Criminology - Trevor Summers

Episode Date: June 25, 2023

In 2017, Alisa Summers and her five children went through a harrowing ordeal. What made it even worse was that the entire thing was set into motion and then perpetrated by Alisa's husband, Trevor Summers. The two had been married for 15 years but were going through a divorce. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss Trevor Summers and the crimes he committed against his wife and children. Trevor had become increasingly controlling of Alissa over the years. Toward the end, he wouldn't go to work for fear that she would leave him. After she did, he made a plan to get back at her. It culminated with Alissa spending 55 hours being held captive by Trevor after he was able to get his oldest child to help him. She had no idea what he was really planning to do. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. Hello everyone and welcome to episode 263 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Morph, what's going on with you, buddy? No, not too much. Got some rain down here. Finally, we've been in a drought. So we're sort of enjoying that. It's not often that I hope for rain, but we've had a good amount the last few days. So it's greening up here. That's what's going on.

on how about you yeah fine yeah we actually had the same issue i didn't have to mow my grass for uh for a few weeks which is strange for this time of year but i'm loving the weather enjoying getting outside and doing some stuff um you know it really kind of changes my attitude i think so the winters are tough for those of us that live in the north yeah down here we've got canals all over and i've got a canal right in my backyard that it's so dry. You can see all the alligators popping up real easily now. It's getting deep again. So getting back to normal.

Okay. And I'm not crazy about alligators. I'm just going to tell you right now. More if we need to let everybody know that there will be no episode next week. You and I are taking a vacation, not together separately, but a mid-year vacation. So, you know, it's right around the middle of the year. And then we'll take another one around the, end of the year. Yeah. It helps to break up that year because it's a grind. You know,

we've said it before, I think, but it is a grind putting out episodes every week all year long. So just to have that week off to recharge your battery is a good thing, I think. Yeah, yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We had Joniase Eve Roberts, Mindy Hayes, Charles Paxford, Rachel, and Brenda Shaw. So that's a lot of great new support. We really appreciate it. Yes, thanks so much to everyone that helps support the show. It means a lot to us. And for anyone that would like to help support it, you can go to patreon.com slash criminology.

And we wanted to give everyone another reminder that we'll be at CrimeCon in Orlando, Florida in just a couple of months. We hope to see you all there. CrimeCon 2020 will take place September 22nd or the 24th at the World Center Marriott. And it's a chance for you to meet all of your favorite people from the true crime world and hang out with your favorite podcast host on podcast. Cast row like Mike and I. If you want to go, don't wait because time is running out. Head over to crimecon.com and use our promo code criminology at checkout to save 10% on your standard badges.

Again, we hope to see you there. And more speaking of Florida, it's time to dive into this case. And we're covering one out of Val Rico, Florida, about 75 miles southwest of Orlando, just outside of Tampa. on March 11th, 2017, Elisa Summers and three of her five children were asleep in her Valrico home. At 3 a.m. Elisa woke up, startled. She felt a wetness on her head that she knew was not normal. And she oriented herself. She realized that there was a large figure standing over her in the darkness. Elisa would later tell CBS news that she cried out, who's in my room? What are you doing here?

And that's when she heard. a man's voice. A familiar one reply, calm down. It's just me. Elisa knew the voice, though its identity did not help her calm down. Not at all. It was her estranged husband, Trevor Summers, standing over her in the middle of the night. He had used a glass of water, pouring it over her head to wake her up. In a panic, Elisa began throwing things at him. Anything that she could reach from the nightstand. She was quickly yanked by her ankles down the foot of the bed. This was the start of Elisa being kidnapped, and it was the culmination of a disintegrating marriage. Thirty-seven-year-old Elisa and 39-year-old Trevor were in the middle of a divorce. There were many signs that this would not be an amicable separation. The two

had been together a long time. They met as teenagers at Garnet Valley High School in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, and after knowing each other for three years, they started dating. Elisa was 19 years old, and Trevor was her first real boyfriend. Elisa was charmed by her new love interest. She would go on to tell the Tampa Bay Times that Trevor was spontaneous, very charming, and so romantic. In 2001, when Elisa was 22, the couple got married. They had five children together, starting with her daughter Arden. Elisa dropped out of college before completing her business degree to focus on her new and growing family. sons Landon, Brady, and Cooper, and another daughter, Bryn followed. The family moved around a lot living in Philadelphia, Texas, California, and Nevada, before settling in Florida. But with each move,

Lisa noticed a troubling pattern with Trevor. He became more and more controlling of her. He didn't allow her to speak to any other men, not even on Facebook or to sit next to other men in church. and he began to choose what outfits she would wear. By 2016, after 15 years of marriage, Elisa was getting tired of living that way, and Trevor could tell. He took her cell phone and her car keys and refused to let her leave the house.

Soon, Trevor didn't even want her to be alone and was always at her side. In October 2016, Trevor suspected that Elisa was planning on leaving him, so he stopped going to work. so she couldn't move out while he was gone. He physically stopped her from leaving their home multiple times and even prevented her from speaking to their gardener who was doing yard work just outside.

This went on for most of October and more if we've already kind of previewed the culmination of this controlling behavior. But we've seen it time and time again. This type of controlling behavior is a very bad sign. And we really don't have. have a lot of background into what caused it. I don't think Trevor has actually ever really said, but it sounds like over the years, it got worse and worse. It didn't start out that way, but he became more controlling, more controlling to the point where it got really bad. I mean,

you're 15 years in to a marriage. And at that point, you're so controlling that you're so controlling that you're picking out your wife's outfits. You stop going to work because you're afraid that she's going to move out on you. I think to Lisa, it was something that she saw just build up over time to the point it was just too much for her. And she finally said enough is enough. And I wonder, is this something that was always there in Trevor? Or did something develop with him that caused us over time? It's an interesting thing to think about because it doesn't think. seemed like just one day out of the blue, he suddenly turned this way. This, this just went further and further and further. And to the point she said, okay, this is, this is not right. I've got to get out

of this situation. One thing's for sure. We know just from cases we've discussed, when someone has made the decision that they're in a bad situation, they're being controlled like this, and they say it's time to leave, history teaches us that that's a dangerous time. for them. And that's when trying to get out of that relationship can have real serious consequences that often result in violence. And that's what we're going to see here. Yeah, that's why I started it out saying, you know, it's not good, right? This controlling nature. We've often seen where it leads to isolation. One person is purposefully trying to isolate the other, doesn't want them to talk to family, in this case, doesn't want them to talk to men or whatever it is. It's just a bad deal

all the way around. When Trevor finally went back to work on October 24th, Elisa decided to make her move and leave. She called a domestic violence hotline, and they told her that her situation was serious, and what she had experienced was indeed domestic abuse. But before Elisa could get her things packed and get out, Trevor came home from work. He was early and immediately suspicious. Elisa was eventually able to make it out of the house, but had no time to take anything with her besides four of their five children. They stayed at a friend's house, but didn't feel safe, because Elisa thought that it was only a matter of time before Trevor figured out where they were. And sure enough, after two days, flowers were delivered to the home from Trevor. He knew where

they were, and Elisa immediately left with the kids and went to a woman's shelter with nothing but the clothes on their backs. So I think it was clear in Elisa's mind that this was a dangerous situation. She had called that domestic violence hotline and they confirmed her suspicions that this was a bad situation. So I think when she realized that Trevor had found her at this friend's house, she didn't mess around. She got the kids out of there and went to the shelter because she felt it was dangerous and she needed to do that. But think about how scary that would have been or how scary that is for many people who experienced this type of situation. You know, she finally made the decision. I've got to get out. And then very quickly, he figures out where she and the

kids are. He sends flowers. That normally is a great thing for most people. In this scenario, it's super scary. Instead of a loving gesture, it's almost like, I know where you are. Gesture. Very scary stuff. Yeah. And as frightening as it was for a least, You also have to remember, he's got four of the kids with her. So they're going through this as well. And I don't know what she told them or what they were thinking, but it's got to be scary, the situation that they're basically running from their father trying to avoid him. On October 31st, 2016, Elisa filed a petition for domestic violence injunction against Trevor,

claiming that he had held her against her will. Elisa said that Trevor had used verbal threats to keep her. where he wanted her to be, but it was a case of her word against his, and Trevor denied her allegations. On November 10th, the petition was dismissed due to a lack of evidence. The following month in December, Elisa filed for divorce, but she still had to see Trevor twice each week as they exchanged the children because they had joint custody each time. Elisa felt uncomfortable, but she was trying to do what was best for her kids. And she was looking forward to being free of Trevor. Things didn't get better for Lisa. On February 21st, 2017, she filed a

second petition for domestic violence injunction, again claiming that Trevor had held her against her will at his home. According to her, she had gone there willingly, but only to talk about a possible divorce settlement. Trevor pulled out a machete, holding it to Elisa's throat as he threatened to use duct tape and rope to tie her up if she tried to get away. Eventually, he did let her go. Elisa went to a gas station and called 911 to report the incident. While this was happening, Trevor went to Elisa's house and took the children back to his home. Their five children stayed there at his house despite Elisa's petitions and allegations. On February 22nd, the day after Elisa filed her petition, Trevor also filed one, claiming Elisa had pushed their 12-year-old son,

Landon in a rage. And Trevor also said that Alisa had falsely accused him of everything she claimed in her petition. So no doubt this was a very dangerous and ugly situation by this point. They each had restraining orders against the other, but it was kind of a he said, she said type scenario. And I think this would be a very frustrating situation. You're trying to do the right thing. You're trying to go through the proper channels, the courts. But in a situation, where there's very little evidence. It's your word against the other person's word, and the court doesn't really feel as though they can do anything.

That has to be a very helpless feeling. You're trying to protect yourself. You're trying to protect your kids, and you're trying to do it the right way, but you're getting no support. Nothing's happening. Yeah, that's got to be an impossible situation to be in, to not be able to have that help that she,

clearly felt she needed. And it's not like she could just take off and move away and get away from him because she's got the children that she has shared custody with. So she has to honor that arrangement and she was trying to do that. But at the same time, distance herself from Trevor. Which would have been very hard when you have to see the person twice a week to, you know, to exchange the kids back and forth. All of this led to that night in March 2017 with Trevor standing over Elisa's bed, pouring water over her head to wake her up. He pulled her off the bed by her ankles. Grady and Bryn, two of their younger children, had been sleeping in bed with Elisa. They screamed and followed the commotion as the Lisa was dragged all the way into the living room.

Trevor angrily yelled at the kids, get back in your mother's room. Don't come out. At around 5 a.m. after two hours of struggling, 14-year-old Arden came inside the house. She had been waiting outside in the car the entire time. This surprised Elisa, who was sure that Arden had been in her room and would have heard the noise, the screams, yelling, and the kids crying. And she thought Arden would have called 911 for help. But it soon became apparent to Elisa that Arden was not going to help her. Elisa told CBS News of the incident,

she walks in and doesn't even look at me. That's when I realized she's not going to call 911. Arden wanted him to be there, speaking of Trevor. and Trevor even involved Arden in his plans. He instructed her to take the other children, Landon, Brandon Grady, back to his car and drive it back to his house where three-year-old Cooper had been left sleeping completely alone.

Despite having only practiced driving in a parking lot before Arden listened to him. Arden later told CBS News, it was very terrifying. I was doing exactly the speed limit and I just followed all the traffic laws to not get pulled over. So more if we know what Trevor is doing is horrible.

And what he's going to do is horrible to Elisa. But then you have to look at the situation with the kids. Number one, he involves his 14 year old daughter in his plan. And then he leaves his three year old son alone. Part of that plan involves having his 14 year old daughter drive the kids back to his house. A 14 year old who's never really driven, you know, driving in the parking lot. a few times is much different than, you know, driving on streets and all of that. This is coming from a guy who's taught two kids how to drive and has gone through that process.

It's just unimaginable. What was going through this guy's head? Yeah, and as much danger as Elisa seemed to be in, now he's putting his kids at risk too because he's leaving his three-year-old at home by himself. You know, what happens if there's a fire or something? There's no one there to help him. Then you have his 14-year-old daughter with no license driving the other kids around. So real disturbing thoughts here by Trevor on this plan here that he's carrying out.

With the children now out of the house, Trevor dragged Elisa back to the bedroom and used Christmas lights and scarves to tie her to the bed. According to CBS News, he gave sort of a speech telling her, I can't. came to say goodbye, I am leaving. I've chartered a boat. I'm going out into international water and I'm going to disappear. He forced Elisa to take NyQuil to make her drowsy and weak. He shoved a sock into her mouth and used a scarf to keep it there, wrapping it around her face and head. He sexually assaulted her twice while she was tied to the bed. He also unlocked Elisa's cell phone by using her thumb on the fingerprint scanner, he recorded videos of himself on the phone.

In one, he said, I am here with Elisa at her house. She's virtually unharmed. She's got a couple of bruises today, but from the tying her up. His reasoning for these confession videos was that he was leaving Elisa evidence of what he had done to her as if he was doing her a favor. Since the other times, the authorities had not believed her claims due to a lack of proof. He wanted her to be able to show the authorities that what she said was true after he had supposedly fled on his boat. But Trevor didn't leave after making the videos,

though. He never headed to any boat to get away. Instead, at around 5.40 p.m., he walked back into Elisa's bedroom, where she was still tied to the bed. Trevor placed a pillow over her face and pressed down. Elisa thought about her children until she lost consciences. At some point, Trevor lifted the pillow back up, and Elisa struggled for error. She begged for her life. She told Trevor that she would do anything that he wanted if he didn't kill her, and she ultimately agreed to go with him to the boat that would take them to the islands. In the back of Elisa's mind, this wasn't something she really thought was happening.

She knew that Trevor really didn't have a boat, and that they wouldn't be going to any island, but she was determined to stay alive for her children. She planned to continue to agree with him and go along with whatever he said if it meant she would live longer. She was really just buying time. And we said up front how scary this situation was and you're getting a better sense of it. Now as more details come out, Elisa has been sexually assaulted multiple times. She doesn't know, you know, where her children are.

She has to be thinking at that point in time in her mind that Trevor is going to kill her. And I think she has said it. She went along with what he was saying. She's buying time. She's trying to stay alive for her children. I mean, this is spine-tingling stuff. It's just a terrifying, unimaginable situation. Yeah, you certainly can't fault her for trying to play along with Trevor and just tell him whatever he wants to hear or anything that's going to keep her alive because her worst fears about her husband being dangerous have come to fruition.

and she now knows that Trevor is dangerous and her life's on the line. So you definitely can't fault her for saying or doing whatever she needed to to stay alive. Trevor tied Elisa's hands behind her back and put her into her own SUV and drove her away from her home. During the ride, he decided that he needed to buy more NyQuil. So they stopped at a Walgreens in Tampa. After Trevor went inside, Elisa, her hands still bound behind her back, took a chance and fumble. for the car's door handle. It worked.

She opened the door and jumped out of the SUV running through the parking lot, screaming for help. But Trevor quickly caught up to her and dragged her back to the car. He shoved her inside. A Walgreens employee happened to be outside at the time, taking his break, and saw the whole thing. He was able to give police the car's license plate number. As he drove away from the Walgreens, Trevor screamed that Elisa saying, you agreed to go with me.

Why are you doing this? He grabbed her wrist and used as a razor blade he was carrying to cutter at once, leaving a large gash across her entire left wrist. He scolded Elisa, saying, That's for getting out of the car at the Walgreens. Trevor angrily drove around the Tampa area. He didn't seem to have any real destination in mind. He stopped in several secluded areas hiding from authorities,

who Trevor was sure had been called after what happened at Walgreens. At one of the locations he stopped at, Trevor sexually assaulted Elisa a third time and then a fourth. He also took the time to write a letter to their children. The letter read in part, we should have never gone down the road of divorce that tore our family apart. So we have ended it for your sake and we'll be watching you from heaven. So, I mean, there's no doubt, morph to me, it seems very clear from the writing in this letter that it was Trevor's plan to kill Elisa.

and then take his own life. By this point, Elisa had been Trevor's captive for two days. Drowsy from the NyQuil he forced on her. But she was also kept awake by the pure terror that she was going through. Police were looking for Trevor and Elisa by this point. They received a tip that the SUV was spotted just south of Tampa in Ruskin at the inn at Little Harbor Resort.

This is a place that the entire summer's family, used to go for vacations. At the resort, Trevor pulled Elisa's SUV up right behind a dumpster. He jumped into the back seat with her and used a rope to strangle her. Elisa would go on to tell CBS News that in that moment, she thought, he is killing me behind a dumpster. Trevor panicked, though. He thought he had been seen, and he stopped, hopping into the driver's seat so he could flee the area.

He pulled into the carport of a random home in the area. He was convinced he had been caught, and he began to slit his own throat with the razor blitz. as Elisa, terrified, begged him to stop. Authorities circled the car with their guns drawn. One officer reached in and quickly removed Elisa, who still had ropes hanging from her arms. He took her from the SUV and put her in the front seat of his cruiser, taking her away from the scene.

Trevor was taken into custody. It had been 55 hours of pure hell, but Elisa was finally safe. It was over. And more if you know, we talk about a lot of really horrible things on criminology. you have to to tell the story of some of these cases. And this was absolutely horrible as well, but it's different from many cases that we do because Alisa survived.

It's also different because she was able to later tell her side of the story or tell the story, which is something that in many cases you don't get because the victim is not alive to tell what really happened. You know, what you get are things that come out in court. Maybe it's the prosecution's theory of what happened or you get forensics trying to tell you what happened. No, not here. We have a Lisa able to tell outlets exactly what happened and describe the terror that she went through. Yeah. And although she survived this and made it through, you have to think that this was like, there'd be some kind of PTSD here, that this is something that's going to stick with her, probably the rest of her life, because this was very violent and horrific.

The hell that she went through for this 55-hour period, not something that, you know, I would think is something she's ever going to forget. No, there's no way. There's no way that you forget something like this. You know, it's going to take some therapy and some stuff like that to just even deal with it. But I don't think you ever get over it or you definitely would never forget it. Hey, everyone, as a criminology listener, Morph and I really think you'd enjoy the podcast Gone Cold, Texas True Crime. Every week since July 2017, Gone Cold podcast has brought listeners in-depth accounts of unsolved murders and missing persons cases throughout the state of Texas,

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Subscribe now to Moms and Mysteries wherever you get your podcast. At the hospital where he was taken for treatment, Trevor admitted using nylon rope to tie Elisa up. And he also admitted to trying to kill her, saying, I grabbed the pillow and put it in a little. over her face. Despite this admission, the videos were he admitted to holding her against her will and her injuries, Trevor claimed the Lisa had willingly gone along with him, telling detectives, she willingly let me tie her up. His pleas didn't sway the authorities, and Trevor was charged with 11 criminal counts, including attempted murder, kidnapping, sexual battery, and child neglect. The child neglect charges were for leaving three-year-old Cooper alone, being violent in front of the

children and instructing 14-year-old Arden to drive the children home. And my thought is prosecutors were probably trying to come up with every charge that they could think of. You know, obviously you've got the kidnapping, the sexual assault, the attempted murder, but let's pile on as many as we can. Yeah. In this case, there's so much stuff that they can probably pick out and use as a charge it against him to help staff.

these things to ensure that he's going to be held accountable and have confidence that the outcome is going to be him going to prison for this stuff. And I think it's important to try to put on as many charges as possible. You never know what's going to happen in the courts. You never know what the final outcome is going to be. So what if he beats some of the charges? Well, you want to have a lot there. so that hopefully if you don't get them all, you get enough that he spends a bunch of time in prison. Now, this next part is going to make people's blood boil because despite being free of Trevor, Elisa had a new fight on her hands. The court stepped in during the aftermath of the chaos and awarded custody of her five children,

not to Elisa, but to Trevor's parents. And this is probably shocking to a lot of people. it really kind of shocked me because, you know, I'm thinking here, Alisa did nothing wrong. She went through this terrible ordeal. She already had a shared custody agreement, but now Trevor was going to jail. And somehow the course decided that Elisa should lose her kids. I mean, it was kind of mind-boggling to me. Her petition for custody in March 2017 was denied after a five-hour hearing.

Elisa told the Tampa Bay Times. I'm still fighting for healing for myself and my children in the life we had. After all she'd been through, and even with Trevor behind bars, Elisa said, I'm still fighting to be free. Now, we don't know all the details around the custody issues, but someone who appears to be Elisa on the website, websloose.com, said that Trevor's parental rights were eventually terminated and the grandparents have had a no contact order regarding. the children since at least April 22 when this web sluice post was made.

And the person identifying herself as Elisa said only that the children have now been returned to her. And we have to be clear that we believe this person on WebSleuze is Elisa, but she has a photo of herself and her username has Elisa in it. So, you know, we assume it's her, but you never know when you're dealing with online forums and stuff, you can have someone that's impersonating someone. But according to this poster, she did get the kids back. But it's just, it's scary to think that she would have lost them in the first place for being a victim of this crime. Well, and the hearing was in 2017. This post was

made in 2022. So, you know, how long did it take her to, you know, get full custody back? And, you know, a lot of those details are just missing. We don't have them all. But you're right. I mean, what she went through was scary and then the fight for her kids on top of it. Yeah, just to survive that hellish ordeal that she went through only to come out of it and then have to battle to get her kids back. I can't imagine what she was thinking. In 2018, Elisa married Jeff Matthewson, who she began dating while she was separated from Trevor. Jeff was by her side during the entire trial, which was severely delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as legal tactics. Jeff vowed to protect Elisa and her children with his life telling CBS News,

so long as I'm around, she's safe. There was an unwanted surprise during the trial. Just after Elisa testified for the prosecution and just before her cross-examination, Trevor Summers fired his attorney and decided to represent himself. This meant that he would be questioning Elisa. We've seen this. before in other cases. It's a rare situation, but it does happen. It's one more chance for some of these bad people to try and once again terrorize their victims. And more if I get that this is a right that defendants have, it just seems like in these situations. And like you said, it's rare, but we've seen it happen. It's so terrible because you have the victimizer, the perpetrator,

getting the opportunity to question their victim. It just seems like a horrible situation for that person to have to go through bad enough that they have to sit in court, what, 15 feet away on the witness stand from the perpetrator. But now that same person is going to be able to question them. And you know what it's all about. Control and a chance to exercise that. control over this person maybe one last time. Yeah, and you know that old saying, a person represents

himself as an attorney in court has a fool for a client. So maybe if there's anything positive that was to come out of this, it's that he would do a awful job and there'd be no way of a miraculous acquittal or something along those lines. Yeah, but my thought on this is that the person in this situation, like Trevor Summers, is not acting as their attorney to try to get themselves acquitted. They just want the chance to exercise that control probably for the last time in their life. They know they're going away. And this is kind of a last, I don't even know what you want to call it.

Ditch effort to get back at a person that they've already victimized for so many years. It's horrible. Yeah, and to your point, what makes this even more frightening is this is someone that Trevor loved that he, the mother of his children, he had a family with and he was willing to do this to her. So it's frightening that something like this would happen to anyone, let alone someone doing it to someone they supposedly care about. For more than four hours, Trevor Summers questioned his victim, mostly hammering the issue of consent. I don't know if he thought that somehow she would break down and say that she was really okay with it all or that she had gone with him willingly. And then the jury wouldn't find him guilty. You know, whatever the case, Elisa didn't crack.

As the questioning went on, she grew more angry and also more confident. She told Trevor bluntly in the courtroom, you did tie me up, you did attack me and you did break into my home when I was sleeping. you raped me. At one point, he had the audacity to ask her, so you're calling it rape, to which Elisa replied sternly, it is. That is the definition of rape to come into someone's home and attack them and tie them up and then have sex with them. That is the definition of rape. The jury was silent. As they took in her words, this was a very powerful moment in the courtroom. Trevor Summers also questioned his children about the night he abducted and tried to kill their mother. He asked Brent whether she had heard him yell at Elisa and then asked Arden whether she had seen the two fighting that night.

After she testified, Trevor Summers even told his daughter, Bryn, it's good to see you. Next, Trevor tried to basically nullify his hospital interview when he questioned Sergeant Edward Rania on the stand, claiming that he was in no shape to have been questioned by police in the hospital, since it was right before he had what he called surgery. He said, if you were in that position, you would feel vulnerable, you'd feel taken advantage of. I was captive and possibly coerced. And just to clarify for listeners, Trevor didn't have any surgery. He had actually gotten a few stitches for his self-inflicted wound.

On the stand, Sergeant Rameh responded to Trevor saying, I think we were probably going to differ on our definition of getting stitches and surgery. For Sergeant Remia, being cross-examined by the suspect that he once interrogated was a first, he told CBS News, is this his last-ditch effort to cause any mental anguish he can possibly do? Or is it his last-ditch attempt to show everybody that everything was okay, that I was in control of the whole situation and that I'm not guilty of a crime? So I thought this was very interesting because it's kind of what I thought, right? the sergeant is saying, or at least asking the question, is this his last ditch effort to cause any mental anguish he possibly can? And that's the way I kind of thought of it. What else can he do? That's the only power that he has in this situation is to act as his own attorney and try to cause people

mental anguish. That's really the way I saw it. Yeah. And along the way, there's no remorse. There's no, what have I done? My poor family. I can't believe I put them through this. No owning up to it at all. He's just attacking everyone attacking Elisa, attacking this police officer. And it's everybody else except him. And one of the parts that really burned me was, you know, in talking to this police officer

and questioning Sergeant Remia, he said, you know, that he was taken advantage of, Trevor did. And his exact words were, I was cast. and possibly coerced. And I just thought you were questioned by police versus what he did to Elisa, who really was captive. I found that a very odd choice of words. Yeah, he really made himself out to be the victim. He's the one that was controlled or coerced. It's very, very pathetic.

I think that's the best word, pathetic, despite Trevor being willing to. to stand in front of the jury and ask questions, he was unwilling to let himself be questioned. He didn't testify in his own defense after only about five hours of deliberation. The jury found Trevor Summers guilty on all counts. In October 22, Trevor Summers was sentenced to life in prison, three life sentences plus 224 years in total. At sentencing, Hillsborough Circuit Judge Christopher Sabella said to Summers, the circumstances. of this case, the testimony and evidence that I've heard clearly make you a monster in every stretch of the imagination. The judge also spoke directly to Arden, another victim of Trevor's. To Arden,

you should not feel guilty for anything that you did in this case. I assure you of that. And I always find it very interesting what judges say to some of these people as they're handing down the sentence. And here, you know, he calls this guy a monster in every stretch of the imagination. And it's so accurate. Trevor Summers is a monster for what he did to his wife, Elisa, for what he put his kids through. You know, to me for even deciding to represent himself just so he could cause people more pain, just just a monster. To me, what he did to Elisa in his family was just hard.

horrible. And so the sentence that he received, in my opinion, was one that he deserved. But it also made me think, how many cases have we covered of guys that were habitual offenders that did these same things to strangers? And they were in and out of prison, but free after a couple years. And they would go on to do the same thing. Think back to some of those cases we've talked about to contrast against this one. It's just interesting to compare this case to some other cases to where someone that should have gotten a harsh sentence that they deserved didn't and they were free to do this to other people. But at least in this case, we know Trevor's not going to do that. He's going to be blind bars. Yeah, I think part of it is time. You know, in 2022, you're not going to get a slap on the wrist for this type of offense.

But as you said, we've covered cases that go back 20, 30, 40 years of people who did, you know, just as horrible of things who were out in a year or two. And, you know, those always get to me. Fresh air, longer days, a chance to reset. This season let therapy be part of your spring cleaning. Clearing mental clutter, shaking off stuckness and building something better. Grow therapy helps you get there. Whether it's your first time in therapy or your 15th. makes it easier to find a therapist who fits you, not the other way around. They connect you with

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slash book now growtherapy dot com slash book now availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan never understand it there's no doubt in my mind that crimes of this nature sexual assaults And, you know, those types of crimes, crimes against women, were not taken seriously at points in time in the past. They just weren't. It's frustrating. Yeah, and I think it goes to show that the legal system is far from perfect, but it has evolved to at least punish people in ways that are more appropriate. What's so tragic in this case is that Trevor used Arden to help him carry out his attack on Alisa. and even before that he had manipulated his daughter to try and turn her against Elisa.

At Elisa's home, a window screen had been found on the ground outside. It was the window that Trevor used to enter the home. Arden had left that window unlocked and opened at her father's request. Arden and her father had a very close relationship. According to CBS News, Arden described herself as the definition of a daddy's girl. She said, we would go out on little dates together, go out for dinners, just him and I, or grocery shopping. She trusted her father when he told her that he wanted to sneak into her mother's house to talk and fix her relationship. Arden explained, I was really hoping that, you know, my family would be back together and healthy and fixed.

At around 1 a.m., that fateful night in March 2017, Arden texted her father that Elisa was asleep and he could come in unnoticed. When he climbed through the window, she went outside to join her brother Landon, who was waiting outside in the minivan. they were both unhappy that Elisa had begun to see someone else besides their father. They didn't want Elisa to date Jeff Mathewson. They wanted things to go back the way they had been. She expected that after her parents talked, they would come outside with Bryn and Grady, and they would all go home to Trevor's house as a family and things would go back to normal. Instead, Arden drove home nervous and alone at the age of 14.

She recalled to CBS News. This was very scary to have three kids in a car with me at the age of 14 driving 30 minutes. Trevor had been planning the attack on Elisa for quite some time, and he knew he could use his children to help get what he wanted. Arden told CBS News, this was a man I trusted. This is a man who I thought could do no wrong. And just to know that he used me to do what he wanted to do, that hurts me more than anything. When the children were with Trevor, he blamed Elisa for the way things were. He told the kids that she was a liar and was trying to get him thrown in prison, and that it was her fault that the marriage was broken because she had been cheating on him.

Arden said he acted so heartbroken. I felt like my mom was awful. As a young teen, having her family broken up isn't fun, and Trevor was telling the kids that their mother had basically chosen to throw the family away, choosing a new boyfriend over them being together over the family. Trevor clearly knew how to manipulate his daughter. Trevor convinced Arden to use her key to Elisa's home to vandalize it, full of anger, Ardened it.

She poured Kool-Aid on Elisa's bed, which was Trevor's idea, and wrote things like Trader. And thanks for being an ass on the walls and chalk, which she thought of herself. Trevor then convinced Arden to be the key part of his plan. She called her mom at her father's request and told her she wanted to come over, saying, Mom, we really miss you. I've been thinking of you. I want to come over and just you and I talk things through. Hang out like old times. Trevor even convinced Arden to change his name in her phone to Taylor so that Elisa wouldn't know they were talking to each other. Trevor asked Arden whether Elisa locked her phone and whether it was with a password, pin, or fingerprint. The night of his attack, he and Arden texted back and forth. He asked her to look through Elisa's purse for birth control pills.

but she only found Elka Sulture. He wanted Arden to look for receipt for birth control or any other prescriptions, but there were none lying around and none in Elisa's purse. Wanting to make sure the teenager could stay up and wait for her mother to fall asleep, he advised Arden to make coffee. Arden did know that she was setting her dad's plan into motion, but she didn't know exactly what that plan was. Trevor had been careful to hide his violent streak from the children,

choosing to use verbal threats against Elisa that didn't leave marks, and holding her against her will when the kids were elsewhere. Arden would go on to tell CBS News, I've had so many issues with trusting people after what happened, and just the guilt that I lived with for so long before I finally told myself that this isn't my fault. But most of my teenage years I spent just absolutely traumatized because of him. It was hard for Arden to come to grips.

With her role in this case, she wrote in her victim impact statement. For five and a half years, I have struggled with what happened to my family. especially for the part I took in it, those around Arden understood that she, just a child, had been manipulated by someone she trusted and looked up to, but it didn't make it any easier for her to live with. But Arden added, while no one else blamed me for what happened, I did.

And I think back more to what the judge said to her at sentencing, that it was not her fault. And I think as we've given more details, you can absolutely see. why the judge said that. First of all, she was only 14 years old. And it was clear that Trevor manipulated her, didn't tell her his entire plan. And I've said this, I know many, many times, but in situations where people should know that they weren't to blame, it doesn't mean that they're not going to feel guilt. You can have a hundred people tell you that you shouldn't put this on yourself.

It's still going to happen. Yeah, and I think just as Elisa is going to have that lifelong trauma we talked about, she's going to have that memory. I think the scene is true for Arden in this case, although it wasn't her fault, and she understands that, you know, she may have some guilt still about what happened, even though it wasn't something she could control. She was just a kid. Well, and she's talked about the trust issues. Yeah, you're going to have trust issues down the road when one of the individuals who you should be able to trust most in the world manipulate you and you let you down so deeply and harms you. How are you going to trust a stranger after your own father does all of this to you? As far as the sentence her ex-husband Trevor Summers received,

Elisa is satisfied with the verdict and the sentence and is now focusing on living her life without Trevor. She told CBS News, I've been dealing with him since I was 19 years old. That man means nothing to me. And I'm moving forward with my life. As for Trevor Summers, despite sexually assaulting multiple times and trying to kill someone he supposedly loved, that was surprisingly not what he was truly sorry about. He told the judge, my biggest remorse and regret is them feeling the way they do about me, talking about his five children who felt betrayed and horrified.

But how much did Trevor Summers really care about his kids? After all, he was fine with leaving his children parentless, if we believe the note he wrote showed his true intentions, of him and Elisa both winding up dead. At the very least, he was fine with taking away the mother of his five children. He was also fine leaving a three-year-old alone and letting a 14-year-old not only drive herself, but her three younger siblings for 30 minutes in the dark.

Elisa and her children are still working toward healing in the wake of those horrific events. Elisa told CBS News, we've already come so far. With as bad as the situation got, it could have had a different outcome where the children were all orphans. All things considered,

it turned out all right, because as Elisa told CBS News, this is a happy ending. This is a happy story. And when I first read that, I thought, okay, that's a little bit of a strange statement. But I guess if, you know, you look at it from her perspective, it is a happy ending

because it could have been so much worse. I mean, just look at some of the stories we've profiled that involved, you know, these type of control issues and domestic abuse that end up in murder. That's exactly what could have happened in this case. And I think that's the way she's looking at it. Yeah, I think it's so many points in the same. attack on her during that 55 hours, there were several different times where Trevor did harm her and it could have been, it could have proved fatal. So she did live through this. She survived it.

So I can understand why she is considering a happy ending, a happy story because she gets to go on and live the rest of her life and with her kids. And I think that's important to her. And without him. You know, I think that's a big part of it. One of the, one of the the things that I want to go back to, you know, that came out through the course of the story was just how much thought in planning that Trevor Summers, you know, put into this to enlist the help of, you know, one of his children, to have her make the call to say, you know, mom, I miss you, I want to hang out for the sole purpose of being there that night to open a window so that Trevor could get in. I mean, how long, morph did this guy sit around thinking about what he was going to do and how he was going to do it?

It's a very scary thought to me that people, you know, sit around thinking about not only wanting to harm someone, but then, okay, how am I going to carry it out? Who am I going to enlist to help me? That's all scary stuff, man. Yeah, and one thing that really jumps out to me in this case is this gradual breakdown of Trevor. to where he gets to this point. You know, I'm not an expert on this topic, obviously, but I wonder, was this something that was always within him? Was it something that was there since childhood?

Or did it just suddenly come out of nowhere? Because at the beginning of the relationship, by all accounts, they were happy. There was none of this stuff going on. But then, as we mentioned, each time they moved, for some reason, these things started popping up and got more and more noticeable for Lisa until she finally said, this is too much.

So I wonder where that came from it, or if it was always there or if it developed for some reason. Yeah, I don't know. I don't think he's ever talked about it exactly, you know, what happened over the years that made him feel as though he needed to be more control. Was it that he just felt that the marriage was spiraling and that he was going to

lose her? so he needed to, you know, tighten the control. I don't know. But I struggle to figure out, you know, why some people think the way they do. And not just killers, right? Why people feel the need to control other people and separate them from their families and all of that.

If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence, you can contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7.9,000. 7233 or go to the hotline.org. I think we mentioned it earlier, Morp, but when someone who is in an abusive relationship tries to leave it, that's often the most dangerous time. If you're in Elisa's situation or one like hers, you know, make that call. You don't have to do it alone. You can get support and get help making a plan and staying safe as you find a way to leave. You know, one of the things that I go back to over the six, seven years that we've been podcasting doing true crime, one of the things that that I learned, that I wasn't real educated

about was the question of why don't people in abusive relationships just leave? Why don't they just leave? It seems like such a, such an easy thing. But obviously, we know and I've been educated on, it's not easy at all. It's frightening. And the system doesn't always work for you, the way that you would like for it to, I was very naive before I started this true crime podcasting about people in abusive relationships. And I'll admit that. I've learned so much since I've been doing these podcasts.

Now, we talked about the system in this case, Elisa tried to bring it to authority's attention that she was worried that she wanted protection. and because it was sort of a he said, she said situation, she didn't get that help she was looking for. And I think they really dropped the ball in this case and didn't give her the help she wanted that might have prevented this whole situation from happening. Well, I think it's one of the problems with the justice system, right, with the courts.

When you get into that, one person says this and the other person says something different, the complete opposite. And there's really no evidence either way. What is the court able to do? And it sounds like that's what happened here. They weren't really able to do anything. Now, was that a case of they should have done and didn't do or they just couldn't?

That part I don't know because I don't know the facts because I don't know every single detail of, you know, what she was doing and what the court said. But I know there are scenarios like that where, yes, something bad is happening to you, but you can't prove it or you don't have enough evidence for the court. court to act on. But what do you do in that situation? Well, that makes me wonder what would have been sufficient enough for them, a black eye, a broken arm, you know, what would it have taken for them to say, okay, we believe you and we're going to give you that protection. You know, it's sort of putting the cart before the horse. You want her to get attacked before you can do something

about it. I fail to understand why the system sometimes fails people when they're asking. for help, they're worried. It's almost as if they want them to be attacked before they can give them any kind of protection. And often then, by that time, it's too late because so many times, the first attack is the last attack and someone went up dead. But that's it for our episode on Trevor Summers. And you know, really a monster, as the judge said. I think that was a very apt description. I also think your pathetic was a very apt description more. If you look, love the show, but haven't done so yet. Go out, give us a five-star rating. You can leave a review. Tell your friends. Word of mouth about the podcast really helps us out.

If you want to find us on social media, we're on Twitter with the handle at Criminology Pod. You can also find us on Facebook by going to facebook.com slash criminology podcast. Or you can join our Facebook discussion group, criminology podcast discussion and fans. So just a reminder that we'll be off for the holiday weekend. So no, episode next week, but we'll return the following weekend with an all new episode of criminology. Yeah, hopefully everyone has a safe and happy holiday and we'll see you back here soon. So for Mike and Morph. We'll talk to you in two weeks.

Take care, everyone.