S2: Bonus Ep 4 – From the Depths of Hell All the Way to Heaven

I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Betrayal Bonus Episode four update on Erin. Before the bonus starts, I want to tell you that more stories of betrayal will be coming in twenty twenty four. So we want to hear your stories. And although we've talked about marriages and parent relationships, we are open to any betrayal that has changed your life in a meaningful way. If you're open and want to share your story of betrayal, email me at Betrayal Pod

I decided to look at his computer and I went into his recently deleted files, and that's where there was just a plethora of pictures like little Miss Country, USA, all different ages, all different looks. It was so many people he had collected. I clicked on one and it was this little girl who I'd never seen before, don't recognize at all, standing naked on a beach. She had a look on her face like, this is not me being cute and playing on the beach. No, it was inappropriate.

What Aaron found was the tip of the iceberg. She took her two small young children and fled. She drove to the airport and flew back to her hometown in California, seeking solace and family support. Her mother was deceased, and her two brothers and father did not offer the safe haven she was seeking. After almost three years, her husband was prosecuted.

He pled guilty to twenty five felony charges of child pornography. He was sentenced to eight years, and he only did three.

One piece of Aaron's story that really affected our listeners was how difficult it was to start over. She lost her livelihood and her husband's income. At one point, Aarin applied for welfare. Then there was her family. Although there were many family members who helped and supported her, her nuclear family did not seem to find Joel's crimes as

I was blown away. I've not felt that kind of support since my mom was alive, and that was like the whole nation counteracting what I had grown up believing with kind of a low self esteem and second guessing my every move. And so I really think that motivated me to go, you know what, I'm really doing my best here, and so it was really miraculous and I can't tell you how heal this podcast was for me. One thing that really gets me is when people wrote to me. And they said, I wish I had a

Once Aaron's ex husband, Joel was released from present in Texas, he moved in with his parents. It was only about a mile from where Erin and her children were living.

When he got out, I got the restraining order and he got awarded visitation with the kids in a supervised facility.

Aaron managed to avoid those visits while other parental litigation was pending.

Then the lawyer called me and said, he just got arrested again, and when we looked it up online, it did mention possession of child pornography. And I still don't know the details of all of that, but it sounds as though he may have had his first parole check the first time in a year, and they found some things on his phone like social media, which we've learned is a common way that people share Sea sam material.

Joel Lavelle Callahan was arraigned on September twenty sixth, twenty twenty three, in the Superior Court of Fresno and assigned a public defender.

He denied the public defender so that he could hire a private driven a law attorney, and he has a private family law attorney, which has bought him quite a bit of time out in the free world.

Aaron has kept moving forward and stayed focused on building a healthy life with her two kids. She's a licensed therapist in California.

My private practice is what I would consider very successful. I'm very comfortable and able to give my children the life that I want without needing child support for relying on.

That, Aaron moved her family a few hours away to a beach community for a fresh start.

That is just like going from the depths of hell all the way to heaven. I've already seen so much healing happening in myself, which I think trickles down to them as well. They love where we live, they said, it's like being on vacation every day. We have a lot more fresh grown, local produce here. So another part of our healing was having better nutrition. So we're working on diets, We're working on mental health. We like to go to the park a lot. We feel safer.

Aaron lived in fear for a long time. At one point she felt she needed to be armed.

A year ago, I was walking around with a gun strap to my person. You know, I had my concealed carried weapons permit, and I didn't even want to leave to go to the office without that. And out here also like we live in a very safe area that I feel like we can sleep with the windows open and hear the ocean outside.

Her son has become a top runner in his school. Her daughter does won an award for writing. They're thriving. Still, heartbreak sneaks up every once in a while, especially around the holidays.

Thanksgiving just passed by. My brother hosted Joel and his family for Thanksgiving, Whereas we were in a town with no familiar faces, and you know, no one familiar to celebrate that with. And that's just like you just continue to keep stabbing me in the heart.

Arin does not want Joel to have right to the kids at all. Her fight in court is for him to be removed as a parent.

I'm prepared to fire on all cylinders. But I hope for my sanity that I don't have to keep proving why he shouldn't have visitations more than he's trying to prove why he should. I genuinely think I'm probably still doing more to help Joel than anybody else is. You know how much of a privilege is it to say I've got our kids, I will take great care of them while you take the time to figure your life out or clean your life up, or whatever you've got to do. I can't make our kids not love him.

How do you measure recovery for someone who consumes c SAM Do services provided in prison cure the addiction. It's something we talked about during the series, and there isn't a clear answer.

His whole case was precipitating on the fact that they thought he was reformed, and clearly he's not reformed. And I think it's a lot of people who don't work in mental health that don't know what is required to treat addiction or treat this type of abusive behavior. Maybe they do think church is enough, Maybe they do think that court consequences are enough. But I know through direct experience, having worked with people with similar attributes, that that is

It was really good to find out how our and has been doing since Betrayal Season two first dropped. We'll be back soon with an update on Ashley Linton. You can always reach out to our team at Betrayalpod at gmail dot com. That's Betrayal Pod at gmail dot com. Thank you for listening. Betrayal is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division and Glass Entertainment Group and partnership with iHeart Podcasts.