Transcript of Amber | Betrayal Weekly

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Hey, this is Hayes Davenport.

And Sean Clements.

We host the podcast Hollywood Handbook.

Each week we talk to someone in show business and try to help them with their careers and see what they have to offer us. Everyone has a good time and no one gets mad at their publicist for letting them do our show.

We've had a lot of great guests like Sarah Sherman, Adam Scott, Danny McBride, Ben Stiller, and a lot of other big shots that wouldn't be where they are without us. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

On the new podcast Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait 4 hours for the next bus, or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I chose option B. I'm Julie Pinheiro, and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word solita, trading the pity for possibility. Listen to Solita on the iHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

My reality is being ripped apart. This can't be real. I'm trying to find any reason to make any of this make sense.

I'm Andrea Gunning, and this is Betrayal, a show about the people we trust the most and the deceptions that change everything. In today's episode, we will be discussing the realities of addiction, sexual violence, and sex trafficking, so please be mindful when listening. Amber Keel grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the '90s. As a kid, Amber was curious about the world around her.

I was vibrant, just full of life, and wanted to learn things my way. There was a part of me that wanted to seek and know and do and figure it out for myself.

She and her friends spent their days roaming around Salt Lake City together.

We were just in the neighborhood all the time, you know, hopping fences to take shortcuts. In the summer, we were out until the sun came down, living on rollerblades and hanging out in malls.

Those parts of childhood were a bright spot. But Amber's childhood was also defined by a lot of hardship. She lived with her mom. They've always been really close. But Amber had a turbulent relationship with her stepdad.

Right in my prepubescent era, I had some issues at home with my stepfather.

Because of that, Amber started spending as much time as she could outside of the house. But the adults she met there weren't safe either.

There were some pretty dangerous men in the neighborhood offering cigarettes and drugs and alcohol. And with my mindset at the time, I really just wanted to experience everything, including the underbelly of society.

By the time she was 13 years old, she was drinking and using drugs regularly.

It was intriguing to me. I definitely knew the inappropriate individuals in the neighborhood and would seek them for drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, a place to hide.

Amber's mom was desperate to help her.

I was in and out of juvenile systems. Lockdown facilities, ankle monitors, wilderness programs, ordered therapy, all levels of care.

But each time she got out of a program, she was pulled back into the same predatory dynamics.

Hanging out with all the wrong crowds and using drugs, that became a part of my life.

Amber desperately wanted to escape. She was dependent on alcohol and marijuana.

I was running from life. I ran and ran and ran. I didn't stop running until I got pregnant.

Amber had her first son at just 16 years old.

I'm dropping out of school and desperately needed help in raising him, and that came down to my mom and my grandma helping me.

She tried to build some stability. She got sober and poured any spare time outside of raising her son and working into studying. Eventually, she got her GED. From the outside, things looked better, but internally, Amber didn't feel normal.

I felt so awful in my own skin. I was buzzing, on fire on the inside, and didn't really know why. I just knew that I needed to be normal. And I couldn't do it.

Amber's mom and stepdad had separated, but he had started buying drugs for Amber, so she heard from him pretty regularly.

I remember not hearing from the stepfather for a few days and wondering why. And I went over to his house. No one answered the door. And so I broke in.

She went upstairs and into his bedroom. Her stepdad was there lying in his bed. The room was a mess.

He was urinating in empty vodka bottles, and I remember just yelling at him like, get up, you're so gross, get your shit together.

Amber kept telling him to get up as she made her way through the room, but her stepdad didn't budge.

I went to go shake him to wake him up. And as soon as I touched him, I actually realized what was going on. He had passed away. The shock took over my body, and I just felt that feeling of like, I need to run. I need to get out of here.

Amber called 911. First responders showed up, and her mom was close behind. Amber was only 18. She was terrified being in the house with her stepdad's body, so she drove away and didn't look back.

That was a tipping point for me, and I immediately just spun out, and I couldn't get high enough at that point. There was not enough drugs on the planet that could have helped me escape from that. I was full of rage and that overstimulation in my body.

That's when Amber met someone who offered her a new solution.

And he's like, hey, do you want to get high? And I was like, yeah. I think I just needed to get out of my skin. And he introduced a needle to me and methamphetamines. That was it for me. I had obtained the outer body experience I was looking for, so I just kept looking for it. I didn't continue shooting up, but I did continue smoking meth for several months. That was absolutely devastating for me and everyone who loved me.

Amber's mom and grandmother took over the care of her son. Her meth addiction quickly spiraled into other criminal behavior.

This tornado of meth use, I had accumulated several more charges after that— forgery and theft and possession. And, like, you know, I was 19 years old and accumulating felonies, like, They were candy.

Then one day, Amber found out she was pregnant again. She knew that she needed support to stay sober through her pregnancy, so she checked into a rehab facility. Being there was a big help, but at her next doctor's appointment, she received devastating news. Her baby had passed away.

I had a placental abruption, and I had to give birth to him. And bury him. And it was just like trauma after trauma after trauma.

After that, she stayed at the rehab facility. That community helped her through her grief.

And that facility kept me there for like 6 months. They supported me and they loved me and they knew that I had a fire inside of me that just needed to be harnessed properly.

Receiving long-term care, was a turning point for Amber.

And then things really started looking up for me. I was feeling kind of stable and acclimated.

She went back to school and met the man who would become her husband. For a while, things were good. They decided to have a baby together, and their son was born safe and healthy. For the first time, stability didn't feel suffocating.

It was my first experience at a real normal life and enjoying it without substance. I've known what it feels like to come up for air and live on earth with some sense of happiness and satisfaction.

But her husband had his own history of addiction. He was sober on and off through their relationship, and when their baby was just a couple months old—

My husband was struggling, and there was a situation at the home where he had kicked down the bedroom door, just like shattered it into pieces, and I was just there with these 2 little boys and so much fear. This was a turning moment for me where I fell out of love with him. He showed a side of himself that I couldn't unsee.

So she left her husband and moved back in with her mom. She was now trying to raise 2 young kids, work full-time, and most of all, stay sober.

I was working at this job and paying for these bills, and that feeling started to creep up again.

That suffocating feeling that she couldn't handle this, that she needed to escape her body.

It was overwhelming. And of course, I did what my system knew to do. I reached out to what was my husband's drug dealer.

She started doing cocaine.

I felt like super mom doing cocaine in the morning to go to work and come home and do a little bit more cocaine to, like, make dinner. And I was like, I could do this, you know? Of course I can manage a cocaine habit.

Amber's family quickly noticed a change in her. They realized she was using drugs again.

And of course, the boundary is you don't let the drug addict come home. You don't give them money. You set up really firm boundaries. You protect the kids. I was unwilling to stop using, and that was it. I was out.

Her sons stayed with her mom and grandmother. Amber left the house, and her struggle with addiction spiraled further.

As long as I could keep a drug in my system, I could avoid the devastation of being this piece of shit mother.

Her drug dealer said she could live at his house. She was out of options, so she agreed. Amber quickly became dependent on him. He was providing her drugs, shelter, and the closest thing to stability she had at the time. But one day, he told her they were short on money for the week.

And he positioned it like, hey, I just need you to get us by this one time. Like, I just need you to do this one thing. You're just gonna go give this guy a handjob, and that's it. He's gonna pay you this much, and we're gonna be fine.

Amber felt trapped, like she had no choice. She didn't want to do it, but her addiction came first. She was already dealing with withdrawal symptoms, so she agreed.

I was like, okay, you know, I was disgusted by it. And I remember the first time doing it, just this ability to just check out of myself, just get it done, get it over with, and never do it again.

But not long after that, He told her they were facing another financial crisis.

I'm going to need to do it again. And there was a few times there where I consented. And then I remember the day that I didn't consent.

She told the man she was living with she didn't want to do this anymore. As a note to listeners, Amber is going to describe an experience of graphic violence.

I said no. And that was my first real experience of extreme violence.

He attacked her and sexually assaulted her. Amber lost consciousness. The next thing she remembers—

It was dark, and I just remember the lights breezing past me like he's driving really fast, and I end up in an emergency room.

Amber was rushed into the hospital, still fighting for consciousness.

It wasn't until I got an IV that I found out what was happening. I had been penetrated with something, and I was bleeding out in the emergency room.

Amber went into emergency vaginal reconstructive surgery.

Right after surgery, he's right there, and we're taking IVs out of my hand, and hospital staff is pleading for me not to leave.

But he had called a cab. She knew if she didn't leave with him, she could be in even greater danger. As Amber walked out of the emergency room, the severity of the situation sunk in. She was being forced to perform non-consensual sex acts. She was being coerced and threatened, and when she didn't comply, she was met with severe violence. The man she'd turned to for drugs and for housing was sex trafficking her.

You know, in that moment, I knew I was— I knew I was being sex trafficked. And that went on for 5 years. 5 years of just intense brutality, all while having this brutal addiction. I'm on cocaine and heroin. So many times I tried to get away from him. I would try and leave and run away, and he's stalking me, threatening my family. Like, it was incredibly intense.

Her addiction was used to control her.

I'm catching felonies of my own, and I'm just completely desensitized to incarceration.

In 2016, Amber was on probation for a few different felonies.

I'm in a lot of trouble. I'm at the bottom of the barrel.

One day, she was at a scheduled check-in with her probation officer.

During that time, you know, I'd had broken ribs and broken arm and black eyes and all sorts of issues, stitches. But this was the first time I had finally gotten a female probation officer. And she just looks at me and says, no one gets hurt this much. Tell me what's going on. She was the first one to kind of notice it. And how she positioned the question was not, what's wrong with you? It was like, what's happening to you?

Finally, someone saw beyond the drug use. and her felonies, to the horrific abuse that was driving it all. Amber felt seen, but she was terrified. If her trafficker found out she had told the cops what was happening, it could be life-threatening for her.

I felt so suicidal. In my mind, I'm like, you know what? I'm just gonna tell the truth and my life's gonna be over. And I told her. I told her what was happening. And she's like, I know this man is dangerous. He's been dangerous. Many women have pressed charges, but he's always gotten away with it because they're too scared to come to court. And she's like, I want to help you.

The probation officer contacted the Midvale City Police Department. A detective joined them. He started asking Amber questions.

And I'm starting to explain it, but at the time, my phone starts blowing up and it's him.

Her check-in with her probation officer was taking longer than normal. Her trafficker was demanding to know where she was.

And so the detective's like, okay, I don't want to tip him off, so I'm going to give you this witness statement. I want you to start filling it out into as much detail as possible, and as soon as you have it filled out, quickly drop it off at my office. We are ready for you. We're prepared for you. We're going to help you.

The detective handed Amber a blank witness statement.

I stuffed the little piece of paper in my pocket.

And she headed home.

I folded it up into a little square, and I'd hide it in a piece of luggage under the stairs.

One night, Amber could tell something was wrong.

He found it. He found the witness statement, and he saw what I was doing and that I was getting ready to tell. That night was horrifying.

Amber endured extreme physical and sexual violence. After a while, her trafficker finally fell asleep.

And while he was asleep, I called the police.

But the officer on the other end of the line didn't know who she was. He didn't know she'd been working with their department to try and safely get away from her trafficker.

I tried to explain to him what was going on, but But he just wasn't listening to me.

Police were dispatched to Amber's house, not understanding the complexity of the situation or how to help.

They were there for all of, like, maybe 2 minutes, and they actually took him to jail because he had drugs and a scale in his pocket. They took him on misdemeanor assault and felony possession.

He bailed out immediately. Now Amber was even less safe than before she called the police.

He comes right back and assaults me again, and I get away again. And this is all before the detective arrives to work.

Finally, at 9 AM, the detective familiar with Amber's case arrived at the Midvale City Police Department.

And he responds immediately, and he's like, I'm so sorry. This will never happen again.

The police were sent back to Amber's house. Her trafficker fled before they got there. He was now on the run. The police stationed a patrolman outside her house to protect Amber day and night.

Law enforcement would come in, and they'd make sure I'd have food, and they'd see if I need a ride anywhere. But I am out of my mind, absolutely terrified. I will not go to sleep.

Finally, one of the officers called Amber.

Amber, we got him. You can go to sleep. You're going to be safe. Everything's going to be fine.

But the next morning—

My story makes the news.

The media hadn't named Amber, but they had named her trafficker.

By proxy, everyone that was affiliated with him, gang affiliation and drug affiliation, Knew it was me.

This reporting compromised her safety.

I'm having news people show up at my door asking me if I want to give a statement. It was absolutely horrifying.

Amber was given a small amount of crime victims reparations money, but it wasn't much. She spent all of it on 3 days at a detox center.

And I wasn't even fully detoxed. I was still throwing up because I had such a raging opiate addiction.

Law enforcement had put her trafficker behind bars, but that was where their support ended. She was still living in the same conditions that led to her being trafficked.

And I didn't have a way out.

Eventually, it was time for her trafficker's preliminary hearing. Amber was assigned a victim advocate.

The advocate I had was, like, scared of this whole situation. I think it was the first time she ever heard anything like this in her life.

This hearing would determine what charges her trafficker would face. Amber had to describe her trauma in detail. Amber took the stand and testified against her trafficker.

I'm up on the stand for, like, hours, and he's looking right at me with pure evil in his eyes. You could tell he is so angry. And his defense attorney is asking me the most horrible questions, right? Like, you liked it, and you wanted to do this. I could not believe it.

Up on the stand, Amber felt a familiar feeling taking over.

That overstimulation in my nervous system was happening again. I wanted to get out of my skin.

When the hearing ended, the charges against her trafficker went through. People congratulated her.

They're like, you did a great job. Congratulations. Let us know if you need anything.

Their words floated through her. She could hardly hear them. All she could feel was the suffocating feeling swelling up higher than before.

I drove right to the block, bought the most heroin that I could buy. I shot up, and my intention was to overdose.

Hours later, Amber woke up in her car.

Of course, I didn't die. I wake up and I'm like, goddamn it, the sun is down. I'm like, Totally disoriented. And I'm like looking around, I've been robbed. Like, they've ripped the stereo out of my car.

Utah doesn't have any residential facilities designated for survivors of sex trafficking, and law enforcement had no idea what to do either. There wasn't any infrastructure to properly support survivors.

Everyone's just like, oh God, we know that we messed up, the system messed up, we almost had this girl killed. Let's just leave her to her own demise.

Right when she needed someone to lean in and support her through the trauma of testifying against her trafficker, everyone backed off.

The cops are like, we're going to support you. We're not going to charge you anymore. My PO is like, we're just going to have you check in by email. We're not going to have you drug test or anything. So, of course, I just continued to use.

When her trafficker's criminal trial finally came, Amber didn't return to court to testify against him.

And they had to drop charges because the victim wasn't there to testify. And so they let him out of jail, and he was a free man.

Knowing her trafficker was out of jail, Amber was on edge.

I knew I couldn't go to sleep, so I'm just doing as much cocaine as possible and trying to stay up.

Amber had been up for several days. She was in her car driving around Midvale when she crashed.

And I just remember, like, boom, boom, crash, crash, crash. I hit my head on the steering wheel, and I sit back, and I try to open my eyes.

She realized she was in front of the police department.

I had sideswiped all of the cars in front of Midvale City Police Department.

Amber was taken to the hospital. And then to jail.

And I thought they were just gonna let me out again. No, they didn't. I had been given way too many chances, and the judge had seen that. And I was on my way to prison for the first time. And I was going out there on some pretty serious charges: second-degree distribution, an aggravated assault, a weapons violation by a restricted felon, and now this DUI.

During her sentence, she kept to herself and stayed sober.

And I just remember crying and realizing that I had extreme mental health issues and everything that I had learned to survive these experiences, I was gonna need to unlearn. And I started becoming very angry.

She thought about all the people that had harmed her. All the systems that had failed her along the way.

My brain is on fire, and I'm just becoming more and more pissed off.

There was a goal coming together in Amber's mind. When she got out of prison, she wanted to devote her life to making a change for other survivors of trafficking.

I knew that there was something growing in me that was gonna take me far. I felt like I was obligated To turn what the hell I had been through into some sort of purpose in order to make sense of my life.

Valvoline Instant Oil Change. If your service light's on, trust the techs with the training.

That's us!

270 hours with zero complaining. They train under the hood, they train down in the pit. 270 hours means their training's legit. It's the smart choice for smart folk who care for their steed. So trust the The instant oil change that starts with Valvoline. Valvoline Instant Oil Change. Change wisely.

Hey, this is Hayes Davenport.

And Sean Clements.

We host the podcast Hollywood Handbook on the Big Money Players Network.

Our show is extremely accessible to first-time listeners. Each week we talk to someone in show business, aka the biz, and try to help them with their careers and see what they have to offer us. Everyone has a good time and no one gets mad at their publicist for letting them do our show.

We've had a lot of great guests like Sarah Sherman. Not that great.

Actually, can you help me pick—

can you help me shape this?

How about we flip it on its head? Okay, how about we flip the script? Okay, how—

what if the surprise woman who actually you think is the straight man is actually the one who's acting weird?

Adam Scott.

This entire time you've been expecting Adam Sandler to come. to visit the show.

I, I would never let go of that.

I have. Yeah.

I would never set expectations for something like that to happen. Seems like if the universe allows for something like that to happen, yeah, I'm open to it.

I'm always going to accept, you know, okay.

Danny McBride. Fine.

Yeah. It's all this fragile masculinity.

Mm-hmm.

Exuding. I could smell it walking down the hallway, to be honest with you.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

I was like, is that weed?

Mm-hmm. Nope.

It's fragile masculinity.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Ben Stiller, no.

Because a lot of times out of context, people don't get it or even know what a circle is.

You know what I mean?

Like, they're like, oh, what's a circle?

Everyone's so dumb except for you.

And fake.

Right.

Fake.

And also not interested or just like, oh, I've got my life.

I don't care about your life. And a lot of other big shots that wouldn't be where they are without us.

Oh, and by the way, Will Ferrell told us personally he loves the show and he wants to be a guest on every episode, but he's just so busy.

Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

On the new podcast Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait 4 hours for the next bus, or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle.

I chose option B.

I'm Julie Pinheiro, and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word solita, trading the pity for possibility.

Every time I tried to be alone, I kept meeting people and they were like, you smiled at us. Not a lot of people smile around here.

It's when you're alone that you're most receptive to the world as it is and not the lies you're sold about it. It can be a time where you push your limits, change your mind, or wake up to a new version of So whether you're a solo travel veteran or you're too nervous to book your first trip, I hope you listen to Solita on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped and held captive for 9 months. I survived, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are The Survivor Files.

I just remember this low, taunting voice next to my ear saying, shut up, don't say anything.

Every week I'm with survivors who lived through the unthinkable.

I knew if he woke up, without a doubt, he was going to hurt me.

I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed, and I just started screaming.

They are abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. But these aren't stories about what's taken from them. They're stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

When Amber's prison sentence ended, She went straight into treatment for her mental health.

I needed months and months of extreme trauma therapy at every kind of level of care you can think of.

After 9 months, Amber was ready to leave treatment.

I was in a place now where I felt stable and strong, and I knew I wasn't going to return back to drugs.

She started school, working on a degree in computer science and information systems. And she had a new purpose in life. To help survivors of sex trafficking in Utah. She knew something had to change.

I was pissed. I was really pissed. I had watched a lot of people really, really destroy survivors with their rescues.

The most glaring problem Amber saw was the lack of support and resources for survivors after they were rescued by law enforcement.

Because you can rescue survivors all day long, And then what? The exact same thing that happened to me. You're still in the same environment, same people, and they just end up back into trafficking.

She wanted to work with an organization that was focused on long-term aftercare for survivors, like safe housing, mental health support, addiction recovery programs, and financial aid. But she hadn't found a nonprofit with that mission yet, so she jumped in where she could. and joined street outreach teams that offered survivors immediate resources.

Like needle exchange, condoms, wound care, Narcan and naloxone.

Amber kept close tabs on all the organizations doing anti-trafficking work in Salt Lake City. Whenever she saw a new one pop up, she reached out to make sure they were working responsibly and understood the landscape of trafficking in Utah.

We saw this new organization hit the street. It's called Exit Us. Exit Us.

Amber reached out to the organization on Facebook.

Like, hey, I'm a survivor in Utah. I want to find out what you're doing. I want to talk to you.

But she never got a response. She figured maybe the organization never got off the ground. A little while later, Amber attended a fundraising event. There were a few speakers there, but one woman stood out from the rest.

I remember listening to her and I'm like, gosh, she is captivating.

Her name was Candus Rivera.

And she happened to be the founder of Exodus. I was like, oh, they're still on the scene.

After the event, Amber sent Candus a message.

Hey, I see Exodus is starting to, like, catch some traction here. I want to meet you.

This time, Candus responded, and they hopped on a call. Amber explained who she was and told Candus a bit about the work she had been doing in Salt Lake City.

And she was like, really? Wow, I would love to meet you. Yeah, I want you to just come over my house. We'll have a private meeting, and we'll get to know each other.

Candus lived in Alpine, Utah, one of the wealthiest suburbs of Salt Lake. A few days later, Amber made the 30-minute drive out to her house.

And I remember arriving to her house up on Alpine. It was this huge, beautiful home. I remember just walking in this home and I was like, whoa.

The house was stunning. Amber looked around in awe. Candus greeted her and encouraged her to sit down and make herself at home. Then Candus told Amber more about her new nonprofit, Exodus.

She was just getting started, you know, but she was meeting the right people and talking to the right people and also had this passion of bridging law enforcement with nonprofit work. And I was like, oh shit, okay, this looks really promising.

Amber was impressed. That was exactly the kind of work she was passionate about. She was excited to meet someone who shared her goals. The 2 women kept talking. And Amber learned more about Candus's life.

She's a single mom and she's a nurse and she's raising 2 boys of her own. I was like, oh God, she's kind of inspiring, you know? Like, she had that supermom thing that I had only obtained while on cocaine. She motivated me.

And beyond that, Amber just liked talking to her. Candus was bold, confident, direct.

Utah's very conservative, and to get my point across, I'm really annoying and loud, and like, she was kind of the same way.

When she finished talking about Exodus, Candus asked Amber if she'd be comfortable sharing more about her experiences as a survivor of sex trafficking. Amber was used to people shying away from the brutal realities of her story, but hearing what she'd been through, Candus just leaned in.

Wow, you're incredible. You don't know how incredible you are. I would love to coach you. Let's do this thing together. Just totally supportive of me. I was like, man, this feels like sisterhood.

When Amber was getting ready to leave Candace's house, Candace gave her a go bag, a bag of donations that Exodus typically gave survivors. It was full of creature comforts, brand new Nikes, makeup, A set of matching sweats.

And it was such nice donations, and I was like, wow, I would love for the girls on North Temple to get a bag like this. This is like new stuff.

Driving back to Salt Lake that day, Amber finally felt a sense of certainty. This is what she had been looking for.

I was like, okay, I've been looking for a nonprofit that will exercise a lot of funding into aftercare. And so I'm gonna align with this nonprofit, and I'm just gonna put all my fire into it.

She told Candus she was all in. She wanted to volunteer as much as she could to help the organization grow.

Let's get this thing going and let's do it right. Let's get it up off the ground.

And that's what they did. Together, Amber and Candus made Exodus the first nonprofit for survivors of sex trafficking that focused on providing aftercare services. Amber had a full-time job and was raising her sons on her own again, so she was busy, but she volunteered with Exodus whenever she could. They gave her a title, Survivor Advocate.

Introducing our staff and volunteers to what adult survivors look like, what a survivor needs in advocacy, what navigating the court system looks like, And that's kind of my forte.

Amber began working directly with survivors.

Law enforcement would reach out to me and they'd be like, hey, we've identified this survivor. She wants to get out. She's identified her trafficker. She needs safe housing. She needs detox. And I jump right in, like, okay, Candus, here's a survivor. I'm going to utilize Polaris Project for flights, Safe House Project for placement, LDS Hospital for detox. She's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, cool, do it all.

As they began working closely together, Candus offered Amber one-on-one coaching to help her achieve her goals. Amber was eager to learn from Candus.

I felt like there's this top-level executive nurse, single mom, boss babe that was taking me under her wing.

They started spending more and more time together. Candus would invite Amber over to her house. Amber met her 2 young kids, and when they had their mentoring sessions, they'd go on long drives up into the mountains. There, their minds were clear, and Amber felt like she could talk about anything.

I really kind of let her into my most vulnerable spaces inside my mind and my goals and what I wanted and some of my secrets.

After a few mentoring sessions, Candus told Amber that she thought it would be really powerful if Amber shared her story publicly.

To promote what aftercare can do for a survivor and how Exodus can be that organization.

Amber always had to fight hard to be heard, kicking down doors herself. Now Candus was offering her a powerful platform.

I really wanted to utilize this and try to make other survivors' voices heard, and I had an endless amount of fire in me to do it.

But if Amber was going to get on stage and represent Exodus, Candus had some recommendations on how Amber presented herself.

I cuss a lot, and for Utah women, it can be really off-putting. She did explain that to break down certain doors, you had to kind of present a certain way, and I needed coaching on public speaking. And I was open to this because I wanted to be the most effective advocate that I could be.

So Candus started coaching Amber. on how to deliver her story in the most impactful way. Candus had built an impressive reputation for herself as a leader in the anti-trafficking space.

She had an entire series happening with KUTV, Channel 2 News here in Utah, about what trafficking looks like in Salt Lake City. And we would take these news broadcasters out on the streets at night in these high-crime areas and let them witness it for themselves.

Candus Rivera is the CEO and founder of Exodus. She took us along on the community outreach work her teams do nightly. It's around 10 o'clock on a weeknight, downtown Salt Lake City. Candus had access to some really powerful spaces in Utah, politically and culturally, and she was inviting Amber to share that spotlight with her, to tell her story.

She started setting up media appearances for Amber, Different news agencies and executives in the Valley and wealthy individuals who wanted to donate.

Even when they were surrounded by powerful people, Candus made Amber feel like the most important person in the room.

She would take me right to these individuals, and she's like, this is the Amber I was telling you about.

And then, with the cameras rolling, Amber would tell her story. She'd explain the realities of what sex trafficking looked like in Utah and how Exodus was working to change that. Candus was right there with her, supporting her.

She made me feel like surviving the horrors that I had been through and some of these really embarrassing moments in my life, like prison and rehabs and psychiatric stays, were not to be shame-based and that they can be transmuted into this big, beautiful thing.

It made me feel really good inside.

As a forward-facing advocate, Amber developed relationships with various law enforcement agencies, including Homeland Security.

They were looking to step into the arena of anti-trafficking efforts and what that actually looks like in Utah.

Homeland Security told Amber they wanted to work with her on an upcoming rescue. They knew their work would be more effective if they partnered with a survivor and a local nonprofit.

They brought a lot of different nonprofits in, and they ultimately asked me which one I wanted to work with. And of course, I chose Exodus.

During this time, the NBA All-Star Games were coming to Utah.

Anytime there's a large sporting event, we're going to see an influx of all trafficking— drug trafficking, human trafficking, gambling.

So Exodus, Homeland Security, and other local law enforcement agencies began to plan a large-scale sting operation. They would implement Exodus' supportive exit strategies. Trained victim advocates would be present on scene, as well as social workers and medical professionals.

The goal is to take Candus out on site to the hotels because she's a medical professional. And I'll stay at headquarters at Homeland Security for when they bring the survivor back if they've decided to exit. Each assessment requires to be looked at individually, and it's very unique.

The operation was successful. They exited multiple survivors and arrested their traffickers. The sting operation was covered on the news, highlighting Candus's leadership.

She's already got other law enforcement agencies across the country that she's going to start training with some of these methods now that she says this proof of concept has been proven so successful.

Exodus had a lot of eyes on them, and not just locally. Candace's work was gaining traction across the country and internationally. Candace was also leading international rescue operations, one in Afghanistan and one in Ukraine.

She would leave and take our international ops teams to different areas.

Amber wasn't involved in this work. She only knew the basic details of what Exodus's international teams were working on.

Afghanistan. We had our individuals that we were going to exit, whole generations of families, sometimes 40 people. There was safe housing and transport and an ops team trying to escape the Taliban.

Candace was really passionate about the work Exodus was doing internationally, but it made Amber uncomfortable.

I had no experience dealing with the Taliban, none, and I wasn't going to pretend to know. What I do know is Utah sex trafficking, drug culture, gang culture. That's what I do know, and I just stayed in my scope.

For the last 2 and a half years, Amber had been working with Exodus for free, volunteering her time on nights and weekends. There was only one thing that would make Amber consider coming on full-time and accepting a paycheck. If they could get a joint task force signed with law enforcement.

I wasn't going to come on full time until we had this done. This was my dream.

One day, Candus sent Amber a cryptic text telling her she had big news and to prepare for a phone call that evening. Amber's mind was racing all afternoon. Finally, that night, Candus called.

And she's like, we did it. Your dream has come true. I'm signing the paperwork right here.

Law enforcement was on board. They were about to sign the paperwork that would create Utah's first joint task force to support survivors of sex trafficking. Amber was in disbelief.

Just tears of gratitude. All these extracurricular things I was doing with Exodus were worth it. Putting on the representative and out in the middle of the night doing outreach. This is what I've been praying and working tirelessly for, and all of it is paying off.

Things were about to change, not just for Exodus, but for Amber too. Now that the task force was in place, she told Candus that she was ready to come on full-time as a paid employee.

I've already been working so hard at this. Like, I can imagine that the work now that I'm being paid for it is going to be exponentially bigger. I'm expecting it to be a really big deal.

Finally, her first day arrived.

Okay, I'm here.

I'm full-time. I'm getting a paycheck. Now let's do this.

She was ready to hit the ground running, but to her surprise—

Those first couple of days, it was really lax.

Nobody was reaching out to her to tell her what to do or where to jump in.

Okay, well, maybe I just need to be more assertive.

So she reached out to Candus and her personal assistant, Ora.

I'm like, hey, I'm gonna get a meeting. I need to have access to the SharePoint.

SharePoint is the platform where Exodus stored all of their documents and files. Candus responded right away.

Oh yeah, yeah, you know, let's do it, let's do it.

But then for 3 days, it was just more silence.

I'm feeling so guilty. I'm taking a paycheck and now I'm twiddling my thumbs. Like, what in the hell? That can't be what the leadership position is.

So she reached out to Candus again. She told her she needed to be fully onboarded.

This is an organization that's been into different nations across the world. I'm expecting there to be some very streamlined systems in place. Candus is like, oh yeah, Ora has access to all of that stuff.

So Amber reached out to Aura.

And Aura's like, oh, okay, well, let me talk to Candus first because I haven't heard that. It's like this weird communication's happening and it's stalling. Red flags are going off inside of me. I'm like, what in the hell is going on?

Finally, Aura had an update.

She was like, meet me over at Candus's house. I found a laptop for you. I go over to Candus's house. And I get this laptop and I get to log into the SharePoint for Exodus company-wide.

What she saw next stunned her.

I'm looking at it and it isn't enough documentation to fill a short story for a children's novel. I'm literally shocked. Something is wrong.

There was no intake paperwork for the survivors they were working with. No medical paperwork. The work they were doing was high stakes, high risk, and needed to be tightly controlled. But there was hardly any documentation of any of it. Amber felt like it was her responsibility to fix this.

So I'm immediately in Google Docs creating documents, intake paperwork, confidentiality agreements, releases of information, like just the basic-ass stuff that you would need Uploading, uploading everything into SharePoint. But I'm trying to find any reason to make any of this make sense.

She asked Candus why all these documents were missing.

And Candus, like, some of this stuff is confidential, and a lot of this stuff would have to be redacted.

Amber couldn't make sense of it, but she didn't have much time to worry about the paperwork because Candus had a big new project she needed help with. She wanted to turn her house in Alpine into transitional housing for survivors.

We're going to turn this house into a survivor house. Downstairs will be level 1. They'll need medical, they'll need detox. Upstairs will be girls that are a little bit more stabilized, just need continuing case management.

This was a much-needed resource. Amber was surprised that Candus was willing to turn her own home into survivor housing. It was so generous.

This house is phenomenal. This house is huge. It's got a hot tub in the backyard. It is right on the front of the Wasatch Mountains. Like, it's stunning.

Candus asked Amber to take the lead on the redesign and decoration.

She's like, I want you to be able to decorate it all. I want you to pick out the paint schemes, the beds, the linens, all of it.

Candus told her, She'd hire decorators to implement Amber's design choices. Amber could hardly believe it.

Of course, I'm super excited about this. I'm already working with several survivors in Utah that could absolutely benefit from this.

But there was a lot to do to make this dream a reality. First, Amber would have to clear out Candus's stuff that was in the basement and first floor of the house.

Candus told her, I want you to start cleaning out the basement. And organize all the donations, all the medical supplies, get it ready for these decorators to come in.

Around this time, Candus mentioned to Amber that she was having a dispute with one of the vendors at a gala she'd put together. Some minor financial miscommunication.

Because he said that she didn't pay entirely for the stage. I never dealt with this type of stuff with Exodus, and nor did I really want to.

So Amber just focused on getting Candus's house ready.

I'm working my butt off, taking things off the walls, patching holes, taking trash to dumps, grinding it out 9, 10 hours a day.

Exodus had worked with the Attorney General's Office on a few rescue operations. But then one day, Amber heard that one of their projects had been abruptly called off.

As victims were identified sitting right there, perps were in handcuffs, they walked off the op. It was shocking.

At the time, this decision to call off the operation didn't make sense to Amber. She chalked it up to internal politics, maybe a disagreement over direction between Candus and the authorities. One morning, Amber was getting ready to go over to Candus's house.

I'm getting my coffee, getting ready to go pull trash out of this house.

Then her phone rang. It was Candus.

She's panicking. Amber, I'm being arrested. And I'm like, for what? And she's like, it's the Attorney General's office. The Attorney General's office is arresting me. I'm at my bank. I need you to come get my car.

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When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped. and held captive for 9 months. I survived, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are The Survivor Files.

I just remember this low, taunting voice next to my ear saying, shut up, don't say anything.

Every week, I'm with survivors who lived through the unthinkable.

I knew if he woke up, without a doubt, he was going to hurt me.

I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed, and I just started screaming.

They are abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. But these aren't stories about what's taken from them. They're stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, this is Hayes Davenport.

And Sean Clements.

We host the podcast Hollywood Handbook on the Big Money Players Network.

Our show is extremely accessible to first-time listeners. Each week we talk to someone in show business, aka the biz, and try to help them with their careers and see what they have to offer us. Everyone has a good time and no one gets mad at their publicist for letting them do our show.

We've had a lot of great guests like Sarah Sherman. Not that great.

Actually, can you help me pick—

can you help me shape this?

How about we flip it on its head? Okay, how about we flip the script? Okay, how—

what if the surprise woman who actually you think is the straight man is actually the one who's acting weird?

Adam Scott.

This entire time you've been expecting Adam Sandler to come. To visit the show.

I would never let go of that.

I have.

Yeah.

I would never set expectations for something like that to happen. Seems like if the universe allows for something like that to happen, yeah, I'm open to it. I'm always going to accept, you know, Danny McBride.

Fine. Yeah. Saw this fragile masculinity exuding. I could smell it walking down the hallway, to be honest with you.

I was like, is that weed?

Nope.

It's fragile masculinity.

Ben Stiller, no.

Because a lot of times out of context, people don't get it or even know what a circle is.

You know what I mean?

Like, they're like, oh, what's a circle?

Everyone's so dumb except for you.

And fake.

Right.

Fake.

And also not interested or just like, oh, I've got my life.

I don't care about your life. And a lot of other big shots that wouldn't be where they are without us.

Oh, and by the way, Will Will Ferrell told us personally he loves the show and he wants to be a guest on every episode, but he's just so busy.

Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

If your bookshelf and your For You page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. This is Pros Society, the weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for thought daughters, pop culture obsessives, and anyone who thinks Pride and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse. I'm Eli Rallo, and every week we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and the conversations everyone can't stop having. I'm gonna have to look up this story.

I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed.

From bestselling authors and your favorite BookTok creators to the latest pop culture moments, nothing is off the table.

It's like if you can hide some real messages inside compelling characters, And that is a Trojan horse.

Whether you're looking for literary deep dives, smart pop culture conversations, or a community of readers who love to think a little too much, you're in the right place. Listen to Pro Society on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. See you between the pages.

One morning, Candus called Amber panicking.

Amber, I'm being arrested. And I'm like, for what? And she's like, it's the Attorney General's office. The Attorney General's office is arresting me. I'm at my bank. I need you to come get my car and my gun. Amber, they've made up so much stuff. They're coming after me.

Amber sprang into action.

I know this area, right?

I know charges.

I know jails. I know how to bail out. Now we're talking. I can manage this part.

She called one of her friends, and together they drove to Candus's bank. Sure enough, a law enforcement officer was standing by Candus's car. He gave Amber the keys, and they took the car back to Candus's house. There, she made a group chat with Aura and a few other employees from Exodus.

And I'm like, listen, the AG's office just arrested Candus. We gotta get her out of there, you guys. This is bullshit. Something's going on. And Aura's like, well, I just don't know who to trust anymore. And I'm like, what?

Amber had always known Aura to be Candus's best friend.

What do you mean you don't know who to trust anymore? You're gonna jump ship right when your boss best friend needs you the most?

What the hell is going on?

Then Amber's phone started ringing again. It was Candus.

She's devastated, crying. She's like, Amber, there's so many charges. I'm like, well, what is it?

She's like, Amber, they just made up so much stuff about me.

It's all lies, Amber. It's all lies. I was like, I know, Candus. Like, I know we're gonna get you out of there. Don't worry. I'm still in rescue mode. I'm like, I gotta get my girl out of there. I'm contacting bail bondsman, seeing if they can see anything on booking sheets. They can't see anything yet, so we just have to wait.

Amber started making arrangements, finding someone to pick up Candus's kids from school. She even took Candus's dog back to her place. She went to sleep that night feeling on edge.

I didn't sleep at all. I had some crazy nightmares. My hands were shaking. I'm starting to have my own trauma responses. The next morning, I wake up and Still nobody has called me.

One of her friends suggested that they drive up into the mountains to get some fresh air and space from the situation. He was renovating an old cabin and could use the extra help. Happy for the distraction, Amber hopped in his car.

And on our ride up there, the story makes the news. Founder of anti-human trafficking nonprofit Faces More than 30 felony charges, including theft, fraud, and forgery. Candus Alexandria Leard, also known as Candus Rivera, made claims to be a physician, a physician's assistant, and a nurse, but she was never licensed or registered in Utah. Repeatedly made false representations to donors who gave money to support the fight against human trafficking. I'm having this outer body experience. They're saying impersonating a nurse, and my reality is being ripped apart. It feels like I'm having a mental breakdown. And then my phone starts blowing up.

It seemed like everyone she knew had heard the news and wanted an answer about what was going on. But Amber had no idea. She couldn't handle this right now, so she turned off her phone. She stared straight ahead as the car climbed higher and higher into the Utah mountains.

None of this is making sense to me.

Then she and her friend arrived at his cabin. Her friend handed her a sledgehammer and asked her to help him work on the renovation. Finally, some relief. A physical outlet for all of the anxiety. All she had to focus on was tearing a wall down.

I just start banging on the walls, and then I start to come alive a little bit. I'm just beating the shit out of this house with a sledgehammer, raging.

Eventually, they had to go back home. It was time to face whatever dark reality was unfolding in the canyon below.

And as we hit the point where we get service coming down Harley's Canyon, I turn the phone on and it's Instagram messages, 100 text messages, 14 voicemails. And I'm obsessively going through all of them. And I'm calling people.

She got on the phone with one of her contacts in politics who worked for a congressman.

And she's like, I'm so sorry. I wish I could have told you. And I'm like, what? What do you mean you wish you could have told me? She's like, Amber, just I just know that, like, I wanted to tell you, and we just had to, like, pretend like everything was normal.

It turned out there had been an active investigation into Candus for months. Many people Amber worked with in politics and law enforcement knew. Desperate for answers, Amber Googled Candus's name, and up came the 34 charges— fraud, theft, perjury. She read through them all.

I'm scrolling and scrolling and scrolling through all of them, and I'm like, this cannot be real. This can't be real. These people have it wrong.

Amber called another one of her contacts in Homeland Security. They already knew.

And they're like, we're so sorry. We respect you and we love you, and we'll do anything we can to help you through this. And it's still not sticking. I'm still just angry.

Then Amber got another alarming call from one of her law enforcement contacts.

And they're like, Amber, I can't get a hold of anybody from Exodus. Where is our survivor?

Exodus still had open cases, and law enforcement needed Amber's help locating one of their survivors and making sure she was safe.

Okay.

Just relax, calm down, breathe. I gotta lock in. I've gotta identify and locate, and we gotta figure this out. There's real cases that are happening and being jeopardized right now.

Reporters were also reaching out to Amber, asking for comment, but she didn't know what to tell them.

I'm starting to crash out. This feels a lot like when I was rescued from trafficking. The press, the articles, the phone calls, all these different narratives from different people, and people believe Candus, they don't believe Candus. It's too much information at once.

So she reached out to the Attorney General's office. She wanted to hear the information straight from the source. An investigator got on the phone with Amber and started walking her through the charges.

He's trying to be calm with me and I'm being really assertive. Like, tell me the truth. Where did you get the information? How do you know? Tell me your proof. I need to know what is going on.

First, there were financial crimes. Candus had been embezzling money from Exodus. She stole the money that they had raised that was supposed to go towards supporting survivors and spent it on herself. For instance, she stole $200,000 of donations and used them for the down payment of her house in Alpine. Amber felt sick.

I'm like, oh God, I remember that.

She remembered Candus talking about how she'd been able to afford the down payment. At the time, Candus told her—

She had explained she was dating the heir to Hallmark, and he had given her money for a down payment on her house.

The down payment was just one example out of many. For years, Candus used the nonprofit's donations as her personal bank account to fund a lavish lifestyle.

She went on international vacations, drove multiple luxury cars, Hundreds of thousands of dollars that would be coming in from donors that went to her own personal expenses.

Candus repeatedly preyed on the most vulnerable groups. She took a large donation from the Navajo Nation, which she claimed she would use to locate missing and murdered Indigenous women. Instead, Candus spent that money on herself. Candus Rivera was a serial predator. was not who she said she was. Even her name was a lie. Her legal name is Candus Leard. She created a false persona and fabricated medical credentials.

I learned that she was never a nurse.

Candus gave trafficking survivors prescription medications, evaluated wounds, and made medical recommendations. It was later reported in outlets like Us Weekly and Yahoo News that in her international work, Candus performed medical procedures and administered drugs to sick children, all without having a license. The darkest part of her crimes don't even appear on her long list of charges. Unicorn Girl, a recent investigative podcast about Candus's crimes, reported on her international work. Candus reportedly connected with families trying to flee Afghanistan and promised them She could be the one to facilitate their evacuation. She gave them a specific location where they would need to meet her. She insisted she and her team would be there to bring them to safety. But she wasn't.

She never went into Afghanistan. She flew to Dubai and spoiled herself, bought new Rolexes and clothes and treated herself to the finer things that Dubai has to offer while people were dying. Waiting to be exited. Some of them lost their lives. Sometimes an entire family were killed by the Taliban.

The investigator took his time explaining all of this to Amber and answered her questions.

He's being very patient with me. He's explaining to me where some money came from, where it went, where she spent it. And I'm starting to come to terms with, oh my God, This sounds real.

Amber got off the phone with the investigator. The world around her felt unsteady and shaky. The organization she poured years of her life into was a fraud, and Candus was a dangerous person.

And then I get a call from Candus from the jail. I'm like, Candus, I just got off the phone with the AG's office and they're saying this. They said that no one was ever even rescued from Afghanistan. And she's like, Amber, they're lying.

Amber started pressing her about specifics, like the $200,000 donation that Candus stole to pay for the down payment of her house.

I was like, Candus, what did you do with this $200,000 that was sent? She was like, that was a mistake. And I just immediately blew up.

Amber kept pressing her, demanding answers.

And she's like, Amber, I did all of this for you. I remember feeling so disgusted in that moment. Like, you did all these horrifying things for me? Don't put this on me.

For the rest of the phone call, Candus insisted that she was innocent.

And that was the last time she ever called me. This is the last time she ever called. I think she knew she had been caught.

Amber started looking back on the years she spent volunteering and working with Exodus. Since the very beginning, Candus asked her to be a big part of their fundraising effort.

I was trying to transmute my experience into something good for the better For a spiritual purpose.

It wasn't easy to tell her story, but she had done it, thinking that the money that they were raising would help support survivors. But now, she found out Candus had stolen that money for herself.

Candus took my story and made millions off of it for herself, living this lavish lifestyle and Utilizing my story for credibility and for her own personal gain.

Candus even coached Amber to tell her story in a very specific way, a way that would encourage people to open their pocketbooks.

And would work on how I spoke and how I delivered things. And I did feel like she was genuinely invested in me. Unusually so. I mean, looking back, it was grooming.

In retrospect, everything looked different. Was Candus ever planning on turning her house into transitional housing for survivors, or had Amber just been sent to do busywork?

Just to get me off her back of asking questions of what the hell was going on with the paperwork, what is going on with the officiality of this organization.

Exodus really did provide support to survivors and connect them with aftercare services. Their contracts with law enforcement were real. All the work Amber did connecting survivors with resources was real. But for Candus, all that work was just a front for her larger cash grab. Amber cares deeply about improving the systems that failed her, and Candus exploited that passion.

Our values and what we were doing were completely different, and my face was attached to it, and a lot of people had trusted her because I asked them to. It was the most disgusting feeling knowing that I had taken some part in all of this. Oh, it shattered my soul.

Amber endured so many betrayals of trust in her lifetime by her stepfather, her trafficker, As well as institutional betrayals that left her to fall through the cracks when she needed support the most. It took years of hard work to open herself up to trust again, and then Candus, the person that she let in, betrayed her too. In the days after Amber learned the truth, her mental health took a turn for the worse. After a few days without sleep, she knew she needed help. She arranged for childcare and checked herself into a residential mental health treatment facility.

They took care of me until I reacclimated back into my body.

Amber had to reset her life. The list of people she trusted had shrunk dramatically. She stayed updated with Candus's trial by communicating directly with the investigators. In the end, Candus pled no contest to 9 felony charges, including theft by deception, communications fraud, and second-degree felonies for a pattern of unlawful activity. The only hearing Amber attended was the one where they set the date for Candus's sentencing hearing.

And we're sitting there and we're determining the day that she's going to be sentenced, and they set it on the presidential election day.

The outcome of Candus's sentencing would never make the news on the day of a presidential election, which would be convenient for a lot of the politicians who had trusted Candus, endorsed her, worked with her. Now it seemed like they were trying to sweep it all under the rug. Amber wasn't going to let that happen.

Her attorney's like, yeah, that's fine with me. And the judge looks at the prosecutor Yeah, that's fine with me too. And I stand up and I'm like, well, it ain't fine with me! Just at the top of my lungs. And the judge snaps her head up and locks eyes with me, and you could tell she's just angry. And I'm like, oh shit.

The judge was not pleased, but Amber's complaint worked. Candus' sentencing hearing was rescheduled for October 22nd, 2024. Amber watched the sentencing via Zoom.

And when she got up to speak, I took my headphones off, walked away from my desk because I didn't want to hear anything else coming from her.

That day, Candus Leard was sentenced to 3 to 15 years in prison.

She was shocked herself. Her ability to speak her way in and out of things had worked all across this globe. I think she thought that it was going to work again.

And it didn't.

And she was sent to prison on consecutive sentences.

At the time I'm recording this, Candus is still serving a prison sentence. Some people who knew her have tried to make excuses for her, saying that Candus meant well and she just got carried away with the financials. But Amber knows the truth.

I don't know if people can really conceptualize how dangerous she is. Because it just looks like money crimes, like white-collar crimes, and that's not true. It's actually a lot deeper than that. People were hurt.

Since the truth about Exodus and Candus has come out, law enforcement is reticent to collaborate with anti-trafficking nonprofits in Utah.

Nobody trusts anybody. Survivors don't trust law enforcement, don't trust nonprofits. Everyone's fallen through the cracks.

In society, We think we know what a dangerous person looks like.

The people that I'm used to and the people that I was in prison with, it was very obvious we were criminals, right?

But perpetrators like Candus?

They present very well. These ones are like snakes in the grass. They go unnoticed and unseen for a long time and do a lot more damage. It is terrifying.

Today, Amber works full-time at a treatment facility. She's taken a step back from forward-facing advocacy, but she still steps in to help law enforcement on select cases where they need her guidance. She's tossed aside Candus's advice about how to be more polished and well-spoken.

I was no longer trying to present as articulate. and position myself in a professional manner and be within the bounds. I'm an out-of-bounds kind of girl now.

We end every weekly episode with the same question: why do you want to share your story? For Amber, there's one very specific reason. Candus has a parole hearing coming up in November 2026. She wants to remind people about the damage Candus caused.

I've been pretty quiet about my experience, but I don't want anyone else to get hurt. I ultimately want to stop her, and I want to stop people exploiting the anti-trafficking community. And so, in preparation for this tentative hearing, I wanted to make sure that my story got out, and I hope that that information gets accurately portrayed. And that the Board of Pardons and Parole can understand the complexity of who they're dealing with and how dangerous she is to our society. I don't want to go quietly into the night.

On the next episode of Betrayal Weekly...

My mind is racing. We have another person who is absolutely trying to sabotage this, but why?

If you'd like to share your story on betrayal, please email betrayalpod@gmail.com. That is betrayalpod@gmail.com. Please note that we are not a mental health organization. If you are in crisis or currently experiencing domestic violence, we encourage you to seek local help or dial 911. Please contact organizations that offer immediate support. In our show notes, we've included a list of US-based resources. You can follow us on Instagram @betrayalpod or find me @itsandreagunning. To access our newsletter and additional content and to connect with the Betrayal community, join our Substack at betrayal.substack.com. We're grateful for your support. One way to show support is by subscribing to our show on Apple Podcasts. And don't forget to rate and review Betrayal. 5-star reviews go a long way. Big thank you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group, in partnership with iHeartPodcasts. The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Faison, hosted and produced by me, Andrea Gunning, written and produced by Olivia Hewitt. Our story editor is Monique Laborde, also produced by Ben Fetterman. Our associate producers is Leah Jablow. Production management by Kristin Melchiori. Booking support by Kari Richmond.

Our iHeart team is Allie Perry and Jessica Krejnczak. Audio editing by Tanner Robbins, with additional editing and mixing by Matt DelVecchio. Voice acting by Kerry Hartman. Betrayal's theme composed by Oliver Baines. Music library provided by MIB Music. And for more podcasts from iHeart, Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I survived 9 months in captivity, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are The Survivor Files. Every week, I'm with survivors who who lived through the unthinkable— abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

If your bookshelf and your For You page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. Pro Society is a weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for anyone who thinks Pride and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse. Each week, we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and pop culture with your favorite writers, BookTok creators, and plenty of overthought opinions.

Yeah, I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed.

Listen to Pro Society on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

On the new podcast Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait 4 hours for the next bus, or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I chose option B. I'm Julie Pinheiro, and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word solita, trading the pity for possibility. Listen to Solita on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, this is Hayes Davenport.

And Sean Clements.

We host the podcast Hollywood Handbook.

Each week we talk to someone in show business and try to help them with their careers and see what they have to offer us. Everyone has a good time and no one gets mad at their publicist for letting them do our show.

We've had a lot of great guests like Sarah Sherman, Adam Scott, Danny McBride, Ben Stiller, and a lot of other big shots that wouldn't be where they are without us. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is an iHeartRadio podcast. Guaranteed human.