Rotten Mango - #183: The Dark Web Human Auction + Kidnapping (Case of Chloe Ayling)

Episode Date: July 24, 2022

Chloe was used to her pictures being posted on the internet. She was a model, after all. She posted on social media and updated her followers on her personal life. But she had never been posted on this type of website before in her life. It’s the type of website that you and I probably couldn’t access. You can’t just Google it. No. It exists only in the deep layers of the dark web. The post read: “Chloe. Born in the UK. Abducted in Italy. 19 years old. Measurements: 35DD. Starting bid: $300k. Auction open: July 16, 2017.” Her auction would be seen all over the world. Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rambles. Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the office parking lot, or being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift, whether you're running on your Peloton tread at your mom's house while she watches the baby, or counting your breaths on the subway. Peloton is for all of us, wherever we are, whenever we need it, download the free Peloton app today. Peloton app available through free tier, or pay to description starting at $12.99 per month. Welcome to this week's mini-saud of Rotten Mango. I'm your host Stephanie Sue. And Chloe

was used to her pictures being posted on the internet. She's a model, okay? She does social media. She posts her newest campaigns, her pictures, things about her personal life are all on social media. But she had never, ever been posted on this type of website. It's one of those sites that you and I probably couldn't access. You can't just Google it or type it into Safari. No, it exists in the deep layers of the internet, the dark web.

The post said, Chloe, born in the UK, abducted in Italy, held in Germany, 19 years old, Caucasian, measurements, 34 W, 25, 35, beginner model, starting bid, 300,000 euros. Auction will open July 16th, 2017. Is this real? There was one picture that showed Chloe in the listing, and the kidnapper was excited. He told her that he usually kidnapped three to four girls a week and would post them on the dark web for sale.

And she had to ask, what happens after the sale? Well, I guess it's up to the new owner. You know, Chloe will fill you in a little. Most girls, you have the same life after being sold. You're gonna be used as sex slaves for the new owners. Then you're gonna get a little boring. Then the new owner is gonna pass you around to different people, sometimes family members,

whoever they owe a favor to. And when they're really bored of you, they'll kill you. But that's okay, because the whole process only takes about three months. Whoever they owe a favor to and when they're really bored of you, they'll kill you. But that's okay because the whole process only takes about three months. Besides, don't fret, the auction is going to go smoothly. We already have a ton of clients that are interested. As always, full show notes are available at rotinmangopodcast.com and this is a crazy, this is a doozy of a case, so we're just going to jump into it.

Have you heard of the Black Death Group? Is this some dark web stuff? Yeah, it's as scary as it sounds. The Black Death Group, I mean, when the news first broke about this shadowy organization, people were terrified. It's said that the group formed on the dark web. It's been operating in Europe since 2015, and allegedly they offer services such as assassinations, bombings,

arms dealings. They can even hack into other people's computers remotely and plant child abuse images and then alert the authorities. Oh, that's horrifying. That is horrifying. Yeah, how do you even explain that to anyone? Everything is going to sound like a lie and an excuse. That's so scary now. Yeah. And then the cop obviously, they're going to be out. Yeah, how do you even explain that to anyone? Everything is gonna sound like a lie and an excuse.

It's so scary now. Yeah, and then the cop obviously, they're gonna be out. Well, I'm sorry. Yeah. Come on, with their investigations skills. Oh God, yeah, there's not gonna be, this is not those movies where they have those crazy forensics teams. They're just gonna be like, it's on your computer.

This is your computer, isn't it? You're going to jail. I can't even imagine. That starts it. Guess how much that costs? like, it's on your computer. This is your computer, isn't it? You're going to jail. I can't even imagine. That starts at, guess how much that costs? To plan the videos? Man, at least six figures, right? 100K?

$4,000 to $6,000. No. Which is honestly not a lot of money to send someone to prison for a very long time, for something that they didn't even do. And that is terrifying. And in jail, you're the bottom of the barrel. Oh yeah, that's it.

You're like the bottom of the fish tank. So their bread and butter, though, apparently, is not planting child abuse images, but it's been auctioning women on the dark web for large amounts of money. They said, all of our girls are set for auctions only and are being held in Europe. If you wish, we can kidnap a specific target for your needs. The group also promises that these girls can be transported globally through their contractors.

So if you're a buyer that doesn't live in Europe, have no fear, we're just going to fetex this human to you. Don't worry, she's going to get there. The Black Death group claim to be the best human traffickers on the dark web. They say that they go over and beyond for their clients. That's why they're so beloved. They've got contracted doctors who will examine the merchandise. That's what they call AK human beings. They make sure that the merchandise has no STDs, no other health issues.

They will even confirm if the merchandise is a virgin, in which case, yes, they will be auctioned at much higher prices. In 2015, the Black Death Group website had an ad for an auction of a woman named Nicole. Nicole was only wearing her underwear. She had her arms tied up behind her back. And I mean, the whole picture looks terrifying. It looks like it was taken in some sort of taken warehouse dungeon. It was, it's scary, especially when you see that there is the shadow of men looming in

the background. Nicole was one of those girls that were up for auction. Later, the site posted another ad for a 15 year old girl named Laura, who was being sold for nearly $700,000. Another 17 year old girl named Gemma, who was on sale for $110,000. So people are starting to panic at this point. I mean, even on Reddit, it started to go viral. People had seen it, taken screenshots, posted it on Reddit. Authorities were alerted, but they were unable to track either of the women,

where they were, who they were, and when and if any human trafficking action took place. So that's terrifying. They had a website on the dark web, the Black Death Group, and it would get erased and it would move non-stop. They never had the same website, but any time that you go to a former website, the homepage is creepy. It's a group of 11 people wearing these black cloaks, and you know those plague doctor masks

that look like scarecrow masks. Yeah, they're just standing there. It's very much giving dark web meets cult. So after these auctions, the black death group was preparing for another big one, the auction of Chloe Ailey. The picture that they provided for her sale was a picture of her wearing a Chanel bodysuit,

laying on the ground, dragged up like out of her mind. Her eyes were open, but they were clearly glazed over. Her arms were thrown up in an awkward position near her head. It looked as if someone had dragged her, dragged her body like a ragdoll, and then just kind of stopped dragging her and took a picture.

Over her waist was the signature black death group photo. She was up for sale for $300,000. Well, you're rose. Listen, the black death group sounds like the last people you want to get involved with. But oddly enough, in today's case, there's another secret of organization, a secret society if you will that comes to play, or at least in the online discourse of this case. That organization is the wonderful, ever-present, all-knowing, illuminati. Yeah, I know. It gets weird. Just hold on to your tits, because it gets really funky fresh.

Listen, the illuminati was 100% real. And I'm not even a conspiracy theorist. I'm being for real right now, it was 100% real. Whether or not you believe in the Illuminati being real now, and your favorite celebrity selling their souls to the devil and doing children's sacrifices and drinking blood, I don't know, you know, that's on you. But in the historical sense, the term Illuminati refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, or the Order of the Illuminati. It was a super secret society that operated from 1776 to 1785, founded by Adam Weishaupt. Now this guy is a German law professor and his

whole shtick, his whole plan. He's like, I'm going to get some super elite guys together. Like the richest friends that I know, and we're just going to embody the enlightenment ideals. The whole idea of the order of the Illuminati is going to have a group of powerful men that have the same beliefs, and using our collective influence, power, and money we're going to puppet master all the political decisions. We're going to puppet master and pretty much control the fate of this country. It's honestly pretty ambitious of a goal, if you ask me.

But it sounds kind of real. Am I a conspiracy there itself? So the group originally started with a handful of, I don't know, maybe eight or nine people. They all had like really weird code names that were just adding to the whole mysteriousness of everything. And at its largest, there were more than 2,500 members.

Or at least that's what's been recorded. Because I'm officially wearing a tinfoil hat now. It's fun. So you're like, okay, what the fuck did they even believe in? What was this some sort of cold? What did they do? It kind of, I mean, they wanted world domination without dominating people.

So they didn't want to sit there and be the face of the government and yell at people in control every person's lives and micromanage, but they wanted the world to look a certain way. And a lot of it wasn't bad. They wanted to get rid of religious influence over public life. They wanted to get rid of superstitions, injustice. I mean, it was a pretty woke group of people considering the times, but not that woke, because they didn't want any Jewish people, pagans, women, or monks, or other secret society members to join. So they were very exclusive.

They were kind of racist and anti-Semitic and misogynist. But they would essentially dominate the world to a degree so that they could implement these beliefs, and it's hard to say if they accomplished their goals in any capacity. I mean, some argue that they were mildly successful. Others argue that they were immensely successful to the point where from 1776 to now, they're still dominating the world and they're only getting stronger. Also, this is not just a pop culture reference. I feel like, I don't know why.

Can I am I the only person that thought this? I thought the Illuminati was something that people started recently talking about and accusing celebrities of being a part of, right? George Washington wrote a letter addressing the Illuminati. He believed that the Illuminati was a threat to the US, but he avoided the threat. But his mention of the order of the Illuminati is kind of wild.

And then later, Thomas Jefferson was accused of being a member of the threat, but his mention of the order of the Illuminati is kind of wild. And then later, Thomas Jefferson was accused of being a member of the group, which there was no proof, but it's just so interesting that it's not just Beyonce being accused of being in the Illuminati. Like it dates back. Also interesting fact, the original Illuminati members did not trust anyone that was older than 30 years old. So if you're 30, you're 31, and you want to sell your soul to the devil for some fame, I don't think it's going to work.

Okay, their belief was that someone older than 30 was going to be too traditional and too set in their ways, set in their belief systems, so they get them when they're young. And maybe that's why a lot of people think child actors are part of the Illuminati. Now, the secret group encouraged all the members to use aliases in the group.

Their symbol was the owl of Minerva, which is an owl from Greek mythology, usually seen near the goddess of Wisdom, Athena. It's a symbol of knowledge and wisdom, and yeah, it does look a little bit spooky for some reason. So let's say you get invited. There's three levels, and you can rise in the ranks. It's like you get invited. There's three levels and you can rise in the ranks. It's like a corporate job You've got novice

Minerval and illuminated Minerval and I think a lot of the cult talks come from the fact that there's complicated ceremonies Every time you rank up you get to learn his secret signs a password a password to what I don't know like the shared Netflix account The nuclear codes like to what we don't know, like the shared Netflix account, the nuclear codes, like to what? We don't know. It's all very secretive. Even within the group, there's espionage going on. There's spying going on. Adam would straight up have his members spy on each other and report back to him. Who's Adam? The founder. Adam was heavily invested in the process of recruiting new members. His dream was to get a bunch of men that happened to be Christians of good character. They were rich,

da style, willing to learn, and of course aged between 18 to 30 so that they could be moldable. And it worked for a while, but then the internal struggles caused the decline of the Illuminati. It's that that everybody was fighting everyone. The secret, orders existence became common knowledge because people were just backstabbing each other. And then all of the names of popular members were released. So of course, the public is outraged. The rumors started spreading like this group of powerful people are trying to control us.

And it just got bigger and bigger. And it really felt like the Illuminati was behind everything. The public felt duped. The Illuminati was blamed for several anti-religious publications, which was just like a big thing back in the day. And the Bavarian leader banned all secret societies from his government, including the Illuminati. So Adam, he ends up fleeing the country,

and essentially, that was the death of the Illuminati. Or so they say, but we don't know. Okay, sorry, is that too much conspiracy? Let's just be hypothetical. Let's just entertain ourselves, right? If the Illuminati still does exist, and they still control the world, many believe that celebrities are the biggest pawns to control the media. You think something shady is going on that nobody wants us to know about?

A celebrity scandal comes out of nowhere. This is why no matter how many times a celebrity is canceled, they'll never really disappear. They'll always have fame and money because they've sold their sold to the devil. In order to gain favor and ranks with the Illuminati, I mean, duh, that's the belief. Listen, the list of celebrities that have been accused of selling their souls for fame and money, it's a list of just random people. There's Beyonce, Rihanna, and then Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, pretty much anyone that's been around for a while that has taken a picture with their hands in a triangle or covering one eye or used the word devil or selling the soul in any lyrical form, metaphorical form

in an interview has been accused of selling their soul. And I'm not saying that they did. I'm saying they've been accused of it. Listen, I have never really given it much thought, but a man named Jack Hallow, not to be confused with Jack Harlow, has given it a lot of thought. And he posted on an internet forum a few years ago and this is what he had to say about it. This is like inside the mind of an illuminati conspiracy theorist, the deep dive. He said,

there's a lot of artists who have sold their soul for fame and fortune. Amongst everyone who is a household name today is pretty much involved in the practice. It's not even hidden in their works anymore, but it's displayed openly for everyone to participate in these occult rituals alongside them. Kanye West said in a song, I sold my soul to the devil, I know it's a crappy deal, at least it came with a few toys like a happy meal. Illuminati M&M said, I sold my soul to the devil, I'll never get it back. I just want to leave this game with my level head intact.

Illuminati. Katy Perry once said, I wanted to be like the Amy Grant of music, and it didn't work out, so I sold my soul to the devil. Illuminati. You may ask the question, why would people want to sell their souls to the devil? I mean, that sounds intense. Like, how do you even sell your soul? Is it a physical thing? Yeah. question. Why would people want to sell their souls to the devil? I mean, that sounds intense. Like, how do you even sell your soul? Is it a physical thing? Yeah. Do I sign a contract?

Is it a blood oath? Do I take my blood and then get my fingerprint in there and then sign a piece of paper? Who files the paper? Is there an HR for Satan? Like, I don't even know how it works. Well, he says, Jack Hallow says it's because no living mortal is worthy to be worships and idolize the way that these people are idolized, meaning that the only beings who are supposed to wield that kind of power are God and Satan. So if you sell your soul to Satan,

you will get his umbrella of worship. You will be taken under his wing. You will be kind of part of him. And why does Satan want souls? It's said if you think about it in a religious context, God and Satan to Jack Hallow, at least they're in a war. And the person that wins is the one with the most souls. Not all entertainers are Satan worshipers though, says Jack Hallow. Summer good people, it's when these celebrities reach a level of fame they are approached by high ranking officials in the industry and given an ultimatum.

Either sign over your mind body and soul and be used however the master sees fit and gain everything that you've ever wanted in life. Or stay at the level that you're at and you're going to be black bald. You won't even last another year in the industry. So then the artist will perform despicable and humiliating bodily acts. They will consent to blood sacrifices, partaking in child abuse, singing lyrics that they would never write or perform.

They must always advertise merchandise or propaganda that they would never write or perform. They must always advertise merchandise or propaganda that they normally wouldn't. So I guess instead of a sell-out, it's like a Satan sell-out, it's the ultimate sell-out. Anyway, why are the artists forced to perform horrible acts of depravity? Well, because if they ever decide to speak out against their masters and expose the truth, they themselves will be destroyed in the process. Satan is essentially getting blackmail material. This Jack guy goes on to say, this is why we hear about entertainers who started out innocent.

They started out lighthearted and later became so addicted to substances or even committed suicide at a young age. Which like side note, I really don't like that. So many artists have committed suicide because they had mental health struggles that were only exacerbated by the public. I mean, I feel like that statement alone takes away any of the public's responsibility. Like just look at the way Britney Spears used to be treated in the news. How the public villainized her, okay?

It's such a big trauma, right? Anyway, back to Jack's conspiracy. He said, and this is just horrible to say. Jack said, as far as blood sacrifices go. Have you ever wondered why almost all these high profile household name celebrities have a past of personal tragedy or loss? Wow, come on.

Yeah, it's really sick. He said, many of them losing immediate family members and close personal friends to accidents or tragedies. I mean, think about it. How often do you have people who have experienced such loss in your real day-to-day life? And often these celebrities will become more famous after the tragedy? Think about it.

It's because these friends and family were offered as sacrifices to Satan in order for the stars to sell their soul. And for them to reach a high level of power and start them. Think about it. Really. Think about it. Yeah. No, thank you, Jack. That's like really fucked up.

And then he goes on to say that everyone that goes to the specific artist's concerts are 16 and pregnant. Many of them have AIDS and other STDs. Oh my god, okay, all right, okay. Yeah, Jack is starting to feel like someone that has no idea what goes on in the world. He also said that award shows are rituals behind the scenes. And that's why award shows have a list of the following. And I quote, some songstress,

scantily clad and read singing some song about sex, scarlet horror of Babylon symbology. Sorry, y'all, we canily clad and read, singing some song about sex, scarlet horror of Babylon's symbology. Sorry, y'alls, we can't wear red and sing anymore. Otherwise we're nasty little whores. Then you have animal worship, entertainers dancing around like an animal, or dressed up as an animal, or generally incorporating some sort of animalistic trope into their acts.

Wait till this guy finds out about furries. Okay, his mind will implode. He went on to say, there's pyramids everywhere. Triangles, eyeballs, the seeing eyes, the black and white checker tiles, or suits to individuals passing around through dual pillars. It's everywhere, every single bit of it.

Rampant, sexist, promiscuous, and overall deplorable, satanic behavior. There's axe with children. My final point, Hollywood itself, the name Hollywood, in and of itself, suggests magical influence. Seeing us to how the strings of wood from the Hollywood tree are among the main ingredients needed

in crafting magic wands. It's like pulling everything you can find. It's like there's you can find. Yeah. It's like there's the name, there's the worship, there's the dance. Oh my God, perfect. Perfect. And like, why are they dancing like that?

Why are they rubbing up on each other? They're like, how do you guys not see it? Satan. Only Satan likes big butts, okay. And he cannot laugh. Another person wrote on the same thread. I had a lot of respect for Beyoncé until I recently saw a video of hers on YouTube. She confessed that she sold her soul.

So I backtracked her career and for years she hinted that she was possessed by a spirit named Sasha Thears. And I am completely disgusted with her and her husband. They have their young children and are influencing them into devil worship. If they want to spend an eternity and helping tortured, that's up to them. But don't drag your kids down with you. What about K-pop? Are they also doing deals? Probably selling their soul. But they're selling to the... To YG and the 7 entertainment. Yeah.

And then YG is selling it. Not to offend anyone. Again, I don't think Beyonce or any of these people have sold their souls. I also don't know where nuance left the chat. Like selling your soul can be used as a really big metaphor. It's actually a pretty common metaphor. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

Like you've lost yourself in this industry, which I don't know. I think I'm gonna retire my tinfoil hat now because it's just a lot. A lot of speculation also seems to be targeted at celebrities where honestly there's no evidence. There's no evidence at all. And how does this all relate to today's case? Well the Illuminati represents people that are willing to do the absolute most for fame and money, right?

It's a symbol of how far celebrities are willing to go for that. And many believe that this is the craziest representation of someone's yearning for influence, fame, power, money, a lifestyle. But it could also be a very true story. So this whole case itself has conspiracy surrounding it. And a lot of people argue that Chloe did something very dark for fame. And she sold her soul essentially. And like all of those illuminati celebrities, people are arguing that she wanted fame and

money more than anything in this world, more than her own soul. But that's what people are arguing. Please stay till the end, because I'm going to give you my own personal thoughts on this. The movie by any means. It got a solid 29% on Google ratings, which is like a bismol rating, okay? And you can watch it for free on a ton of different platforms. But it's essentially about a sea-less celebrity

that fakes her own kidnappings so that she can get more famous so that she can get clout and a ton of people consider this case a real life case of by any means. But is that the truth? Is it, you know, someone that wants to join the Illuminati, or is it the Black Death group that's part of the Dark Web? To a lot of people Chloe seemed to be living too happy, too comfortable.

She was a little bit too beautiful for a woman who had just been kidnapped. Besides, it's like she ripped the story straight from the script of the movie. It sounds like a sensational headline. Her story was stranger than fiction, but really, it sounded like a movie that everybody had already seen at this point.

So what happened? Chloe, from the outside, like I said, she seemed to be living the life. She had a fun life. She had a fun life. She had the pretty life. Literally, she was a beautiful woman, long blonde hair, supermodel features. Which by the way, Chloe was the definition of conventional beauty. She has this like soft feminine face, these really big eyes and full lips, beautiful blonde

hair. Listen, she's really pretty. For some reason, it's hard to be descriptive without sounding like I'm a stalker. Okay, but she's really pretty. So naturally, Chloe's like, let me get into modeling. But being five three, she can't really get into high fashion modeling.

We have to be at least five nine, right? So Chloe gets into commercial modeling and it sounds glamorous. It was sometimes. But most of her day today, she was just a young mom. She's living in the expensive city of London trying to support her son. She had given birth when she was 17 years old and now just a year later, she's turned 18. She needs to put food on the table. Everyone is telling her, nonstop, try modeling. You've got the features for it. You're naturally gorgeous.

She signs with her first modeling agency called Bay Models. And like any agency, they kind of push her towards a niche, like a branding, if you will. And they went with sexy. So they started booking Chloe for photo shoots in very revealing clothes. Typically, she's posing near a motorcycle or at some sort of sports event. And it wasn't instantly successful until she was on YouTube. Why would you break into these apartments?

For money, for drugs, whatever was in them? Why aren't you afraid of getting caught at doing this? No, who's gonna catch us? What a police. It was the height of the crack era and instead of locking up drug dealers, some New York City cops had become them. I would suit up in my uniform and we're going to want some drug dealers, and I know how

to do it really well. This is the inside story of the biggest police corruption scandal in NYPD history and the investigation that uncovered it all. Did you consider yourself a rat? 100% I saved my soul just like everybody else does. Listen to and follow the set, an Odyssey Originals documentary podcast series available now in the Odyssey app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your shows. I'm not a big guy man but I love being a dirty mother f***er. podcasts or wherever you get your shows. In 2016, Chloe was featured on a very famous YouTuber's channel in the UK and the video

was called Strip Football. So because it's UK, it's soccer for us Americans, Strip Soccer. This YouTube cameo kickstarted her entire career. Chloe and another girl kicked around a ball, and if they lost, they would strip. So Chloe would remove a piece of clothing. This was in 2016 when YouTube was not as crazy censored, but it was still pretty tame.

The most popular part of the video was when Chloe took off her shirt, and she was, you guessed it, wearing like a lingerie body suit. I wouldn't even call it linger. It's very tame. It wasn't revealing at all. I wouldn't say it's the most family friendly, but I've seen much brisky or YouTube videos that were geared towards children.

It's overall very non-risky. But regardless, people love the video. It had close to 17 million views. And now, more people were interested in Chloe's modeling career than ever. So she's trying to be smart with it. She's trying to capitalize on it. She signs with a bigger modeling agency that has a very straightforward name. Supermodel Agency. It's a London-based agency founded by a man named Phil Green, which this guy is a freaking character. I don't even know what to say about this guy. This... he boggles my mind the fact that he's a real person.

I mean, just to run you a list of all the things that he's done so far. He started an agency, he was an attorney, he has been accused of being inappropriate with his models, a model alleged that film measured her for her dimensions, while she was naked. Now, the modeling agency is a bit intense, so you do have to get measured measured and you're typically going to be not clothed, you're wearing underwear, and everything should be done in a professional manner. But Phil wanted the models to take off their underwear. Completely naked.

This model felt like she wasn't in the position to say no. And the worst part is after all of that trauma of measuring every little inch of her body, Phil asked to hug her while she was naked. measuring every little inch of her body, Phil asked to hug her while she was naked. Later, he argued us, normal, it's standard procedure. I like to measure all my models personally and I like them to be naked. Why? Because I've been tricked by models in the past who have embellished their measurements.

Other models said that they were very skeptical about his work ethic. So this one model, she joins his agency and she only got hired to model for Phil's own bikini line and nothing else She was never even referred to outside clients. She felt like she was Phil's personal model and the whole thing made her feel so gross and so sleazy and Despite all of these nasty allegations Phil wrote a damn book about his life He called it confessions of a model agent. It's an Autobiography, if you will

Yeah, he says he's revealing all the glamorous parties the fame and fortune of supermodels dating an internationally famous model A Paris liaison with a Hollywood star working with a spice girl the book contains sex drugs and rock and roll That's what he says He wants to be that yeah The book contains sex, drugs, and rock and roll. That's what he says. He wants to be that... Yeah. Woffo washtry so bad. Yeah, that den, bizarre, and or whatever that guy's name is.

So Chloe starts working with the Supermodel Agency, and her career actually does take off. She starts booking with clients like Calvin Klein, and she was constantly being featured in a British tabloid called The Daily Stars. Later, she would go on Big Brother, the British version, and her Instagram had well over 200,000 followers, so she's doing really well. Would I say that she's a household name at this time? Not really, but maybe she's getting there,

or at least to people who are interested in true crime. So in March of 2017, Phil gets word that a photographer wants to work with Chloe. His name is Andre Lazio and he's working on a campaign that needed a female model to wear some sort of like leather clothing. It was going to be for a motorcycle magazine. And he thought Chloe is going to be perfect. He works in Paris, he has a studio in Central Paris. He's going to fly her out to Paris, get her a four star hotel in the middle of downtown

Paris. Do they call it downtown? I don't think they do. To fire out to Paris, get her a four star hotel in the middle of downtown Paris. Did they call it downtown? I don't think they do. She was even allowed to use the hotel spa. She'd be giving spending money on top of the fee that he would be paying her for the actual campaign itself. I mean, this sounded like the dream photo shoot.

This was like her first big girl career, like her first big international gig. Andre told Chloe that the photo shoot would take place in his studio in front of a green screen and the background images would be artificially added later in post by the magazine. So Phil verified that the studio was a very real place. I mean, technically it's his job to not only get the jobs for Chloe, but make sure that these are real jobs, right? So Phil said he did his job. How you ask?

He checked Google Maps to confirm the location of the studio. He asked Andre for other works that he's done and even asked for pictures of his studio. I don't know, it doesn't really feel like a lot of checking. And this isn't like back in the day where I linked in and all these things didn't exist. Yeah, usually they ask for what, like, portfolios and stuff.

Yeah, but I'm sure there has to be some sort of verification by peers. Yeah. Like I would look for features with other artists or other models. Yeah, exactly. I mean, even as for you, let's say you're a model, you would want to know what kind of style,

what kind of model you mean, what kind of. Who they've already worked with. I think also if I know that they've worked with other people, I would feel a bit safer, like other people in the industry. So what did he do? He just asked for the photos. Email me pictures you've already taken

and pictures of your studio. Okay, and did they send it? Yeah, and he didn't like reverse Google image. Oh, you're fake. Yeah, probably. He just was like, oh, okay, thanks for the email. I'm gonna send Chloe, probably because he gets a cut of everything that she makes.

Now, again, Chloe was over the moon. I mean, she trusted Phil. She trusted Supermodel Agency. That's the whole point of signing with an agency. They keep you safe. And she was gonna be flown to Paris, free spa treatments, spending money. Are you kidding?

Like, this is gonna be her first time in Paris. She wanted to make a trip out of it. She requested the earliest flight possible for that day, and the latest one to leave. And when she touched down, she said it was surreal. There was a man at the airport in a suit with a sign that said Chloe that was waiting for her. Like it felt like one of those movies, like she was a superstar or something.

So she hops in the cab and he takes her to the hotel, which is already paid for and it was beautiful. The Eiffel Tower was less than two miles away. This was the Parisian dream. That night Chloe treated herself to a dinner at a nice nearby restaurant, probably sitting there looking at the copyrighted lights of the Eiffel Tower.

I didn't know they were copyrighted. Okay, thinking about, how is this my life? This is fantastic. She heads back to the hotel early because tomorrow's the photo shoot. She wanted to be well rested. She's a professional after all. But she would be doing no such thing as resting. Because that night around 9 p.m., Chloe woke up to sirens blaring outside.

Just before 9 p.m. there had been a shootout in central Paris, less than a mile away from her hotel. It's a really tragic just this whole I think the whole year in Paris was really intense. So a car had pulled up alongside a police bus and opened fire with an automatic weapon. Allegedly the police found a list in that man's possession that contained a bunch of police stations that he was planning on ambushing. An alleged note praising the terrorist group ISIS, and the attack was deemed a terrorist attack. The whole area was evacuated, but the scary thing is it wasn't an isolated incident. Paris was under attack all throughout 2017, with multiple incidents targeting police forces.

It was a really tense time. So Chloe has shaken up and more so when she gets a call the following morning and it's Andre. Listen, the photo shoot is canceled. After the Paris attack, my studio was ransacked. A lot of businesses were ransacked. All my camera's lights, other valuable equipment, they were stolen from the shop. I have to cancel the photo shoot.

I'm sorry, but I'm gonna have a taxi there to take you back to the airport today. Chloe was really disappointed, but she was understanding she got it. She had breakfast, checked out, hopped into the cap, those waiting for her. But when they get to the airport, the driver is like, okay, great, give me my money.

She's like, what? I thought this was prepaid. I don't even have cash on me right now. Oh my God, what do I do? This is so embarrassing. And she's like, can you please give me a minute? I think that there's been a misunderstanding. They should have paid you already.

So she starts scrolling through her phone. She finds Andre's number. Hello? Hi. Oh, okay. Sorry, the cab driver is trying to say something. Can I just give you the phone? Yeah, okay.

So she hears the two of them speaking in French and they hang up. And the cab driver turns around and says, you have to stay in the cab while I wait for him to come and pay for the taxi. I'm not letting you out because then you could just run. Okay? So she's sitting at the airport in the taxi waiting for Andre to show up. And I know what you're thinking.

This is when she gets kidnapped. But no. The guy shows up. He's a lean Caucasian man with short hair and dark sunglasses. He paid the cab driver and personally apologized profusely to Chloe about the canceled shoot and this whole cab-bordial. Chloe was kind of impressed. This guy is super gracious.

He's super young. I mean, the guy's like under 30 years old. He's clearly Italian, but he has a studio in Central Paris. You have to be pretty talented and accomplished to has a studio in Central Paris. You have to be pretty talented and accomplished to have a studio in Central Paris. Or maybe he comes from money? Chloe's not gonna judge. She flies back to London, feeling a bit disappointed,

but she did make headlines. Whether it was the tabloids doing what tabloids do or fill the agency that put it in the news, I don't know, it was about how London model Chloe was caught up in Paris during a terrorist shooting. And it included topless pictures of Chloe. There's a sensational headline that had nothing to do with the attack and more to do with the fact that Chloe was topless. So this again does not represent Chloe. It represents the tabloid. Like this is what they decided to put out. They also put a picture of Chloe that was topless because of course they did.

Yeah. Wow. Chloe was overall disappointed and she wondered if she would ever book another gig like this. And just two months later, Phil pulled her aside and was like, hey, Andre wants you back for another shoot. But this time it's in his studio in Italy because that's his home country, right? It's a little bit north of Milan and he's already put down $2,000 up front for the shoot. I'll also hear the photos of his studio in Milan. So Chloe is,

I mean, she's even more excited. She had just turned 20 years old and she's going to be flying all over Europe to two different major cities in a few months. I mean, she's living that jet-setter model lifestyle that everybody thinks a model lives. She was honestly just so happy to explore these new places, so again, she requested the earliest flight, arrived the morning of July 10th, checked into the four-star hotel, complimentary of André, even had a spa tab she could get treatments on, and the day of the photo shoot comes around and she's so nervous. I mean, sure, it's her second time, but the first time she didn't even go to the, sure, it's her second time, but the first time she didn't even go to the photo shoot. It was a lot of pent-up nerves. She tried

to dress as presentable as possible. She wore pink Chanel bodysuit, designer jeans, a pink leather jacket, and some sneakers. She packed her suitcase, checked out, called her mom. Hey mom, I just checked out. I'm going to head to the photo shoot location. I hope you're all right. I'll call you later. I think the ride to the photo shoot place is probably only 20 minutes. And then once I get there, it's going to take me a few hours. And then from there, I'm going to catch the flight back to London and I'll be home at 930. But she never made it home. So Chloe's mom starts getting concerned. I mean, it's after midnight, if the flight was delayed, Chloe would have called her. If something happened on the plane, God forbid, she would have seen it on the news.

So why isn't she home? It just didn't make sense. Chloe's mom reaches out to fill. Hey, Phil. Have you heard anything from Chloe? Did the photoshoot run long? Did she have to catch a new plane? He checked the flight records.

He found out that Chloe never checked in for her flight from Milan to London. But for some reason, Phil is not that worried or concerned. He said that he knew that Chloe had a trip to Ibiza coming up soon. I hope I'm pronouncing that right. The American in me wants to go Ibiza? Okay, sorry. So maybe she changed her plans. Maybe she flew from Milan directly to Ibiza, which honestly, what, that doesn't even

make sense. Chloe's mom isn't buying it. She would need different clothes for Ibiza, which honestly what, the doesn't even make sense, you know, Chloe's mom isn't buying it. She would need different clothes for Ibiza, like, there's no way that Chloe would have done that without at least letting her know. I mean, considering the fact that Chloe called her mom on the way to the photo shoot, she's close with her. She kept her updated. This didn't make sense.

Okay, maybe Chloe lost her phone, but still she should have made it to the airport. So that night, Phil persuaded Chloe's mom, let's not do anything drastic. We don't need to call the police. I'm sure she is fine. She's an adult. It's going to be okay. Chloe's mom agreed, but she was really hesitant. He genuinely didn't seem that concerned, till an email caught his eye the next day.

High-fill green, it read. And Phil went to tap on the email, it opened up, and he starts scanning the screen. His temples start thumping like this is not good. It red, high fill green. I go by the name MD. I'm a high level contract killer working for the Black Death group. Chloe has been taken and is currently under my wing.

As long as I live, nothing will happen to her. I give you my word. Chloe's been taken and is being auctioned as a sex slave on the dark web. She will be auctioned Sunday, five days from today. The only way you can save Chloe is to come up with 300,000 euros, which is about, um, well these days, $300,000. Why is this asking him for money when they're already selling on the dark web $300,000. Why is they asking him for money when they're already selling on the dark dress? Yeah, okay. That's kind of dumb. It gets weird.

So whether MD assumed Phil didn't have the money or assumed Phil wouldn't use his own money, MD gave Phil a list of three sources in which Phil could contact to ask for the money. Two of them worked for the supermodel agency, and there was a third name that Phil did not recognize. So MD went on to claim that he was risking his life to protect Chloe, and even sending this email was dangerous because if the Black Death group found out he would be screwed,

his life was on the line, but he simply couldn't let her go. But if he just let her go, the Black Death group would not only find Chloe, they would kill her, and then they would come find him and kill him too. The rule is that no merchandise ever leaves the Black Death group unpaid. So what does Phil do with an explosive terrifying email like this? I mean, I get it. I probably wouldn't want to sit there and write back my whole life story to this random guy on the black market that's selling people as sex slaves.

But Phil is weird. He just emails back one word. Received. That's it. That's all he says. What? I mean, I guess it's kind of, you should let them know that.

Hey, I'm aware. Just to kind of calm them down at least, no? But I feel like I would be like, oh my god, where is she? No, but what do you mean? At that point, you don't know what's the right thing to say. But you want them at least to know that you are You got the message. Yeah, and you're doing you can't tell them what you're exactly doing

Or yet because you don't know what you're about to do. No, you don't think so. I guess so. I guess I'm an anxious emailer though Yeah, like what are you gonna say at least tell them that you got a message? Yeah, I'd be like oh my god Sorry, thanks so much for reaching out as per your last email. Anyway, he just says received like what? So thankfully Phil did reach out to authorities after he responded. He called the British consulate in Italy and they in turn contacted the Milan police department. The Milan police department immediately go to investigate. Their first stop was of course the address that Phil provided the photography studio of Andres. They bust through the door and I don't know maybe they were expecting something, maybe they were expecting a photo shoot and in the back they would find Chloe all tied up. Maybe they were expecting some sort of dark web organization

meeting, it was like a cult with a ritual, I don't know. But when they burst through the door, the whole place was empty. Well, nearly empty. There was just a lone suitcase left, which is even scarier than just empty. Inside the suitcase was a cell phone, Chloe's, a pair of jeans, some sneakers, a pink leather jacket. Sound familiar? The clothes she was wearing that day? And there was a photo. Someone took the time to leave a photo. It was the black death group photo,

the group of people wearing the black robes and the masks. And so the Milan police are like, I don't think this is a job for us. Okay. We got to call Interpol. Because it says too much going on. But neither of them Interpol, the Milan police department, none of them could track down Chloe. So days pass and everyone's

getting nervous because this email, and I'm not saying that this is more nerve wrecking from other cases where people go missing, but I think the police knowing that in a few days time, Chloe would be up for auction and would essentially be human trafficked. There's such a strict deadline, there's such a terrifying looming deadline. Chloe's family was a nervous wreck, they were waiting for Sunday to pass, none of them were able to come up with a $300,000. I mean, they were far from it, I think they had closer to like $20,000.

Sunday passes, everybody's on pins and needles. And then when the next day, Monday rolls around, the police are kind of at a loss for what to do. I mean, does that mean she was auctioned? If she was auctioned on the dark web, then what are the chances that we can even track who bought her? And if she even still in Italy, it made more sense that the group would have moved her out of Italy, her last known country,

to a new country auction her off. I mean, they said that she was in Germany so that they could transport her to the buyer. Because imagine trying to get Chloe out of Italy when everyone in Italy is looking for her. Overall, the police had no leads. That is, until the door of the British consulate in Milan opened and Chloe walks right in.

She was accompanied by a man and Chloe was no longer in her Chanel bodysuit. Where, when was this? Monday. When was the auction? Sunday. Yeah, she was wearing her auction picture. She was no longer wearing the Chanel bodysuit that she was wearing in her auction picture

in the day that she went missing. So she's in this track suit that was clearly way too big for her. She was wearing running shoes that were clearly way too big for her. And she walked in and literally said, I was kidnapped. I'm Chloe A. Ling. So the embassy, they rush her to an office for an interview and the guy that was with her just casually tries to walk in with her. And the police were like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,

you're not allowed back here, who the hell are you? And Chloe says, oh, I'm so sorry, guys, this is my friend, I called him to pick me up after I was released from the kidnappers. What? Why would you call him and not the police? They weren't buying it, so they asked her, okay, what's the phone number for this guy friend of yours? And we're gonna call him and not the police? They weren't buying it so they ask her okay What's the phone number for this guy friend of yours?

And we're gonna call him and see if his cell phone rings okay, and Chloe's like oh my god She panics she doesn't have his number so then she's like okay fine. You're right. He's not my friend So they take her to the back room and she said I only said that he was my friend because the black graph the black death group Is still watching me it doesn't matter that I've been released. They're still watching me. Who is they? Chloe sat down and she told her story. She said when she checked out of her hotel, got into the taxi, they got to the photography studio, but she was dropped off in front of this building and the whole place just looked so suspicious. It didn't look like a photography studio. Maybe it was just the nerves from what happened in Paris. Chloe didn't

know but it was, it was just weird. A lot of the photographers, they do use empty stores and warehouses because it's a lot of space. You can set up backdrops and lighting but as you got closer to the studio, the red flags were just, they were just jumping out of her. Chloe took out her phone, dug up the number that she used to contact Andre and this time a new man answered. He said his name was Daniel. I don't know, maybe he was some sort of assistant. Daniel started guiding her on where to go for the photo shoot.

He said, oh, come down the street a little to this smaller building. It looked like one of those garages I was converted to a storefront. Anyway, as she gets into the building, Chloe starts feeling panicked. Her heart starts racing. There was just this unsettling feeling about the place. The hallway was empty. There was a door at the end of the hallway that had just been, there was just a piece of tape that said studio.

It just didn't feel right. Usually photo shoots like this at this budget, at this level. There's people in and out, it's buzzing with a team. There's usually super loud music playing to keep the atmosphere up and the creative juices flowing. It was eerily silent. So she's standing in front of that door that's at studio and all of this is running through her mind in the matter of minutes, maybe seconds, and before she can even open that studio door, she feels a hand swinging around her head and cover her mouth. It's like when someone comes up behind you and wraps their armor on your neck to cover your mouth. In that same moment, she said another man just appeared in front of her. She couldn't see his face. He was wearing a black

ski mask and that's when she knew her nightmare was starting. She said he pushed her jacket sleeve up. Jabbed a needle into the skin of her wrist. She was injected with ketamine, a super powerful anesthetic. It's usually used as a horse tranquilizer. It's intense. It's part of the date-repeat drug concoction and Chloe said, immediately, her muscles were getting weak. Everything was going black. When she finally came too, she couldn't feel her arms. She couldn't even move them. She had been handcuffed. Her feet were bound. There was duct tape on her mouth. She was still in her pink bodysuit, but her jeans and her shoes were gone.

At first she was so scared that she could barely breathe. It felt like her heart was going a million miles a minute. She felt like she was suffocating the adrenaline, the panic, the duct tape on her mouth. It was not a good combination. Later she found out that she was zipped inside of a travel bag, not necessarily a suitcase, but rather a large duffel bag. The air was hot, it was stuffy, it was uncomfortable, and it was made worse by the fact that she couldn't even try to grasp her air through her mouth, everything relied on her remaining

comb so she could at least breathe. She said she somehow removed the tape from her mouth, and tried to open up the bag a tiny bit, and at this point, she was so scared to jump out and try to run. Not that she could, because her hands and feet were tight, but she literally needed air. She was suffocating. So she grabs her hands. Slowly starts unzipping the back a tiny bit.

She starts calming down with that little bit of extra air coming in. And that's when all the details start rushing to her head. She was in complete darkness. She felt some sort of turbulence and the noise. Oh, it sounded like she was in a travel bag that had been stuffed into the trunk of a car. And her jeans, her jacket, her shoes, they were all gone and she doesn't remember taking them off, which means someone took it off of her.

And that caused her to panic and this is unsettling. So she started slowly opening the travel bag zipper. She wanted to be quiet. I mean, she probably assumed that there wasn't a kid now for crouching in the trunk with her, waiting for her to open up, but she did manage to unzip the bag completely and listen, this is so stressful.

What do you even do in this moment? Do you try to plan out what to do next? What if the kid now for open the trunk and they see that you've unzipped yourself? Do you take your chances and hope that the road is busy and pass your rights here? Are you screaming? Do you try to kick out the tail light? I mean, most of us would probably go with option two, right? Chloe starts hitting our hands on the trunk roof. She's screaming and she felt the car immediately swerve off the road. A abruptly slop stop and within a few seconds the trunk flooded with

light and Chloe is squinting trying to adjust her eyes and this is the last thing you want to see in this situation. But Chloe opened her eyes to see two men in dark ski- ski- ski-mass looking down at her. Where are we? What's happening? They don't even say anything. One of them finally moves and puts more duct tape on her mouth, pushes her back down and starts sipping up the travel bag again.

And just like that, Chloe felt the car move. I mean, it was terrifying. It's sweaty. It's hot. Chloe didn't even need to take the duct tape off because the sweat was making it slide down her mouth. This time, she didn't try to unzip the bag, whether she couldn't or she didn't try and fear that they would just do the same thing over again.

I'm not sure. But she said the entire trip felt like hours. And it wasn't a dramatic saying like, oh, the whole thing was miserable, so it took so long. No, but it really did take a long time. The ride was long enough that the car stopped multiple times. The trunk would open, and the masked men would give her sips of water and replace the sweat-drenched duct tape

from her mouth. But on one occasion, a man appeared at the trunk, and this man had no mask on. He got into the back of the trunk with her, and started spooning her. What? Just cuddling her. It was this strangest, crepious thing,

and on top of that, he had no mask on. Chloe had seen his face. She felt like she knew what that meant. She felt confident that she wouldn't see the police ever again. She would never be able to report what he looked like because she freaking saw his face. She felt like she knew what that meant. She felt confident that she wouldn't see the police ever again. She would never be able to report what he looked like because she freaking saw his face like, is he planning on killing her? Chloe starts panicking and just rapid fire asking him questions. Where am I? Who are you? Where are you even taking me? Why are you doing this to me? The man

talked her in broken English and he was kind of whispering to her. It wasn't talking, it was whispering. And he says, you've been kidnapped by two Romanian men. They've just passed you and meet my associate who's driving right now. Well, where are we going? I don't know. Chloe starts crying and he's like, shit's okay.

She said it was weird. He was comforting her in this soothing voice and promising to not harm her. He even straightened out her clothes without being creepy about it. Well, it's uncreepy as it gets in this type of situation. It just, it was weird. Are they still in the back?

Yeah, he's in the trunk with her. Just cuddling her. Chloe felt reassured almost because he even agreed to undo her handcuffs for the rest of the ride. But he did put them back on before they exited the trunk. She was locked back into her travel bag, she can't see anything, she feels herself being lifted from the trunk and it just feels like she's been carried up a steep hill or something. She's trying to listen to every single sound, there was just so much rustling in the bag,

she just wished she could see what the hell was going on. And then she hears the sound of a door unlocking. And slowly, Chloe feels herself being placed down. And zip, zip, zip. It was open. So Chloe jumps up, her muscles are sore, she's trying to straighten out, she's looking around, she's inside a cramped cluttered kitchen. I mean, it was small, the whole house was small, there was barely any furniture. There were two men with her. The man from the trunk that was wearing no mask

and another man that was wearing a balaclava. So she's like, can I please use the restroom? And this man led her up the concrete staircase. Followed her into the bathroom. Can I use it without you here? Yes, but you have to keep the door open. Yeah, okay, no problem. And immediately, she was done. They let her to a little bedroom where there was nothing but a bed and a dresser, and she went onto the sleeping bag on the floor and they handcuffed her to this heavy dresser. She's now chained into this room, practically. She's got nowhere to go. The two men leave her alone.

I mean, she could hear them talking, but it was pointless. They were speaking a foreign language that she did not understand. And after some time, the man who kept our company and the trunk returned, and he's talking to her in a soft soothing voice. The end of my job is complete. It's time for me to leave. But there's been a problem. My boss is angry and he's coming to see you personally.

Don't worry. When my boss gets here, he's going to explain everything that's going on. What? Boss. why is he angry? What is this? Who are you guys? What do you mean boss? But before she could even ask those questions, the unmasked men were gone again. So she sits there in this uncomfortable, restricted position on the floor.

And sometime later, Chloe starts hearing screaming noises downstairs. It sounded like a one-sided argument. The men enter the room, releases Chloe from her handcuffs, and he's not wearing a mask. He was this lean Caucasian male that just looks so familiar. Like who the hell is this guy?

Hi, Chloe. I don't know if you remember me, but I briefly met you in Paris. Andre Lazio. Yeah, but, you know, of course, his real name is not Andre Lazio. He even says, I'm not a real photographer. Feel free to call me Empty.

Everyone here and the ones that took you today were all part of an organization called the Black Death Group. It is the biggest mafia style organization in the world. We have 20 different levels of hierarchy. I'm currently on the full 12, not to brag, but I am an assassin. And my preferred method of killing is, well, you take a guess. No, I'll tell you myself. Poisoning. Okay. Well, we run the human trafficking sector for the Black Death group. We probably can have around three to four girls a week from bars, nightclubs, you name it. We drug

them, chain them up in sheds and remote properties and we auction them off on the dark web. And soon you're gonna hit the dark web. First sale. We need some time first to get you prepped. We expect you'll go live in about, there will five days from now, maybe on a Sunday. He's telling her a lot. Yes. Which sounds kind of weird. What happens after I'm sold? Well that's up to the owner's discretion, but typically girls that are sold, they're used to sex lives. Then the owner gets bored, they get passed around with their friends, a lot of the times their family. And then when they're really bored, they get killed, fed to pet tigers, whatever they want to do. The whole process is pretty short. The owners are really fickle, they get bored after about three months. Here do you want to see your listing? Chloe was horrified. She saw a picture of herself that was obviously from that day, where she was at the photo

shoot location. She looked out of it. She looked like a rag doll. She didn't even know that they took this picture. Well Chloe, we do have a few powerful Middle Eastern men that are already showing interest, so that's good. So we're sitting there and telling all of these things. And he says, but there is a bit of a problem.

And I'm telling you this because I think you and I are friends now. Believe it or not, the Black Death Group has rules with their merchandise. They're human traffickers, they're not monsters, okay? Even on their website, they wrote, we do not sell girls that are terminally ill, pregnant, have STDs or are young mothers. Somehow, in Paris, we fail to realize that you were a young mom. You have a two-year-old son.

So when you were in Paris, you to realize that you were a young mom, you have a two year old son. So when you were in Paris, you were supposed to be abducted, regardless. The studio was never ransacked. You were supposed to be kidnapped, but I called the operation off because I did some last minute Instagram scrolling and I saw that you had a son and I realized that you were a young mom. I cannot believe this. Can you imagine hearing this?

Wow. Exactly. So kind. So sweet. So ridiculous. So side note, you would think that an organization capable of mass human trafficking would figure out how to kidnap someone and figure out if they had kids before they planned out a whole kidnapping and put resources into it, but I guess not. So MD claims that he called it off, but there was miscommunication and the lower ranks thought the whole operation was still on. They believe the Paris attack was the reason that the Paris abduction didn't happen. Again, can you imagine an organization capable of mass human trafficking, they don't have

a group chat, or some sort of organized communication? So the lower ranks, they continue to email Phil pretending to be Andre, they get Chloe to Italy, they kidnap her Honestly, it was a big misunderstanding. And that's why the random unmask guy told Chloe that the boss is coming, the boss is pissed. MD was pissed because Chloe's kidnapping was called off, but here we are. Okay? Cute little misunderstanding. Chloe's a mom. Yay. So she can go back home to her son, right? Wrong. The black death Group cannot disappoint their customers. And they had already put up Chloe for sale, the lower ranks

did. They already made the poster, they put it like a, you know, flash email, sale email. People were interested. They can't pull the offer now. So Chloe needs to come up with $300,000, which, listen, side note, this guy is not making sense, because you care about the

customer, so you want to make sure you still auction off what you agreed to. But then you won't sell Chloe to a customer because you care so much as long as she can provide the funds. It's sounding like you care about the money and not the customers. Exactly. Either way, Chloe did not have that kind of money, but she tried to give MD the contact of a couple of people that might, so MD reached out to them, well he reached out to just Phil. Remember the third name that Phil didn't recognize? It was an ex-boyfriend of Chloe's who was a

well-off investment baker. So MD agreed to email Phil and he said if we can't get the funds by Sunday, your auction is going to proceed. And with that he left. And Chloe was alone again. So for the next couple of days, MD would come back throughout the night to make sure she was still tied up and each time you would just sit with her and talk to her. Ramble, really. You would just ramble on and on about the Black Death Group, his role in the organization, how much he was risking to help her, how thankful she should be, and you guessed it, how he was a good guy, a nice guy.

He would even be willing to chip in. If she came up with, you know, maybe 280K, maybe he'd chip in 20. As long as she came up with the bulk of the money, I mean, what a stellar human trafficker. This is like a nice guy. I'm being very sarcastic. So Chloe asked, where are we? We're on a remote property owned by me. We're no longer in Italy. There are miles. We are miles from civilization. So don't even try. Even if you scream, nobody will

hear you. If you try to escape, we have guard station that are ordered to shoot and kill if you attempt. As long as you stay here, as long as you listen to me, you are safe. Oh, and as long as you come up with that 300K by Sunday. He also mentioned that his bosses do not allow the members to rape their kidnapped traffic victims. So Chloe doesn't need to worry about him staying in the room with her.

He would literally be killed if his boss ever found out that he touched Chloe in any way. Chloe said she was bored out of her mind most of the time. She thought about her family. She thought about that damn email. MD told her that Phil just sent back received. Like, what does that mean? Does that mean receive the email, receive the ransom?

Like, what does that mean? So the first evening passed, Chloe said there were just so many moments where she's just thinking about her impending doom. And on the second night, MD took a liking to Chloe, enough to ask if she wanted to sleep on an actual bed with him. Chloe remembered what MD said about not being able to touch the merchandise, so she agreed. She said that she trusted him. In an interview, she said, he was the only person that seemed to care that I would be free.

Later, Chloe was criticized up and down for this choice, and she said, I'm not going to say no, I want to stay handcuffed to the furniture. I would never object to something that he wants me to do in that time because I didn't want to upset him or make him angry. Chloe said, I mean, it was clear. It was obvious that he wanted to sleep near her and she reiterated, I'm not going to say, no, I don't want to sleep with you. Why would I be a bitch about it? Why would I be nasty to him when he's my only way out? So the second night they slept on the same bed back to back with different blankets. He never attempted to touch her.

She wasn't allowed to leave the room. She didn't even try. I mean, assuming that there's people downstairs, there's nobody for miles, guards or stationed and order to kill. At least Andy liked her to a degree. Maybe she could use this in her favor. She didn't even know what country she was in. She was scared that there was cameras inside the house watching her every move and she would get in trouble if she so much has thought

about going outside. And one day MD comes back in a bad mood and she's like what's wrong. Seems like your auction will proceed. There's no update on the ransom. And the rest of the day MD talked about himself. How he was a former military man and he told Chloe about his decision to join the group. He bragged about how lucrative his business has been. He earned $15 million so far. Listen, Chloe's no stranger to men flirting with her. She knew that this guy was hitting on her.

So obviously she's using this as an opportunity. Maybe if she flirts back, it maybe he will feel inclined to save her to let her go. So she said, obviously I had no interest, but I had to play it as if I did. It was the only thing I had to focus on to get out. MD took the bait.

After a few more days, MD asked her to be his girlfriend, and she happily said, in the future when I'm released, and this made him over the moon. He told her if he wanted to leave the group, he would have to pay them $1.5 million, and surrender a lot of his real estate assets. Chloe said that she listened to his weird assassin sob stories and pretended to care. So Friday rolls around. Chloe's been held for four days now, and Imdie asks if she would kiss him.

Again, she said, I can kiss you when I'm released. And he starts, you know, work in his noodle. Okay, let me see what I can do. So the following day, MD brings Chloe a letter from one of the higher ups in it read, you are being released as a huge generosity from the Black Death group. Your release does however come with a warning and you should read this letter carefully. There are terms to something like this. After Chloe gets back to the UK, she was to not pursue any legal investigation into the Black Death group.

She would be required to pay the group 50,000 euros in Bitcoin. And finally, Chloe was required to promote the group by sneaking a predetermined set of information into the media. They wanted to be known. It's like a brand deal. It's like a campaign. The letter went on to say, you and your family will in no way ever talk about us in bad language and without respect. You have been treated fairly with respect and

we expect to hear the exact same about us in return. Any sort of disobedience with the above will result in your elimination. A.K.A. we're going to come kill you. And with that, on Monday, July 17th, Chloe was released. She was transported to the British consulate in Milan, where she was questioned thoroughly, subjected to a medical exam, a urine test. They found no drugs in her system, and this meant that she had not been drugged in the past couple of days.

However, a hair sample came back positive for ketamine. Makes sense. There was also a puncture mark on her wrist, which was consistent with being injected with a strong anesthetic. She had bruising around her wrists and ankles, and with Chloe's help, they were able to locate the remote farmhouse where she was held. It was very much in Italy.

It was near Milan. Also, MD lied about owning it. He rented it out for about 20 days. I believe that after this whole ordeal, it was on Airbnb. What? Yeah, the place went on Airbnb, which is just odd. Locals were able to confirm that they saw MD walking around the area, buying food, eating groceries, or buying groceries, eating food, eating pizzas.

Perfect, right? This is slam dunk case. But the locals said that they saw Chloe with him. They saw the couple walking around the shops holding hands. They were wearing matching outfits, tracksuit pants, white t-shirts, MD left Chloe inside of a mini-mart at one point while he went to go buy fruit. So she's like waiting outside and he went inside. They even went shoe shopping, MD bought Chloe a pair of running shoes. But it wasn't just the locals that said this. The police

found CCTV to confirm this. There were Chloe and MD walking around in broad daylight holding hands. I mean, this was shocking evidence and a huge reason why a lot of people don't believe Chloe. She specifically told the police that she wasn't allowed to leave the farmhouse. So this was news to the police. This was a pretty big detail to leave out. So she technically wasn't lying, but she was omitting information. I mean, she was interrogated for 15 hours. They usually ask a lot of in-depth questions. I guess it's hard for people to grasp that maybe she forgot about this for 15 hours. I mean, it's weird, right? So when the police confronted her about it, she breaks down. And she says,

no, no, no, like what happened was I had no shoes, I had no clothes and we went out together to buy new clothes I was told that the entire town was in on it. They were all black death group operatives So I shouldn't try to do anything funny and they have eyes everywhere and Chloe believed it She said she was too scared to run or even ask for help and she didn't even speak Italian anyway She was basically just trying to stay on his good side So she held his hand and pretend like she was in love because that's what he wanted. She said that the whole outing was nothing glamorous. She just wanted to get it over with.

And then later the police found more witnesses who said Chloe and MD were at a restaurant where they were eating brunch, laughing, and joking together. Chloe said, oh it's because he tried to drop me off at the consulate on the weekend but they were closed. So he asked if I wanted to get lunch before we went back to the farmhouse. So investigators drove Chloe to the remote farmhouse where she was for six days. And the whole place leading up to the farmhouse was, I mean, there was houses everywhere. Someone would have heard if she screamed. The police did mention that she seemed really emotional when she saw that there were houses

so close by. So I mean, honestly, the whole thing is a stichow. Chloe was portrayed by British tabloids in a weird light. I mean, every single article about the kidnapping just had Chloe in the most sexiest clothes, full makeup and glam, out-party, like it just, you know, to the public, it didn't look good.

Is that Chloe's fault? No, like that's not how she chose to be represented when talking about such a traumatic event, but that's what the tabloids chose. People started wondering if Chloe orchestrated the whole kidnapping for clout. People thought, oh, in my eyes, this fits the exact type of woman that would do anything for some fame. She's trying to be a model and it's not working, so maybe this is what she's done. Maybe it's the tabloids, how they were representing the case. Maybe it was Chloe omitting the information. I'm gonna be honest, that part is the one part

where I'm like, okay, Chloe, what happened here? Like, if you thought that, why didn't you explain, we did go out, but I thought that they were black group operatives and I was so terrified. I didn't even speak the language. And then her demeanor and interviews, I don't know, maybe it was that. Maybe it was the fact that the movie

by any means had recently come out and it was like in the forefront of people's minds, I don't know, but a lot of people questioned Chloe and her story. Wait, who's the guy that came in with her? So let's talk about it, okay. The elusive MD, the millionaire hitman. Well, to nobody's surprise, his name was not MD or Andre.

It was Lucas Erba. He was 30 years old, lived in the UK. Yeah. Wasn't even Italian. He was Polish. He had followed Chloe since she had just started out and he had been obsessively following her online for two years. With the help of his brother, the other guy that cuddled her in the trunk, Michael Erba, he orchestrated the whole kidnapping with the two of them. The police determined that there is no such thing as the other guy that cutled her in the trunk, Michael Irba, he orchestrated the whole kidnapping with the two of them. The police determined that there is no such thing as a shadowy black death group, it was just the two Irba brothers. They were the sole perpetrators of the kidnapping.

Wait, so the group doesn't even exist? Well, okay, side note about the group, right? Its existence stems back to 2015 before the kidnapping. It started with a Reddit thread asking, has anyone heard of the Black Death group? Apparently, it's an organized crime that deals with nearly anything. You name it, I won't say it else because I'll get shot. So the group was talked about two years before the kidnapping. Did Lucas plan ahead in advance, or did he come across someone talking about this group and decided to use the name in his kidnapping rules? But overall, it talking about this group and decided to use the name in his kidnapping rules.

But overall, it seems like the group was a hoax. A journalist named Joseph Cox was interested in the story, and like in 2015 before Chloe was even involved. He found the link to Nicole. Remember, the merchandise that was on sale? Well, the picture wasn't someone in this shadowy group. It was pulled from a porn site. Nicole was interviewed and said that she was a willing participant.

This was not, she was never auctioned off. So that whole auction was fake. I can't find any evidence that the Erba brothers were behind the website, but I imagine that they were, because they used it for their kidnapping, but it just makes sense that they made it, because Lucas was obsessed with Chloe around 2015. So maybe he started planning it for years.

Maybe he thought that if he kidnapped Chloe, he would rescue her, and in the process she would feel indebted and fall in love with him, and like, I don't know, have Stockholm's syndrome, and they would live happily ever after. And with the 300K, he would get out of her family for it. I feel like he created the group because I don't know, think about it. You're going to use something from the dark web, possibly the scariest place on earth, as a cover story. Would you rather use a group that's potentially legit that would come after you, or would

you just simply create your own fake group that nobody can really even verify? So Lucas was arrested. Went on trial. Meanwhile, Chloe's having a hard time processing the whole thing. She had to spend three weeks in Milan during the investigation. She said she felt like the black death Group was real, she was confused. She said the whole time that I was with MD, I would ask him questions. He would enter in so much detail that I would, I would never have her doubt what he had to say. Even during the three weeks that I was kept in

Milan by the police, I was still living in fear. Like, I had no security. To Chloe, it took her a while after the arrest to realize, MD was not the guy that tried to save her. He was the bad guy. I'm sure that made her doubt her own instincts and her own abilities to trust people. She was doubting the authorities and what they were telling her, but all the evidence showed that it was just the Herba brothers that were involved. Lucas even texted his brother saying, buy a big juffle bag, very big. You know what the purpose serves, so you know how big it should be.

Finally, with the help of friends and family, Chloe realized that there was no dark web organization. There was no sex trafficking, it was just an obsessed stalker. And she realized that Lucas was not her savior, he was her capture. He was found guilty, sentenced to 12 years and a month. Lucas's brother Michael was also sentenced to 5 years and 8 months. So what gives? If both the brothers were found guilty and sentenced, why do people still doubt Chloe's story? Well, later in trial, the Herber Brothers claim that Chloe was in on the whole thing.

That she did it for money and for clout. They were inspired by the movie by any means. But the court dismissed the claims because there was no evidence. There was no evidence. There was no emails, no incriminating messages, nothing to support the claim that Chloe was involved in her own kidnapping. But the public was ruthless.

They were annoyed that before the trial even concluded, Chloe signed a book deal. I mean, it's wild. Chloe was criticized for not acting the way that a victim of kidnapping should act. So Chloe continued to travel after all over Europe. People are like, well, she should be so traumatized she doesn't want to go through Europe. She continued to post on her social, she was partying, she was having a blast.

But I think you really don't know what someone's going through behind that. Sometimes I think the people that post partying non-stop, sometimes I think they're sometimes more sad. No, like, maybe there's a reason that they're trying to distract themselves every day. And that's what Chloe said. She was a mess. She traveled so she didn't have time to think. She partied because she didn't want to be alone with her thoughts.

And as for the lack of emotions during her interviews that everybody was jogging on her about, she said, it's not because I have something tight. That's just how I am as a person. I just try to be strong. I was in Italy for three weeks before I went home. So what people didn't witness was me crying every day, being too paranoid to leave my room. Any noises would freak me out. I had nightmares.

No one was there to witness that. I'm still scared even when I'm home. I'm never going to be the same person again. Listen, I watched Chloe's interviews. I feel like she's sincere. I feel like she's sincere. I feel like there's times where she'll smile where it's awkward and uncomfortable. I don't think it's because she's, some people are like,

see, she's smiling, she's enjoying, she's living up the fame. She loves the attention. It's like, have you never been awkward and like smiled because you're like, oh my god, I'm so awkward and uncomfortable? I think the whole kidnapping plot sounds crazy, bizarre, and borderline stupid, because I think that's what Lucas came up with. And I think it reflects bad on Chloe

because it sounds like Chloe's coming up with this. I just can't imagine Chloe being a part of it and there's no evidence because Lucas literally texted his brother, like, by a double bag, you know what it's for. And then you're telling me suddenly his scheming with Chloe is so good and so secretive. But to this day, people continued to doubt Chloe. And I think the hate has only gotten worse once she has ventured into the adult entertainment industry.

So she posted a bit more scandalous pictures on social media. I was going through her social media for research and someone literally commented on a post from a week ago that said, oh, the fake kidnapping business didn't work laughing emoji oh my god another comment said I pity your son to have a tramp for a mother get a proper job all I have to say is

no one would really know the truth of what happened in Milan but I do think Chloe's appearance and the way that she presents herself and the way she looks has everything to do with the public perception of her story Chloe's appearance and the way that she presents herself and the way she looks has everything to do with the public perception of her story because well we live in a society and that's it for today's mini-sode. What a frustrating case. I hope you guys enjoyed and I will see you guys on Wednesday for the main episode. Bye!