to see the world. So she hustled.

She got her first gigs by attending events and networking with photographers. And as her career started taking off, she signed with Philip Green at a big agency called Supermodel UK. From there, she started booking bigger gigs, including that shoot in Milan on June 11, 2017. But what should have been another step in her career ended up becoming a life or death situation. Back in England, it was going to be hours before anyone realized that Chloe was missing. Her photo shoot was scheduled for 8.30 in the morning and she was supposed to end in time to fly back to England that same evening. So Chloe's mom, Bayada, was waiting for her at home that night. But Chloe never walked back in through the door.

After trying to call her and not being able to reach her, Bayada immediately felt like something. was wrong. So she called Chloe's agent Philip and he confirmed with the airline that Chloe did miss her flight back to England. But he thought that there must have been a good reason for this. You know, Chloe had booked a shoot for two days later in Ibiza. Maybe she just went straight there. She didn't want to come back home first. She wanted to just go straight to the next shoot. So Phil tried calling and texting Andre, the photographer in Milan, to see if maybe Chloe had left the shoot early. But Andre never replies. When there was still no. word by the next morning, July 12th, Philip told Bayada that she should contact the police.

Meanwhile, Philip called some contacts in Milan to ask if they knew anything about the studio where Chloe was supposed to shoot, and none of them have ever heard of it before. Which is insane. Like, the whole point of an agency, and Chloe talks about this quite a bit, is you have an agency to book these shoots and be the middleman and make sure you're going to legitimate things and to check them. Yes. I'm getting a botch to fill.

I know that like Bill, big botch. Big botch. Yeah. Botch usually talks about the investigation but like just in terms of doing your job like especially because Chloe's a model so you only make money if she makes money.

So like it's your job to take care of her. It's your job. It is oftentimes joked about in terms of this. case, but basically, from what I've seen, Phil basically just Googled the name and was like, oh, okay, there's a website, cool. Yeah. Yeah, didn't do his due diligence at all. And I mean, the fact that you're like calling people after the fact to be like, hey, what do you know about this location? And they're like, I've never heard of that. Who? What? You didn't double check.

Yeah. Interesting. Phil, I'm watching out for you this entire episode. So at this point, Phil is getting pretty worried. And it gets even worse that day when at 10 a.m., Philip received the first clue, a ransom email. It read, quote, we have Chloe, and we are the Black Death Group. Unless you pay money to us by Sunday, she will be put to auction where she may get sold to the Russian mafia, end quote. They then demanded 270,000 British pounds as ransom, about 360,000 U.S. dollars today. The email also included the names of three older well-off men who knew Chloe through her modeling work. The kidnappers suggested Phil ask those people to help pay the ransom. Of course, Phil recognized the names. And to him, this was essentially proof that they were talking to real kidnappers. To have this information, they must

have gotten it from Chloe herself. So this is looking legit. But now Phil is getting a sinking feeling in his chest. I mean, he had just sent his 20-year-old client to Italy alone. on a very poorly vetted job, no less, and now she's being held for ransom, one that he couldn't possibly pay. Meanwhile, Chloe's mom Bayada had called the London Metropolitan Police, aka the Met, she gave them Phillips number and they called him for more information, at which point he did tell them about this ransom email. Minutes later, a group of highly trained police negotiators arrive at Phillips' home. Officers would now be staying with him around the clock until the situation was resolved, mainly because they needed direct access to his devices so that they could be the ones

communicating with the kidnappers. But in order to negotiate successfully for Chloe's release, the police needed to know more about this group that said that they were taking credit for the kidnapping. And they appeared to be a dangerous and ruthless criminal organization. This episode is brought to you by Alma. Alma is on a mission to simplify access to high-quality, affordable mental health care. When you want to talk to a therapist, the last thing you want to do is fight with insurance, figure out if someone's available. Like, the process can be so long that it actually turns you off from doing it. But Alma has built a community of over 26,000 diverse therapists. Also, clients with insurance pay $20 on average. Which is so important. Ninety-eight percent

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On a special four-episode conspiracy theories, cults and crime series, I'm taking you to four kinds of dream getaways that went from paradise to deadly. A woman vanishes while snorkeling off Aruba. Two backpackers murdered on a moonlit beach in Thailand, an NBA champion who disappears off his own catamaran in the South Pacific. These were supposed to be the trips of a lifetime. Listen to our special Deadly Destination series every single, Sunday on conspiracy theories, cults, and crimes. Or if you don't want to wait, all four episodes

are available right now, ad free, on Crimehouse Plus. To join Crimehouse Plus, subscribe on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or at CrimehousePlus.com. On July 12th, 2017, police in both the UK and Italy were trying to learn more about 20-year-old Chloe Ailing's mysterious kidnapping. And the more they unraveled, the more complicated things got. First, they learned. that Europol, the European Union's International Law Enforcement Agency, had published a dossier on cybercrime a year earlier in 2016. It actually included screenshots of a website belonging to the same criminal organization that claimed to take Chloe, the Black Death. They are our second clue. Their webpage wasn't just one that anyone could access. It's essentially an Onion service,

which is a special type of site that can only be viewed using an anonymous web browser called Tor? And Tor, if anyone is like, recognizes that word, that's a commonly used dark web thing. Tor, I believe, stands for the Onion router. And it's something that you use when you're trying to get access to the dark web, basically. Now, the Black Death site specifically offered a bunch of different criminal services for hire. Murder, hacking, terrorist attacks, even targeted kidnappings. It also described how people could bid on kidnapped teenage girls at an online. auction, the prices ranged from 120,000 to 750,000. The youngest victim that was listed on the website was 15. It was all horrifying. But the police were very skeptical about its legitimacy. They learned that

back in 2015, two years before Chloe's kidnapping, a journalist from Vice had actually contacted the group undercover. They'd asked about a woman that was advertised, and the group sent back images of the supposed victim. But the vice journalist did some digging, and they turned out to be stills from a pornographic film that was available online. Yeah, and like their website is super goofy too. Like I'm looking at it now. And first of all, it's a bunch of plague doctors.

They're like the Black Death. And so their little logos of Plague Doctors. But they have these little updates. They're kind of like tweets, but they're from 2010. So, and they're all just kind of funny. One of their update says, we have had to move websites. We will do it any time we are getting too popular. And then the next update is, due to a high demand, we now sell explosives.

We still operate standard bombing service. Another update is new service. Mercenary is now available, which makes me think of hit men. It's probably that. Yeah. This is due to requirement of more than one man for hire, already busy. Oh my God. We are moving.

All existing customers have been emailed new. Dot onion URL. It's like, I don't know. These are just kind of silly updates from a website that supposedly... A legitimate criminal organization. Yeah. When I look at it, there's part of me that is like, oh, are these 12-year-old boys that figured out how to use the dark web and are just posting silly updates? Yeah.

And the police thought that too. Yeah. The police were looking at this Black Death site as a work of fiction that was just created by a scammer, a prankster, someone trying to be funny. I mean, the Vice investigation never found any evidence that the person they got screenshots of was kidnapped. So to kind of everyone that's looking into it, it's looking like it's fake and was maybe someone just trying to trick gullible people into paying for things in cryptocurrency that they would never actually receive. But now two years later, maybe things had changed. I mean, Chloe Aileen really was missing. And with the Black Death taking responsibility, that's their only lead to go down. Yeah, so of course, in all of this still, Chloe's safety is their first priority. And the good news was the kidnappers seemed pretty willing to communicate.

But in an effort to not scare them, investigators in both England and Italy kept their investigation a secret from the public. And their coordination with Chloe's agent, Philip, under wraps. So for the time being, there was not going to be any search parties, there weren't going to be any news stories, and definitely no missing person flyers. Instead, the Italian authorities focused on reconstructing all of Chloe's movements from the time she arrived in Milan until her disappearance less than 24 hours later. And I guess like just a note here too, this just clicked with me is this is only like 10 years after Amanda Knox, right? So really not that far out from another instance of like the Italian government like investigating a foreigner. Yeah. They looked for security footage.

They secretly questioned potential witnesses and they combed through Clovis. 's cell phone data. Because of the secretive nature of the investigation, we don't really know everything that the Italian authorities did or learned at this time, but what we do know is the same day Philip got that ransom email. The police searched the address of the supposed photo studio, and all they found was an empty apartment. Well, that and Chloe's jeans, jacket, shoes, and passport that were still inside. They also tried to track down Andre, that photographer who booked Chloe for the shoot. But, like the studio, it turns out that Andre didn't exist either, at least not under that name. Police haven't shared all the details, but as far as we can tell, they weren't

able to learn Andre's real identity from the contact information that he had given to Philip. But he wasn't the only one they looked into. They were also interested in three wealthy men that were listed on that ransom email. Police wondered if any of these three men listed in the ransom note might have some information. Did they know someone who might have wanted to? to hurt Chloe or hurt them. While the police tracked down one of them, it was a 57-year-old investment banker who had been friends with Chloe for about three years. He was someone Chloe met while she was networking, trying to boost her career.

And now, after hearing about her kidnapping, he was willing to help. He was willing to put forward some of the money that they needed for the kidnapping ransom. But he could only offer 20,000 British pounds. And the kidnappers, remember, were demanding 270,000 British pounds. Yeah, quite the difference there. Yes, definitely not enough. The other two men were reportedly an adult content manager and a celebrity agent. They didn't pitch in at all for the ransom.

Now, it's not clear if they didn't want to put up the money or if police advised them not to. We don't really know why they didn't put up any of the money. But they did cooperate by speaking with the detectives and trying to offer up any information. However, it turned out they didn't really know anything of value. So the negotiation team decided to use the banker's money to keep the kidnappers talking. they at least had something that they could use, thinking that maybe it would just buy them a little bit more time. So the police pretended to be Philip through his email,

and they made a lowball offer of 20,000 pounds. The kidnappers declined. But they did offer proof that they still had Chloe, bringing us to our third clue, terrifying photos. After rejecting the offer, the kidnappers emailed a set of pictures of Chloe stuffed in a zippered suitcase. For Chloe's privacy, those photos have never been released,

But the Italian police did recreate the scene with an officer about Chloe's size. The recreation revealed that Chloe was on her side in a fetal position with her hands cuffed in front of her. She was wearing a pink body suit and socks, nothing else. This willingness to humiliate Chloe kind of told police that maybe this was more than just a quick payday for them. Maybe these kidnappers were actually sexually motivated. And naturally, this made detectives even more concerned for Chloe. safety, even if the Black Death wasn't this criminal organization that it claimed to be and their auction threats were bogus, that didn't mean that Chloe was safe, which seemed even more apparent

when two days after her disappearance, the kidnappers applied more pressure. And this time, they were looking for publicity, bringing us to our fourth clue, the kidnappers' contact with newspapers. On July 13th, several British outlets received a disturbing, incoherent email. It read, quote, did you know Chloe Ailing has been kidnapped in Italy and is now for sale by Russian mafia? See attachment. I've been sending wit codes, but people don't know how to open. So I send unprotected now. It will be fucking hot, mate.

End quote. The attachments included a photo of Chloe lying on her back on a tile floor still in the pink body suit. She appeared to look either really dazed or potentially drugged. In the photo, she had a calling card on her stomach, advertising the Black Death. There's also an ad for Chloe's auction, calling her a, quote, beginner model. It claimed she was being held in Germany and listed at a starting bid of $300,000 U.S. dollars. It said the auction would take place online that Sunday, July 16th, 2017, and was open only to previous customers or people recommended by a previous customer. People who qualified to bid were instructed to contact the group for a link.

They had Chloe's age wrong on this website, though. They actually listed her as 19 when she had actually just turned 20 the previous month, and there was something else super strange about the ad. It said that the Black Death didn't traffic, quote, girls that are terminally ill, pregnant, have STDs, or are young mothers, end quote. But Chloe was a young mother. There were pictures of her 20. month-old son all over her Instagram, pictures from when she was pregnant even. And so it started to

seem like maybe they didn't know Chloe at all even, which may have been why the papers wrote this email off as a hoax entirely. I mean, they were used to receiving hundreds of false salacious tips every day. Plus, the police still hadn't told the public about Chloe's kidnapping. So none of it was adding up to the papers. However, the publication did do their diligence. and they forwarded the messages on to Britain's national crime agency just in case. So Chloe had disappeared on a Tuesday, and the emails sent to the newspaper said that she would be auctioned off that Sunday. But by Sunday morning, there were still no new leads. Then, later that day, Chloe's agent got a shocking and very vague email.

The kidnappers said they would be, quote, standing down because of new developments in Italy. They didn't say what those developments were, but they promised Chloe was alive and she was healthy. But could these people really be trusted? And also, what did that mean? What does that mean? Standing down? That's so vague and random. And scary.

Like, your mind is just going to spiral to the worst. Yes, exactly. Possible outcome. Now, police didn't have any idea what this could have been until the following day. Because on Monday, July 17th, the case took a wild turn when Chloe Ailing was seen on camera walking into the UK consulate in Milan, and she wasn't alone. This episode is brought to you by Grooons. I am really, really prioritizing my health, and I know that I wasn't getting enough vitamins and nutrients, and that is where Grooons came in.

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Go to Shopify.com slash clues and start your free trial today. That's Shopify.com slash clues. Shopify.com slash clues. So on July 17th, 2017, Chloe Ealing arrived at the UK consulate accompanied by a tall, awkward man, and you can see in the footage them walking in together. The consulate staff immediately recognized Chloe since they'd been helping coordinate the search for her, so they summoned the Italian police, and they detained the guy who was also there with her. From there, investigators took Chloe to a private room and asked her all about the man she showed up with. But Chloe claimed that he was her friend.

She explained that she had escaped from her kidnappers, and as soon as she got away, she called the only person in Italy whose number she knew by heart, the friend that she walked in with. But the police were not really sold on this story. They asked her, hey, if this is your closest friend, the only number you knew by heart, what's his phone number? And she could not say it out loud. She did not know what his phone number was. And that's when detectives knew for sure that the man they were holding was not a potential witness. he was now their primary suspect, and they feared that Chloe wasn't telling them the whole truth.

Now, Chloe didn't speak Italian, so the police provided an interpreter. The story she told them is our fifth clue. Chloe explained how she was grabbed outside the photography studio six days earlier and how she was injected with an unknown substance. That's when detectives ordered a drug test. It came back positive for ketamine. And just a note that we have from our researcher,

it is possible to detect ketamine in urine for several weeks after if a dose is large enough. So Chloe said that when she woke up, she was inside of a suitcase and she could feel that she was riding in the trunk of a car. Her wrists and ankles were cuffed. Her mouth was taped shut, but she still did try to escape, which caused her kidnappers to stop the car and threaten her with another injection. Chloe was terrified and knew that she didn't really have a chance of getting away so she agreed to quiet down and cooperate. During that interaction, Chloe actually saw one of the man's faces. The other one was wearing a ski mask, though.

The man whose face was exposed appeared to be about 40, pale, thin, with facial features that Chloe actually thought could be Polish. She later learned that the entire drive was about 120 miles. And when they got to their final destination, she was carried into the house, still in the bag she was in, up several floors. The kidnappers eventually took her out and let her use the restroom. Then they led her to a bedroom where she was shackled to a heavy chest of drawers next to a single bed. They left her alone for a few minutes, and then the man with the uncovered face came back in. He explained to Chloe that he was part of a

criminal organization called Black Death, which kidnapped and trafficked girls and women, but that his boss was furious with him for taking Chloe. He claimed that the boss had seen Chloe's Instagram page and noticed that she was a mother, which was a problem because they didn't make as much money off of moms with young children. Wasn't some nice, oh, you have kids at home? No, it was because women that had had kids were less valuable. By the time they realized it, though, it was too late. They had already posted Chloe for sale on the dark web. The unmasked man said that his boss was on the way to the house to sort things out now.

And when he arrived, Chloe recognized him. The boss, who referred to himself as MD, was actually the photographer, Andre, the one who she had met briefly in Paris and was supposed to then work with on that shoot in Milan. So she had already met him before previously on a job. And that is when Chloe knew. The minute she saw him, she's like,

this whole thing has been a setup. This whole thing was just to kidnap me. But shockingly, this wasn't the first attempt. You see, Chloe had gone to Paris three months earlier for a shoot back in April 2017. That's when she had met Andre the first time. But that shoot was canceled after she got there. Now, there had been a terrorist attack in Paris, somewhat near the studio. And in all of the chaos, Andre said that someone broke in and stole all of his expensive photography gear.

At the time, he apologized profusely, let her keep the fee, promised to book her again. they actually shared a taxi back to the airport. So Chloe had spent a little bit of time with him face to face. She knew it was him. But it was even more confusing than, like, you had me in Paris. Why not follow through? Yeah, she's got me thinking, like, what happened. Yeah.

The Paris attack was legitimate. Like, there was an actual terrorist attack there. I remember when that happened. Andre wasn't lying. And so, you know, Chloe started thinking maybe with the police presence, and just everything being heightened, chickened out. But clearly this time, he got her. And so suddenly there she was, chained to a chest of drawers in a strange house waiting

to be trafficked online. But Andre seemed to really take a liking to Chloe. Once he arrived at the house, he basically stayed by her side the remainder of her captivity. And he told Chloe that he was a prisoner too in his own way. According to Andre, the Black Death was a Romanian. criminal organization that had infiltrated every level of society, and a person on their hit list wasn't safe regardless of where they were in the world. And Andre apparently wanted out, but the Black Death wouldn't let him leave unless he paid 300,000 euros and signed over 20

properties that he allegedly owned. That's why he eventually agreed to hold Chloe for ransom. And if no one paid, he would then have to sell her on the Dark. Web. Essentially, he needed this money to escape. Still, the thought of trafficking Chloe disgusted him. He knew that the Black Desk clients were ultra wealthy men who would treat her brutally, and if they grew bored, they would kill her without hesitation. I think he told her that the rich men that would have her would feed her to cows. I heard in one source I saw, this is coming from Chloe herself in an interview. Once they grew bored, they would feed her to their tigers. Oh, the tigers. That's right. Yeah, they had exotic animals and they were

going to feed her to the tigers, yeah, is what he's telling her in this. So it's like terrifying for her. I mean, they just kidnapped you, injected you with ketamine to the point you have to process all of this information. Like, not only am I part of this big group, but I don't want to be part of it. I feel horrible that I have you. I don't want to sell you on the dark web. If I do, they're going to feed you to their tigers. They're going to kill me. They're going to kill me. But like, it's what I got to do because I'm trapped. And she's just sitting there and she's like, the catamine is still wearing off and she just like has to process all of this. I mean, how would you not believe it? Of course.

How would you not believe it? I mean, I would be so turned around. They just kidnapped you. Yeah. Like, I'm going to believe everything that comes out of their mouth. And because it almost happened in Paris too. Like, it feels like there's some sort of international element to it or like this is part of some like big scheme. So it does.

It feels crime syndicaty. Yes. Syndicity. Like, it's, it feels really big time and real. It does. Yeah. And of course, Chloe believes them. On some level, she even sympathized with him,

but she also noticed that he might have a little weakness. It seemed that he might have some feelings for Chloe. At one point, he asked Chloe for permission to kiss her and even asked if they could be in a relationship. Have you heard that term in cell horror that's going around in, like, horror movies right now? They're talking about like obsession kind of being that or there's like a movie with Joe Keri called Spree. There's also there's like a couple like in-cell horror movies and it's kind of what this one is feeling like. Yeah, because it's a lot of people's worst nightmare.

Yeah. Because he's already giving you the nice guy stick. Yeah. I don't want to do this, but I have to or else I'm going to get in trouble too and like, you know, you're actually really pretty. Can I kiss you? Oh my God. I would love for a psychologist to chime in on what they think about that and like how the human mind would react to something like that where it's like this horrible thing is happening to you but like I'm going to be the good cop. I'm going to be the nice guy. Like the way that would rock my brain. The worst type of psychological torture because that would work on me too. Yeah. Essentially all this is going on. He's saying can I kiss you? And Chloe's kind of realizing that maybe the best way to save her own life might be to lead him on. Talk about a potential thing.

future they could have together. Yeah, she immediately, like, for being in a ketamine haze, like immediately starts playing chess and is like, okay, like, how do I maneuver the situation? I think I know what his weakness is. Yeah. And I think a lot of people forget about there's so many different ways you can react to something scary, traumatic, whatever. Of course, there's the very well-known ones, fight or flight, but there's also freeze and fawn. And Chloe was fawning to save herself On the second night, Andre actually offered for Chloe to sleep in the bed with him instead of on the floor, chained to the chest of drawers. And Chloe agreed. She did say that he was a gentleman about it. He even folded up a blanket to divide the bed in half so that she could have her own side. Every time Andre would bring up a relationship, though, Chloe would say that it would have to happen in the future after she was released.

As the days passed, Chloe started to realize that she was wearing him down. Then, on Sunday, July 16th, the day that Chloe would supposedly be trafficked, Andre told her that he was willing to let her go. On four conditions, though. First, after being freed, she had to ask that her case be dropped and refused to answer any questions from law enforcement. Second, she and her family could never say anything negative. about Black Death.

Third, she had to do interviews and promote Black Death in order to help them gain even more customers in the UK. That is so weird to me. Yeah, please go on a publicity stint for us. Yeah, can you please talk about my Dark Web group in interviews,

so we can find more members. Like, it's just so weird. It's so weird. I'm like, I'm just sitting here bamboozled. Like the biggest criminal, like, group in Europe that you're supposedly a part of, and you need to scout members on talk shows? I just, I don't.

It's so weird. It's insane. And fourth, which might be even more absurd, Chloe had to pay Andre 50,000 in Bitcoin within a month of her release, or else the Black Death would track her down and kill her. Of course, Chloe agreed to all of it. Yeah. And then the next morning, July 17th,

Andre told Chloe to get dressed and that he would drop her off about 20, minutes from the consulate. Then she could walk the rest of the way. But she said that she was too scared to walk through Milan alone. I mean, Andre had told her that the Black Death had members everywhere. And of course, like, she's believing him at this point. And he also said that they were like out with guns too, right? Like they were standing there just waiting for her to be sniped, basically. Yeah. And so Andre made a new plan. They'd go to the consulate together where she would just introduce him as her only Italian friend. It turns out though consulate wasn't open as early as they were expecting. So again, they kind of pivoted and they ended up getting breakfast together at a local

cafe before, which brings us back to the morning of July 17th where Andre is now being detained. So while the Italian authorities worked at unraveling Andre's past, they asked Chloe for a favor. They wanted her to stay in Italy and help out with this case. So she locked herself in a hotel room, terrified to even open the door for room service. She truly believed that the black death was still out there and members could just be waiting for her outside with guns. Like anyone could be a sci-op, like waiting for her to make the wrong move. Yeah. And now Andre is in custody. If there's an organization out there, they're going to know it went wrong. Yeah. Who's the first person they're going to come looking for? She's terrified.

Her. Meanwhile, detectives are working at breaking down Andre and he gave up his real name right away. He was 30-year-old Lukash Herba. He was born in Poland, and he was currently living in Oldbury, England, around 150 miles from Chloe's hometown. Lukash worked as a computer programmer, and according to his neighbors, he wasn't a very social guy, but he was known for walking around with a pet rat on his shoulder. He had been following Chloe's Facebook page basically since she started her modeling career, but the main thing police realized was that he seemed to live in his own reality. He claimed to be the chairman of a board at a technology company that did not exist.

He told police he had leukemia and joined the Black Death because he couldn't afford treatment. But he couldn't provide any documentation on any of that. No, nothing on a diagnosis, no contact information for doctors who had treated him, nothing. Lukash also claimed that the Black Death had paid him 500,000 British pounds to rent properties for their criminal activities. But again, he had no proof of anything. no money, no proof of the rentals, nothing. Lukash had so many made-up stories that even he didn't really seem to know the difference between fact and fiction. Yeah, he's probably getting confused with so many lies, too.

I will say, you guys, I did try to find a picture of the rat on his shoulder. Couldn't find it. If anyone does, I will send you a present because I would be curious to see that. At this point, the British police decided to look into something that couldn't lie, which is Lukash's computers are sixth clue for us. On July 18th, the day after Chloe was freed, they got a warrant to search the apartment Lukash shared with his 36-year-old brother, Michelle.

They seized every electronic device that they could find, and digital forensics found a ton of encrypted emails. Based on what they read, detectives came to believe that it was Lukish who posted most, if not all, of the information on the Black Death's dark website, including the content that appeared in that 2016 Europol report. In fact, they couldn't find evidence of anyone other than him posting to the Black Death site.

Still, it wasn't enough for them to write off the possibility that the Black Death was a real criminal group, but it was looking more and more like Lukash was the only member. They also found proof on Lukash's computer that he rented the apartment. used as the fake studio in Milan to entrap Chloe, and they found a file called Chloe PDF on his desktop. Inside the file was a threatening, overinflated message about Chloe's release. Part of it read, quote, Chloe, you've been released as an act of enormous generosity on the part of the Black Death Group. Any kind of disobedience will result in your elimination, end quote. The document went on to refer to Lukash slash Andre as, quote, one of our most important and highly respected men.

End quote. It said that Chloe owed the Black Death 50,000 for his services and the cost of her release. And then it included an assortment of threats about what would happen if she didn't follow through, including a reminder that she could still be trafficked. They realized that Lukish had written this intending to send it to Chloe later on, after he dropped her off at the consulate. And it really seemed to these investigators that he actually believed the Italian friend story was going to work.

It didn't, obviously. But before investigators could be sure Chloe was safe, they needed to solve one more problem. She had told them four or five men were involved in her kidnapping. And she'd given them a pretty clear description of one man who she did see without his mask. So if Lukash made the Black Death up and was its only member, Who were these other men? Well, things became clear when detectives spoke to Chloe again. They had initially reached out because they wanted to share a new piece of evidence with Chloe,

which is our seventh clue, a statement from a shopkeeper. By this point, police had found the house where Chloe had been held captive. It was a rented farmhouse near Turin, about 120 miles from Milan, in the Italian Elbs. When they found the place, detectives then went around and came. canvass the area for local witnesses, and they found a saleswoman who swore that she had sold a pair of shoes to Chloe and Lukash together on July 16th, just the day before Chloe was freed. But in her first interview with investigators, Chloe didn't mention this shopping trip with Lukash. In fact, she had mentioned that she didn't leave the house during those six days in captivity,

but the saleswoman couldn't have been mistaken because there was a security video of Chloe and Lukash in the shop together. Another camera captured them walking down the road, wearing matching white t-shirts and holding hands, and another witness in town remembered seeing Chloe and Lukash too. They had even assumed that the pair was a romantic couple. And we do have some video clips of them walking that we're going to play for you guys.

Now, Chloe did admit that she went shopping with Lucas, She said that he had taken her out in order to get her shoes for their trip to the consulate that was going to happen the next day. And Chloe said that the reason that she didn't share this detail with police early on was because she was exhausted after hours and hours of questioning. And in one of the sources, it was 12 hours of questioning. And we do have an interview clip here with Pierce Morgan where he's grilling her on this detail about why did you lie? Why did you lie? It's the lying and also I think a lot of male interviewers really cling to the fact of like the shoe buying

because for women buying shoes is seen as such a like frivolous fun thing not like oh I'm buying shoes because right he was having her buy shoes so that she could walk to the consulate She didn't have any shoes. Her clothes and everything was found back at that empty apartment. Exactly exactly but they take it as like oh this is truly something you could have only done if you were in a fantastic mood and safe and like this was something that was fun for you, not like, oh, this was part of your survival. And so that's why they really cling to this detail. Yeah. I mean, there's so many people, even in these interviews that are like, yeah, you're right, peers.

If I were in that situation, I would have bought shoes and ran. It's like, you guys, like, again, fight, flight, freeze, fawn. You have this opportunity. He's doing what he says he's going to do, which is, release you if you keep playing along. Black Death, big organization. What happens if she tells a shopkeeper? What happens if she tries to run? She might not be safe. I'm just giving it a I hate Peers Morgan Botch. Just because. We're going to play the clip for you guys. Let us know what you think of the interaction in the comments. Again, when I watched a lot of these interview clips with Peers and Liam Bartlett. Like, I was horrified. Yeah.

You gave a series of police interviews afterwards for 13 hours, three separate interviews. And you were asked about a track suit and shoes that you were wearing when you finally got out. And you told the police you were given them before leaving the house. But then they presented to you evidence that a shopkeeper had confirmed that they team you with one of the kidnappers buying groceries, buying shoes, laughing and joking apparently without a care in the world.

This has led to a lot of raised eyebrows about why on earth you would go shopping with one of the alleged kidnappers and why you didn't try and make your escape. I couldn't flee because he was armed but it's not just because of him.

I was completely brainwashed and thinking that there's a whole massive crime organisation against me. So even if I was successful in fleeing, even if I got back to my house, I would still be killed if there was not an official release. Because it was like the 10th hour of the interview and I was at choose. It doesn't explain why you would lie about it. I didn't lie, I just brushed it off.

You don't think it's significant that you were out shopping with one of the alleged kidnappers. Yeah, it was just in the little village. I was just brushed it off. I said I got the tracks, he gave it to me in the shoes. I just don't know. But you understand that when, you know, there's been a lot of speculation about this, obviously emphatic denials from the people who have been accused of this and they remain innocent until proven guilty.

But one of the reasons that people, I think, have been sceptical is because this information has come out, that you lied to police about a pretty key moment. But it hasn't just emerged. It was already in the police report. So they already knew about that. They're just trying to make me look like a bad person to get readers. That's what the papers are portraying the story

in something it's not, and that's what's creating the doubt is. Well, the papers were portraying you with some skepticism, and then it emerges this week. But it didn't emerge. It was already out there. Well, it's been published this week, been reported that you lied to the police. And that's the problem.

is that no one can quite get their head round, why you would lie to the police about such a key thing. I just brushed it off. I was shattered completely. But it's not insignificant, is it, to be going shopping with one of the alleged kidnappers and buying new shoes? No one understands the reasoning. Unless you were in my position and actually went through what I've been through, no one can tell me how I should have behaved with a kidnapper

or how I should be reacting now. Now, investigators did decide that this shoe trip did support Chloe's version of events. I mean, Chloe had already told them that she really did try to to encourage Lukash's romantic feelings towards her because the more he liked her, the more he wanted to let her go. And if she was really in fear for her life, that explains why she didn't try to escape during that shopping trip. But there was still the question of how many kidnappers there actually were. Chloe said she did believe that there were five different men involved. And Chloe did think that André slash Lukash came in from out of town so that he could

scold the lower level kidnappers. If that were true, that meant that there had to be at least three. André plus the two men that took her. But after going back through Chloe's story, police determined that Lukash was probably the second masked kidnapper all along. After they got to the house, he took off his mask and introduced himself to Chloe as a different person, which was how detectives came to believe that there actually were just two kidnappers. Kidnappers that convinced her there were more by using masks, fake initials, and switching their language from Polish to English.

So now investigators are really only looking for one, accomplice, and police had a pretty good idea who that could be. And the evidence against that accomplice is our eighth clue. When they took all of Lukish's electronic devices, police found a text message that he had actually sent. It told a person to clean the trunk of his car, so Chloe's hair wouldn't be found there. The recipient of that text message was Lukish's brother, 36-year-old Michelle Herba. Police then impounded, Lukish's Volvo, and she, checked out the trunk to see just how thoroughly Michelle had cleaned it. Michelle did remove Chloe's hair from the trunk, but he accidentally left his own behind.

In fact, hairs found in the Volvo's trunk turned out to match both Lukash and Michelle. I mean, the two lived together, so it wouldn't be super unusual under normal circumstances, but knowing that the trunk was used to transport a kidnapped victim, it seemed like pretty damning evidence. And that's when police in Italy applied to the UK. They wanted Michelle extradited two-face trial in Italy. On August 6th, 2017, it was finally time for Chloe to go home. She'd been in Italy for almost four weeks at that point.

And around then, police had told her that Lukash was probably the only real member of the apparently fake syndicate, the Black Death. It wasn't clear how much Michelle had even known about his brother's fake criminal organization. But when Chloe got home, she didn't arrive to a warm welcome. It was actually the complete opposite. Chloe didn't realize it while she was secluded in Italy, but a lot of people in England felt like her kidnapping story was so bizarre that it had to be a hoax. I mean, we've literally covered this on the show already. Yeah, Denise Haskins.

Yeah. A group of reporters had gathered outside her mother's house waiting for her to arrive. And she thought if she just answered their questions, they would all leave and just go write their stories. So that day, she gave an interview in her mom's front garden, wearing the short shorts and tank top that she had just flown home in. And this was disastrous for her image. It had the complete opposite effect of what she was hoping for. Chloe, you know, came off in this interview as being bubbly and gleeful, which, to be fair, is how she was feeling. She had just survived this whole ordeal and was home. But people felt like this was not

the appropriate response after being kidnapped. A lot of people thought that she looked too happy to be a victim. And also there was her profession. The public and the British tabloids started to say that Chloe had actually staged her own kidnapping as a ploy to get famous. Which is insane because if you listen to interviews with her, she talks about how she did not want this to get out at all. Yeah. She did not want this leak to the press. She wanted to fly under their radar and not address this super embarrassed and talk to multiple people about this. this. And then the Italian press leaked it because coming from the interview, they thought it was a public concern, which you're telling this girl that the Black Death doesn't exist. It seemingly

was a one-off. Like, is it? I don't know. I'm not sure. Right. Right. Not Italian government and police. But it's still, it's like, she didn't want this to get out. Yeah. So why, what? Yeah. Right. But of course, they're using it as this was like her trying to get famous. Even some of Chloe's friends. other models fed into this. They posted pictures of themselves, curled up in suitcases as a joke. The articles are horrendous. Horrible. Horrendous.

Her son's father took the opportunity to complain about Chloe spending more time modeling than with their young son. Jail to that man. I hate that so much. She's a working mom. Leave her alone. But the hoax idea never fit the evidence that was there. Because remember, there's already two guys that have been arrested for this crime,

or at least are in custody over this crime in Italy. Regardless of if you think it's fake. The police already knew that Chloe and Lukish hadn't been in touch since before the kidnapping, other than their brief chat about the canceled parachute. They were connected on Facebook, but had never messaged each other. It seemed like Lukash was just a fan. Or a stalker. I know. They bring this up a lot to, like, well, you guys were friends on Facebook.

One, it was, I think he had friended her in like 2010. Like, it was a totally different time to have friends on Facebook. Also, they don't live that far apart. She's a beautiful young woman, model, public figure. Like, I added everyone under the sun on Facebook when I was growing up. The more friends you had on Facebook, the cooler you were. I know. And I remember they used to have a limit as like 5,000 friends was the max that you could have.

And so we'd have competitions with each other of who can have the most friends. And you just start friending everyone random. But they take that to be like, well, you guys were Facebook friends. So you must have been friends, right? So this is, you guys are in on this together. And this whole web of lies that starts getting spun is just putting Chloe in a no-win position. And the police were also doing a very bad job of helping her clarify this. People who didn't even know all the details of the kidnapping were just way too eager to blame her.

So Chloe decided that she was going to start doing interviews herself to speak her truth. And that's when she starts doing Pierce Morgan. I hate you bot right there. Dr. Phil, I hate you botch 60 Minutes Australia. I also hate that guy as well, but all of those, that whole press tour of the men that I hate. I took down some quotes from when I was watching some of these. Okay. So these are coming from Liam Bartlett, which was the 60 Minutes interview. Quote, I struggle to work out why they chose you specifically. He basically implies multiple times like, oh, they're kidnapping people these days. Right. They're kidnapping. Sir, look up the stats for trafficking.

You're an interviewer. You're a journalist. They're kidnapping people these days. He talks about ketamine, how it's a party drug. Have you ever had it before? There's this really crazy interaction with him where he starts asking Chloe about Phil, her agent. And he's like, have you said thank you to Phil? And Chloe's like, thank you for what? Yeah. And he's like, Phil says he's really supported you through this. Phil says he's even given you three thousand. pounds or euros, whatever the currency was. Yeah. And she's like, he's given me under a thousand. And she also says that's the least he can do, which, to be fair, it was his job to make sure that this wasn't a scam. And he was kind of the reason she got kidnapped in the first place.

The reason she got kidnapped. Literally. Because he didn't vet the job. Yeah. Yeah. And Liam Barrett goes on to say, oh, is that why you sacked him? Yeah. I sacked my agent because he got me kidnapped.

Yeah. Duh. that guy is so fired. What are you talking about? Yeah, it's so fresh for watching these interviews because you can tell. And like, listen, I do understand that journalists have to ask hard questions and have to get answers from their subjects because you want to make sure that people are telling the truth and you want to make sure that the story is like bulletproof. Like I think back to do you remember when that influencer scammer who pretended she had cancer was on the 60 Minutes Australia and they have that one host with like The Bob and I love her. But she's asking. her questions too being like, Belle, why can't you answer any of these questions? Like, what do you mean? Like, you say you have cancer, but we haven't been able, we've been looking into you. We can't find any of that. And like, it is good that she's pressing this woman on these questions because she can't answer and you do find that she's lying. But like, they just approach this from the jump as you're lying. You're doing this for attention. And I'm, I'm going to get you. Like, they're all just trying to get her. And that's what's so frustrating. Like, no one is listening to her with compassion at all. No, because she's also not responding. Ideally, she's. not crying. They wanted her to appear distressed. When Liam is having her recount this story, he makes constant remarks about how calm she is while retelling this. You remember way too many

details. He's almost implying, like, because you're remembering this so perfectly, you must be lying. Yeah. How do you remember this so well? It's that idea of the perfect victim, which is so sad, that, like, women, you have to cry a certain way, you have to grieve a certain way. You are not allowed to live your life after tragedy because any evidence that you're having fun after tragedy occurs is proof that it didn't affect you and you're a bad person. And it's so sad to watch it happen in real time in these. I know. And I have a clip that I want you guys to see too.

And it's coming from an interview on this morning happening years down the line. And this interviewer asked a really good question about, do you feel like you were in shock? And Chloe's response is something I feel like we should hear. None of us have been kidnapped here, all right? Nobody knows how you're going to react. And when you were given the interviews, you were quite matter of fact. There wasn't a lot of emotion there,

but is that how you dealt with it? And do you think back then you were in a lot of shock when you were given these interviews? I was. I feel like I was in defence mode. I was just answering questions about what happened and just being as factual as possible to tell what happened.

And people didn't like that. Like, they expected me to be crying. But I just don't cry in public. I don't like it. I hate it. And there's a quote I took down from Chloe, too, that says, quote, honestly, the media affected me long term more than the actual kidnapping itself because that's how horrendous it was. Isn't that, I feel like Denise Huskin said something similar when we talked to her of like, yeah, being kidnapped is horrible and the worst thing I've ever gone through and then talking to the police was somehow worse. Well, imagine.

Like being grilled afterwards. She did say that when we interviewed her. And you guys, if you really want to just kind of understand someone's feelings of going through something. as horrible as this and coming out the other side not being believed, listen to the interview we did with Denise Huskins. Yeah. It is just wow. Like imagine having something like this happened and no matter who you tell, they don't believe you. They're literally combative with you. Yeah. And you're just trying to like get someone to understand. Just trying to be believed. So the trial began on February 7th, 2018 in Milan. Lukash was facing charges of kidnapping for the purpose of

extortion. The prosecution had a ton of evidence to present, like, the disturbing emails from Lukish's computer, the ketamine and Chloe system, the surveillance videos of him with Chloe. During the time in captivity, there were receipts showing that he rented the fake studio and the farmhouse. There was not going to be any way that Lukish could deny this. No, they had the mask purchases, as well as a phone call he made to his mom while in jail, telling his mom, hey mom, can you delete my emails, my password for the computer? Is it a bad word? Is that a bad word? I think it's a worst word in the UK. The password was like twat. It was twat twat twat one. Twot, twat one. Like, hey mom, delete the emails, twat twat one. And then clear the recycling bin. And then tell me

Shell to dispose of the car. Yeah, dispose of the car. Come on. They had all the evidence against him. and Lucas didn't really deny it. When the defense's turn came, Lukash had come up with a new story to explain why he kidnapped Chloe. Earlier, he had said that he had leukemia and joined the Black Death to pay for his treatment. Obviously, he couldn't prove that.

After that, he changed his story to say that the Romanian criminals with the Black Death were the ones who kidnapped Chloe and that he was a hero who stepped in to get her released. But then, when the trial started, he changed his entire defense again. Now he claimed that he and Chloe had planned a staged kidnapping together to boost her career. He admitted that the Black Death was completely made up.

He said that he had fallen in love with Chloe and was willing to do anything for her. Lukish claimed their plot was inspired by the movie by any means, in which a minor celebrity stages her own kidnapping to boost her brand. but he was essentially just modeling his defense after what the British tabloids were already saying. Luckily, the court wasn't impressed. On June 11, 2018, 11 months after Chloe's kidnapping, Lukash was found guilty of kidnapping and drugging her. He was sentenced to 16 years and nine months in prison. But for Chloe, the most important part of the trial was vindication.

She actually made a short statement. following the verdict, which said, quote, I'm very happy with the outcome. I want to thank the court and all those who believed in what I said. From the staff to the police investigators, up to the prosecutor, now I want to be with my family, end quote. Lukash's brother, Michelle, tried to fight extradition to Italy by claiming that he had a baby on the way

and by repeating his brother's hoax accusations, but the judge was not moved. He was extradited on June 22, 2018, less than two weeks after Lukash's conviction. In 2019, Michelle was convicted of kidnapping for the purpose of extortion and received a 16-year sentence. And that was not the end of the story. Both Erba brothers appealed to their sentences. The appellate court downgraded Michelle's conviction by removing the extortion elements,

which meant that his sentence dropped to just five years and eight months. With credit for good behavior, and he ended up being released quietly in 2020. When the media tracked him down post-release, he was living in Poland with his mother, working as a truck driver while trying to move back to England. Lukash also had his sentence reduced on appeal because the judge ruled that he acted, quote, out of love in the way he released Chloe. Hmm? I do not understand. What? I do not understand.

Someone please help me understand that. He acted out of love? out of love. There's no history of them having chatted before this. Well, what is upsetting about that too is because it makes it seem like you can commit any horrible crime. But if you change your mind and let someone go or whatever, it could be seen as out of love and your sentence could be reduced. So you could kidnap someone and drug them. But if you feel bad after six days and let them go, like your sentence will be reduced because you acted out of love. That doesn't make any sense. No. And it also feels like it could open a can of worms for. for other. Yes. Like, it sets a bad precedent. That. So his sentence went down to 12 years and one month and with time off for good behavior,

there's a chance that he could be out very soon. As for Chloe, she will always carry the trauma of her kidnapping. But ironically, being wrongly accused of staging a publicity stunt got her more publicity than the kidnapping itself. In 2018, at the age of just 21, she appeared on the reality competition show, Celebrity Big Brother in the UK. And a lot of people had problems with that. Of course they did.

Again, people were criticizing her for going back to work. Yeah. Modeling after her kidnapping. It's like she still has bills. She has a child. I know it's the idea of the perfect victim. Like you're not allowed to do anything that suggests you're enjoying your life at all or else it is seen as you being a bad person. Yeah.

And she says going on Big Brother was just again in hopes that people would like see her and know that she was telling the truth. She just wanted to get her. story out there and be believed for once. Yeah, and that's why she also published a memoir called Kidnap that same year, which became the basis for a BBC series of the same name in 2024. And in 2025, Chloe herself appeared in a three-part BBC docu-series called Chloe Ailing, My Unbelievable Kidnapping. She was ready to revisit the parts of her own story that she still hadn't resolved. She was ready to speak about her experience in her own words. Chloe said participating in the docu-series was healing for her and helped her understand her past.

but she'll never be the same outgoing, gregarious person that she was before the kidnapping. She now lives in a rural, mountainous part of Wales, and she enjoys spending time alone in nature, riding horses. Like you, Morgan. Like me. Her life is very peaceful. She's very grateful, but she thinks her life would have taken a very different path if she had never been kidnapped. Something interesting that came out of filming the latest docu-series, though, is that Chloe got some pretty life-changing news.

cameras captured her receiving a diagnosis that helped explain why she spent her whole life feeling misunderstood and why she had difficulty expressing her emotions. And likely why she didn't have the reaction TV cameras and press were expecting from a victim. It turns out, Chloe was diagnosed with autism. And something I found in one of the YouTube comments related to interviews that she did was, quote, I'm a clinical specialist, occupational therapist, and I'm qualified to assess and diagnosed autism. After about 10 minutes of watching this documentary, I knew Chloe was autistic. Like many autistic girls and women, she went undiagnosed for decades, in part because her symptoms weren't identical to how autism usually shows up in men. According to UCLA, up to 80% of autistic women

are undiagnosed at the age of 18, and boys are 10 times more likely than girls to be referred for an autism diagnosis. I myself fall into that, not diagnosed with autism, until my late 30s because of the podcast I do to a takes and people saying I'm different with everyone and I react oddly and I realized I was masking which Chloe grew up constantly doing and she talks about this in interviews. She's like I was responding by smirking because I was just trying to tell things matter of fact and I didn't understand the nuance. Yeah. And it explains so much of why she responded in the way she did during all of the interview and press. Yeah, she's just trying to get the story out and everyone's accusing her of being so

emotionless. And she's like, I'm trying to tell you the story. Like, I'm just trying to state it as factually as I can. Yes, yes. Chloe's story is really a reminder that there is no normal response to trauma. Every brain is unique. We can't judge the facts of any case based on how an alleged victim expresses their feelings. And we can't abandon victims in our search for the truth. Deborah Turkeheimer, the author of the book Credible, Why We Doubt Accusers and Protect Abusers,

highlights what she calls the care gap between how we care for victims and how we care for the perpetrators. According to Deborah, a lot of the ways we talk about crime as a society leaves victims feeling like their pain matters less than their abuser's pain. Deborah says one of the things we can do without impeding on anybody's rights is talk about three things in response to any allegation of abuse. Those three things are, it happened. It was wrong. It matters. Most of the time, if people start debating, it happened. They spend all their time on that and never move on to the other two parts. It was wrong. It matters. And that might actually be what a survivor needs to hear from a friend or even a stranger on the internet. And if that's something you need to hear right now, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-6-5-6-hope. Or you can text hope. Or you can text,

Hope to 64673. Or you can visit rain.org slash hotline for a live chat option. And with that, let's highlight the missing person this week. This week, we are highlighting the case of Abby Lynn Patterson. Patterson was last seen on Tuesday, September 5th, 2017, around 1130 in the morning. She left her home on East 9th Street in Lumberton, North Carolina, and was seen getting into a brown Buick. Patterson has not been seen since and has not had any contact with family or friends. She was last seen wearing brown shorts and a white shirt, and at the time of her disappearance, she was described as having brown eyes, weighing around 140 pounds with white skin,

brown hair, five foot seven, and has a tattoo of a bird on her shoulder and a birthmark on the back of her right thigh. She was born on February 15, 1997. Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of Abby Lynn Patterson is asked to call the FBI Charlotte's Field Office at 704-672-610 or the Lumberton Police Department at 910-671-3845. You may also contact your local FBI office or the nearest American Embassy or Consulate. And that is all we have for this week's episode of Clues. And now we really turn it over to you guys.

I cannot wait to read through your thoughts, your feelings, everything about this case. Yeah, has anything changed for you? Did you learn something new? I mean, what did you think of the clips you saw because I lost my mind over them? Am I alone in hating Pierce Morgan? Let me know. Am I the only one? I don't think so. At Crime House, we really value your support.

So again, share all your thoughts on social media. Remember to rate, review, follow, and subscribe to clues, help others discover our show. And don't forget for early ad-free access, subscribe to Crimehouse Plus at crimehouse.com. Or if you listen on Apple Podcasts, tap try free at the top of the clues page. all right that's all we have we'll see you next week bye guys