Blood Ties | EP 2 | Ashley's Story

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I got out and like stood by my car, and I put my hands together like in prayer emotion. I just said, God, please be with me. And I opened my eyes and I walked towards him and I yelled at him. I yelled so loud, I said, how fucking dare you. That's when he put his head down and he wouldn't look at me after that.

I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Betrayal. Episode two, Blood Ties, Ashley Lytton discovered her husband was in possession of child pornography. With the help of her sister Anna, Ashley contacted law enforcement and reported him on September twenty ninth, twenty twenty one. It was how did I get here? Moment? For Ashley. Her life imploded. Her sense of safety for her children was gone. Like any of us in the wake of betrayal, grief, destruction, and heartbreak, you revisit everything.

I was going through some of our old photos and videos. I came across one specific one where he was teaching her to ride the bike. As she was driving away for the first time. She was yelling back like daddy look, Daddy look, and he's kind of cheering her on.

Jason's father shared the love of football with him, That's how they bonded, and Jason wanted to have that with his kids.

And has been a Vikings fan his whole life.

The story that I got was his father had gotten each one of his brothers a stuffed animal, and Jason happened to get the Minnesota Viking stuffed animal, and his brothers got two other teams, so their whole lives they cheered for those teams. I had been at work and he'd been home with the kids and the Vikings were going to play, and he had like a shrine of Viking stuff all over my living room.

I mean he had.

Jerseys laid out, he had stuffed animals, he had other memorabilia. Aveay was wearing one of his huge Vikings jerseys, and I was.

Like, Uh, what are you doing.

From that moment on, every time the Vikings played, everyone was decked down Vikings gear.

That was our tradition.

And he wasn't just a fan. Jason coached in the little league football community Julio. Heis lives in Ashley's neighborhood was his son's coach.

Jason actually asked me to assist coaching.

We just click football brought us clothes.

He is very passionate and he actually really cared about the kids.

Like they showed one how much he cared. It was great.

Jason also played.

Played flag football and when all the games.

Of course, my son played with him too.

Great athletic coach well.

Jason was known for his love of football. Friends also found him hilarious. Ashley's friend Emmy.

He was one of the funniest people I have ever met. You put Jason and my husband together and had a couple of cocktails in there. They would sing into a wooden spoon as they ran around the canche.

They were just always so goofy.

And he was kind of that guy pair with my husband that you know, reminded me that there are good men.

They're still out there.

Ashley had taken on adult responsibilities since she was a kid, taking care of her mother raising her siblings an early motherhood. She was ready for a partner, someone to help carry the weight.

I think because I had spent so much my life being the person that had to be in charge and make the decisions. When Jason came along, I referred to him with everything everything I did. Even when we bought our house, I was like, listen, I don't give a shit what house we buy at this point, pick house.

Let's do it.

I don't care, like you know best, so you do it. It doesn't matter to me.

In marriage, Ashley finally felt part of a team. She loved it, sharing coffee with Jason in the morning, family dinners in the evenings, when sports weren't taking the kids in three different directions. But after eight years of being married, their family dynamic started to change.

From the outside looking in, we just had this picture perfect life, beautiful home, wonderful kids. Both of us have careers, we're both like semi young and in shape.

But the reality was very different.

Two years before COVID, Jason stopped interacting with us.

Ashley's stepmother, Kathy TRIHILLO.

He wasn't going to work and she was having money struggles, and they were kind of like living two separate lives. But you don't know what goes on in people's four walls. So you're like, you know, try and just to be supportive to Ashley.

That's all, you know. We tried to do is be support.

And she wanted to hang in there and keep it going. Then we were going to try to stand behind her.

Jason was a talented tradesman. When he showed up for work. Jason's former employe or Steve Iihausen.

He liked to take a lot of time off and he would say his children were sick or he had to go to school for something like that, and so he was using excuses that weren't true to take time off and do something for himself.

It was actually putting their mortgage in jeopardy. And now, like in retrospect, I'm like, was he just staying home and watching all of this stuff?

Just went work for a couple two, three weeks at a time. And I'm sure it was not because he didn't have any work. He just didn't want to go to work.

Jason also lost interest in spending time with friends and family. Ashley's family enjoyed Jason's company. She comes from a big family with siblings, stepsiblings, nieces, and nephews. Any excuse was a good one for a family party and John Ashley's dad loved to host.

Well.

He didn't come to our function, like, man, where's that guy oh Man.

You know.

He would tell her family he needed to go to work. He told work he was prioritizing family. Most times he was doing neither have.

They had traveled a lot for her competitive soccer league, and he wouldn't come with us. We went to California, I went to Colorado, went to Las Vegas, went to Saint George. We went to all these places and he wouldn't go.

So Ashley took the kids and left Jason behind.

We used to do so much together.

We did. We were active, we were outside, we were at the movies. We're at the aquarium, we were in the mountains, like we did things all the time with the kids.

Ashley was determined to keep going.

I was like, we can't wait for you to live life with us. We can't not do anything. So I just started leaving him. I'd like, if you want to come along with us, we want you to come, but we're not going to sit in this house and do nothing anymore.

Eventually, Jason stopped bringing anything to the table, so I asked.

Him for a divorce, and he told me that he'd give me a divorce.

It's like, praise the Lord.

You know, we cannot live like this anymore. But then COVID happened, and all of a sudden, my Jason came back and he was being the man of the house type of thing.

He was taking charge, like we need to make.

A plan, and we need to get food, and we need to make sure the kids are taken care of and you know, make sure that we're safe. I was like, all right, So we just didn't talk about it again.

But as lockdown orders were lifted and life returned to normal, Jason withdrew again.

He would kind of revert back to being a hermit. We walked on eggshells with him every single day. We did everything we could to like not piss him off. We did everything we could to just not be noticed by him. All of us did. But for the most part, Jason stayed in our bedroom.

But he wasn't showing any interest in actually there. Jason stopped showing any interest in sex or intimacy.

I thought it was me, and I thought, I'm like, well, I had three kids, so it's like a hot dog down hallway maybe, And so I was like, I'm not going to do this to myself anymore.

Ashley sought help from a therapist and she learned that his behavior had nothing to do with her.

I'd come to some self realization. I'm like, I am beautiful, I'm a good mom, and I'm a good wife, and this problem isn't me, it's him. At that point, I'd kind of reinvested my time with God, and so I was like, I made this covenant with my husband and with God that I was going to love him through sickness and health and he would never leave me. And so I had decided that I wasn't going to get divorced.

That's what he'd say.

It's not a good idea to take a medication vacation when you're on prozac and adderall without a doctor's consultation. Jason continued to isolate himself and became hyper focused on a new hobby.

I bought him a drawing table because he liked to draw.

He would lose himself for hours in a sketch pad.

I don't remember why we had stopped by, but we were outside and he was in the house and he said, I'm getting into drawing.

Now, come in.

I want to show you guys my drawings.

I was like, go clean your back through, you know, think what are you doing? Why are you sitting here drawing?

I was in my head.

I was like, what is he doing?

Anna thought his drawings were bizarre.

He's showing me these drawings and I don't know if he had drew them himself, where he outlined them from a printed off image or something, but they were like highly sexualized characters, very seductive clothing, huge boobs, all women. I just remember thinking like, what the fuck, what is he doing? This is not normal to me, And I remember telling Ashley, I'm like, you need to tell him to stop showing people those.

It's fucking weird.

He wasn't helped Ashley with anything. She came over here and fixed her brakes, fix her tires, whatever was, you know, and he it was had some excuse.

She worked over time, constantly, she changed jobs for a better opportunity. She gave and cave and.

Cave and gave.

Okay, so I've read through the initial report. I was hoping that maybe we could talk a little bit more in depth how it all came about.

On a day that felt completely surreal, Ashley Linton was finally sitting at the Riverton police station. Her husband was at his brother's house hoping to hear from her. It was ten at night, but the officer in charge of special Victims wanted to talk right away. He had worked quickly at a secure search warrant an inventory what Jason had in the hidden file. Now Ashley sat across from the detective Jason Rue, in a small interview room.

I went through.

I went through probably about photos in that account that he told me about. I'm so disgusted this obviously serious stuff.

Not only doesn't have child pornography on this thing.

But he's produced it.

Basically, you're outside doing something with your plants, and he.

Walks into.

Yeah, I assume she had a white shirt on, and so he's like, hey, where's your mom? And anytime she would turn around, he's going up so you can actually see her breasts of he sure multiple times, I'm so worried about my daughter.

There were videos from their family trip to Disney as well. It was the only trip Jason had taken with his family in two years. Detective rou explains.

The stepdaughter was getting out of the shower and told everyone, hey, don't look, and Jason had set up his phone to video record her coming out of the shower while she had no clothes on, and then he proceeded to act like he wasn't watching although he was recording her.

Legally, a Veo was Jason's stepdaughter, but he had raised her since she was two years old. She called him dad.

Is there had porn issues that you're aware of?

Absolutely?

Our whole marriage has been flooded with it. It was just always really awkward. I think we've had six, maybe five times in two and a half years, and I'm kind of like masturbating, like weird times, like with me and my daughter, my eight year old, Like she's left in our bed and he's like on the floor masturbating, looking at his mom and I'm like, what the fuck are you doing? Her family's here, like, what's wrong with you?

Ashley revealed other upsetting details about her marriage to Jason.

He had an affair amon me when I was five months hearty, right, young guest and the girl he had a fair with. I think she was eighteen, but I knew that she had just.

Graduated, right she was.

The was seven eight years ago.

Yeah, how'd you find out about that?

He left his phone one time at home like an idiot.

Anyway, she'd texted him, I'm like, so I'm excited to see you tonight, and he had come up with this huge, elaborate story meany he's a talker, he could he do you know that stupid saying he could sell eyes to Eskimos that that's him and uh, Anyway, saw I called her and I was like, do you know he's getting ready to have a baby and we're married and have two children, and she was like, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

The conversation turned to the messages Ashley had been receiving from Jason.

I understand you're upset right now and don't want to see me I really want to talk to him, and you're ready. I won't hassle you after this text message.

I'm sorry I've.

Created this problem for our family. I love you, ash I'm so sorry. I know I need help and I'm going to get it. I promise to work hard and make sure you're undertaken care of.

But Detective Roo was skeptical about the tax from Jason concerning the images.

In my opinion, it's someone who just got caught doing something they know is not just wrong but illegal. Starts going into manipulation, saying, you know, I'm sorry I did this to our family. I'm a bad husband. Nothing about the victim, nothing about the wife. It's all about I've been caught now. I need to say sorry and try to build this trust again. Later on, he says I will get the help. I need to quit ignoring my issues and so you know, he's throwing all these things

Once Ashley reported, the crime detective room moved quickly.

We were able to get the correct paperwork to get a warrant to get into those photos a couple hours before he deleted.

On them a.

Few hours later.

Yes, the police enlisted Ashley to help make the arrest.

So basically, how it would be if we could get him somewhere where our guys can just.

Bring him into me here interview him here.

I'd like to do it tonight, to be honest, I just wondering if.

There's maybe a way that we could get him do that leave the house and meet.

You somewhere and just kinda pick him up, etc.

Rather do that and go on his brother's door.

The Riverton police weren't keen to arrest Jason at another police officer's house, and it's easy to see why there's a firearm on the premises. It's complicated, but Detective Rue was still irritated that Jason's brother didn't do the right thing.

I don't care if your brother you're in law enforcement. That is a no noe like he He could get himself in some trou He.

Should be their first brother.

I'm cool with that.

But on the way here to talk to us about it, you know, like you screwed up royally, and that's all that was gonna be happening to you.

The plan was to get Jason out of his brother's house to a neutral meeting spot where he would believe he could make his case one on one with Ashley.

I just told him, how about let's meet away from the house that I'll have.

The kids too, Okay, yeah, tell me twenty twenty five minutes.

Ashley was setting him up to be arrested and I'm just.

Gonna wait here.

Okay, Well, they do that, and then once you get him to try to talk to him, see if he wants to talk to her out.

I tried to imagine what Ashley was thinking driving from the Riverton Police station to the Walmart parking lot. It must have been the strangest drive of her life. It was eleven thirty pm.

Jason pulls in and I could fill this like fire burning inside of me, thinking that he had filmed up my daughter's shirt and saw her bare breasts, our daughter's shirt.

So I had this like flash. We're kind of parked where.

People return their carts and there's like these big rocks.

For a moment, she fantasized about vigilanti justice.

In my head, it played out like i'might grab a rock and I'm gonna like smack him over the head and then he's gonna pass out, and then I'm gonna kick him really hard, and then I'm gonna, you know, like all these terrible, violent things.

Ashley felt so sad for his victims.

I wanted to like take his eyes away from him so he can never look at my daughter again, look at anybody's daughter again. All those little girls that I saw in those phoo everything, I just it was so awful. And so when I got out, I didn't grab a rock, thank god, but I just started hitting him and he just let me and he was like, what are you doing, ash what are you doing? And then the police pulled up right after and say it took him into custody right then, just like.

That, it was done. He was on his way to the police station. His work truck was still sitting in the parking lot.

You know, we're married, so this is my asset too, so I should probably make sure that I don't just leave it in the Walmart parking lot. But I didn't have anyone to drive it anywhere for me, so I called his brother. It's like twelve o'clock at night. At this point he was sleeping and he I was like, what did you do? What did you do? And I was like, I did what you couldn't do. I did what you were supposed to do that you didn't do.

His brother agreed to pick up Jason's truck. Finally, after fourteen hours the hospital a police interview, the longest and most awful day of Ashley's life had come to an end.

You have the writer in silent She didn't need to say anything to me.

Anything you say Canada will be used against you in the court.

You have the right to have a.

Lawyer well being read his Miranda rights. Jason explained that he'd never been arrested. He was polite.

Do you understand each of these rights?

I've explained I did, okay.

Detective Rude tried to engage Jason in a conversation about the charges.

Ashley contacted me as I cause, you guys have had a pretty rough day today.

Yeah, okay, So.

That's some of the things that I was holding to talk to you a little bit about, trying to get better understanding of what that's been going on, things of that nature.

I'm willing to talk to you about whatever if you are, but if you prefer not to, then we'll just end our conversation regardless of whether we talk or not. Tonight, Yeah, I'm.

Gonna have you booked into the Southern County.

Jailice So as far as being just because I have no idea this process goes being booked into jailmen, Am I just gonna be stuck there?

Or do ill some.

Of the charges that I'll book you in on or they're a little hefty, Okay, So I don't know if they're gonna just be like, hey, you're out tomorrow morning.

I just feel like, since I've never been in a situation before, I was like, almost rather have an attorney president. I don't want doing something.

I'm okay, Okay, I understand Jason understood he'd be sleeping in a jails all that night no matter what he was behind bars. That was taken care of, But there were the kids and questions about where Dad was. It's hard to imagine a day like this managing putting one foot in front of another, let alone the micro and macro decisions that Ashley had to make for herself, her children, and the safety of others. The children in those photos,

All of us knew that Jason had been struggling with his mental health.

The kids sought so when Ashley told the kids that Jason was seeking help for his mental health issues, it made sense to them. Besides, she was exhausted and didn't have much time to recover. The very next morning, Ashley had to make a big presentation for work. There was a lot riding on it. Anna went with Ashley so she wouldn't be alone. So soon after Jason's arrest.

She hadn't told her boss what had happened, and I remember her like saying, I'm not going to let this ruin my fucking career.

But I remember watching her do.

The presentation and I was like, none of these people know what just happened to her, Like.

Her life has blown up, and look at her.

She was up there.

Making jokes and just confident and trying to engage the audience. And these people had so much many questions for her, and she was just on it answering all these questions. And I remember thinking, you are a fucking badass, Like I do not know how you're doing this. Your husband is in jail right now.

Jason had been disengaging from the family, isolating himself. Ashley had grown stronger and more independent.

I still am so proud of her. I don't know how she did it.

I really think something psychological like happened for her to do that.

And.

The work that she did the year prior, maybe that's what Maybe that's what got her through.

Ashley felt strong enough to keep it all inside. She thought she could hold everything in. She was in protection and survival mode. But then there was this.

Somebody texted her and said it's in the news and the man from Riverton has been.

Arrested for one hundred counts of sexual exploitation of a miner after someone came forward after helping forty year old Jason Linton said up a Venmo account.

And then she just let out this horrible, horrible scream, and I just remember looking at her, and her whole body was like shaky, almost like convulsync. I've never seen it before. And then she just was like rocking back and forth and like putting her head on.

Her knees, like she looked like a crazy person.

I don't even remember what I said to her to try to calm her down, Like I did not know what to do.

And I've never seen my sister like that.

I don't ever want to see her like that ever again, Detective Real.

I try to prepare them a little bit for the next morning when they wake up, I'll let them know, like, hey, these cases, the news picked these cases up quick. In my mind, I'm talking to these victims and these family members and I'm explaining things. But sometimes when you're in that situation, most of it's maybe going over your head or in one and out the other. Just because you just got railroaded by your husband, you're so focused on I don't even know what's going on.

Ashley was already managing the feelings of grief, anger, and betrayal. The added jame that came when Jason's crimes became public. It was unbearable when this hit.

Any ounce of pride or ego that I had went right out the door.

It was gone.

I literally felt like I was just naked and there was nothing to hide. There's nothing to even try to explain away or make better. I was just like, okay, I understand.

It didn't take long for the word to spread.

Aveya found out from a friend's mom. She had called her and was like, did dad take videos on me?

Or what happened?

Because the news mentioned that he had taken I don't know if they said a video or videos of his daughters.

Anna couldn't believe an adult would be so thoughtless with a veya.

She's like, did your dad take videos of my daughter? That's how she found out.

It was out her husband was that guy, the guy you warn your kids about. Her kids knew, her friends knew, everyone knew. There was no controlling it. It was a runaway train. On the next episode of Betrayal, all.

Right, enjoying and I just somehow see him in his car.

I called my mom.

Because he's in the same area he drives in those same roads as every single day.

Avail will have her day in court and Jason will try to remain a free man. As a disclaimer, Ashley told her story about her conversation with Jason's older brother to police, and it was included as part of the affidavit of probable cause that led to Jason's arrest. His older brother's conduct as a police officer was investigated by the authorities and ultimately it was determined that there was