Transcript of Kaitlyn's Baby | Episode 5: It gets worse

When a body is discovered 10 miles out to sea, it sparks a mind-blowing police investigation. There's a man living in this address in the name of a deceased. He's one of the most wanted men in the world.

This isn't really happening.

Officers finding large sums of money.

It's a tale of murder, scullduggery, and international intrigue.

So who really is he?

I'm Sam Mullins, and this is Sea of Lies from CBC's Uncover.

Available A BBC World Service and CBC podcast production. A warning. This episode references sexual assault. Wilfred Laurier University, named after Canada's seventh Prime Minister, has a Latin motto, Veritus Omnia Vincent. Truth Conquers All. Its Faculty of Social Work has been educating and mentoring prospective social workers since 1966. Every year, new graduates enter the workforce ready to help vulnerable people make their lives better. In 2020, one of those graduates was Kaitlyn Braun. That's right. Caitlin Braun was a licensed social worker at the time of her arrest. If you scroll back through Caitlin's mother's Facebook page, there are pictures of her daughter in her cap and gown. And Kaitlyn has also posted to her own social media, Standing Proudly with Her Fellow Graduates in front of a massive sign on campus that reads, Inspiring Lives. I don't know where it stemmed from, but I feel like she liked to be needed. With her degree in hand, Kaitlyn worked with Youth in Crisis and Women Seeking shelter. Asia, Caitlin's childhood friend, remembers Caitlin telling her harrowing stories, stories that she now wonders if they were even true.

She was working for this halfway house, and this one guy was really dangerous and locked her in his apartment and held her at knife point. I remember I was like, How are you doing that job? That is crazy to me how you can get up and go back to work.

According to the criminal charges, the first known instance of Kaitlyn lying to a doula was in June 2022. While she was working with vulnerable people, she was also manipulating unsuspecting doulas through devastating narratives. This is the part that's frustrating to me. This person was working with vulnerable community.

She was working in the Indigenous community. She was working with children.

This, again, is Amy Silva, the doula who made that first TikTok about Caitlin. She believes that social work gave Eve Kaitlyn cover, the appearance of respectability and trustworthiness. I think there's a reason she went into social work, because she could do it with vulnerable people who… Nobody's going to believe them that she's doing these things to them. Exactly how far Caitlin had gone, how far she might be willing to go, it was a question many of us who knew her story were asking. Then one day, I got a call that made me realize she had gone even further than I ever imagined. For CBC and the BBC World Service, I'm Sarah Treleven. And this is The Con, Caitlin's Baby. Episode 5, It Gets Worse.

I got the call from my son's dad, and he said, Hey, the situation just came up. My son had been accused of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and he couldn't even finish. He was so upset. And I was like, What? What are you talking about.

This is Nadia. She's First Nations. Nadia is not her real name. We're keeping her anonymous for reasons you'll soon understand. And we're also leaving out some identifying details of her story. My colleague is reading her quotes.

This has to be wrong because first of all, my son doesn't even know what that is.

Nadia says she jumped in her car and drove as fast as she could to find out what happened and speak to someone in charge.

She was like, Whoa, whoa, whoa, come in, just sit down. She said last week, Kaitlyn handed a note saying, I've been sexually assaulted. She went as far as going to the hospital, getting a rape test kit done.

Nadia had never heard of Caitlin until that day. It turned out that Caitlin had been providing support for another First Nation's youth, not her son. And Kaitlyn had accused Nadia's young son of sexually assaulting her in a hallway. Local police got involved.

The police came in, grabbed all of their video footage, went through, I don't know, it was like three days worth of video.

And after going through the security tapes, Nadia says the police told her it was clear. The problem was not her son.

And they said the only thing they found was my son high-fived her in the hallway. I just felt sick to my stomach. Absolutely sick to my stomach.

In Canada, there's an overrepresentation of Indigenous people who need access to social services. This stems from a long history of colonization, going back hundreds of years. For a non-indigenous person to be put in a position of power and then turn around and victimize a First Nation's child, this is not a new or uncommon story. Nadia says when it happened to her son, she was outraged.

I was like, How does this even work here? How do you guys hire someone like that?

Nadia knew her son hadn't technically been harmed. He didn't even know about the allegations. Unfortunately, there was the video evidence that cleared his name. But it was the idea that someone might do something like this, that they might lie about something so serious. These were the false allegations that could ruin someone's life. According to Nadia, the police told her that they could press charges, but that would mean her son might have to testify.

As of right now, he still, to this day, doesn't know what he was accused of.

We have reached out to the relevant representatives for comment, as well as the local police. They have yet to respond to our questions on the record. I mean, it puts you in an incredibly difficult position because on one hand, obviously, your top priority is to protect son. But on the other hand, you know that this woman is capable of really, really dark things. So I guess you were put in a position where you had to make a choice. Yeah. Nadia told me the police ultimately decided not to press charges. And that decision sat well with Nadia until a cousin sent her a news story about Caitlin and the doulas.

And I was like, Oh, my God. So then I went on TikTok and I was on Reddit one night till like, oh my God, 3: 00 in the morning. I just went down this rabbit hole.

And it was only then that she wondered if pressing charges might have helped someone else.

I was wondering maybe if we did go through with it, if that would be another charge to keep her in jail? Possibly, I don't know. Or if my son's story came out, would other people come forward?

And she says knowing that Kaitlyn is a registered social worker, it just adds another layer.

She She knew to go into social work. She's got to be smart, really smart to pull off this whole fake life and everything. But to go into social work to cover her? Cover her ass, basically. It's scary. Scary that she was able to get away with what she is. I don't even know the word. Yeah. Shocking.

Uncover from CBC Podcasts is your source for exceptional storytelling and groundbreaking journalism. Hear how lives were altered forever by results from one DNA lab. I'm like, What? What do you mean? He's not my son. And unravel the clues that a gravel pit may hold about one woman's disappearance.

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There was no nothing. Hear the very best in award-winning true crime. Listen to Uncover wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Mateo Roach. I know a little bit about a lot of different things. And I learned about a lot of those things from reading books. If you're anything like me, when you're finished reading a great book, you leave with burning questions for the author that you absolutely just can't get out your head. On my new weekly show, Bookends, I get to ask some of those questions, and you'll get to hear the answers. You can find Bookends wherever you get your podcasts.

This member is a social work registrant. In mid-2022 to about mid-2023, conduct that this individual engaged in was brought to the college's attention.

This is Danetha Bro, CEO the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers, the sector's regulatory body. Nadia never complained to the college about Kaitlyn's actions with her son, but the doulas did. They told the college all about what Kaitlyn had done to them.

It was related to deceitful, misleading, and dishonest conduct.

I mean, a number of doulas that I have spoken to have expressed frustration. They told me that they made complaints to the college. They didn't feel like those complaints were taken seriously. In fact, the complaints were not taken seriously until Kaitlyn was formally arrested. Can I have your Any thoughts to that?

Absolutely. I can't imagine how difficult the situation has been for the doulas. My heart goes out to them. I can't imagine what it's like to feel as though you're engaging in a treatment relationship with a professional and then to have suffered in this way. Having said that, there are certain limitations as a regulator, and this case was so different from anything that we would normally have seen.

Why was this so different than anything you've seen previously?

Well, this is an individual who is a practicing social worker, but the concerns are related to the care that they're receiving. In any case, there's a certain level of confidentiality that we have to keep. But when we're looking at also the actual individual's personal care, it goes into a whole different level of confidentiality.

After her arrest, Caitlin's license to practice social work was temporarily suspended. What are the potential outcomes? Are you looking at a permanent revocation of her license?

At that point in time, we're not the decision maker. Discipline Panel will decide what the outcome would be. All of those terms, conditions, suspensions, revocation are available outcomes to that discipline panel.

No disciplinary hearing has yet been scheduled for Kaitlyn. Let's say this hearing is scheduled. There's a decision made about Caitlin's license could be permanently revoked but also could be temporarily suspended. As you mentioned, there's a number of options. What happens if upon completion of that hearing, you learn about additional allegations involving Kait and the work she did in her capacity as a social worker?

The test at that point in time would be, what are the allegations? How severe are they? Where's the public protection mandate going to fit? Is this person a current threat to the public? What action needs to be taken to ensure that they're not a threat to the public?

Is she a threat to the public? That's a question that the justice system had to take into account as well. Your Honor, we're prepared to proceed with this matter? Good morning, again, Your Honor. I act on behalf of Ms..

Caitlin Braun, who's before the court. Okay.

How's the Crown proceeding? By indictment, Your Honor. Standing before the Judge is the Crown attorney and Caitlin's defense lawyer. It's December 2023. I'm content. I'm in your Honor's hands I'm content to do it. This is an edited version of the court transcript read by some of my colleagues. I have thoroughly reviewed on many occasions, Your Honor, the implications of entering a plea with my client. She has given me instructions, essentially from the start to do so. She understands she is doing so voluntarily. There are no inducements, there are no promises made, inducing her to plea. Also there, transferred in from the prison she has called home since being arrested, is Kaitlyn herself. All right, stand up, ma'am.

Did you hear all that? Yes.

Here in this nondescript courtroom in the small Ontario City of Branford, the court clerk reads out the long list of charges. Caitlin Braun, you stand charged that between the 10th day of October in the year 2022 and the 22nd day of October in the year 2022 in the province of Ontario, willfully did an indecent act while physically naked coerced the victim to perform a massage with intent, with intent to insult or offend- This account goes on for a long time. There are 21 charges in total. And did thereby commit public GIF, contrary to Section 140, 1A of the Criminal Code of Canada. How do you plea in these charges, guilty or not guilty? Guilty. This guilty plea It was just the beginning because Caitlin was about to present a real problem for the courts. That's next time on The Con, Caitlin's Baby.

So the ideal for sentencing for me would be locking her up long enough that she can't do this anymore. To the point where she's 50 and obviously can't pass as a pregnant woman.

We made numerous attempts to contact Caitlin Braun. Outlining the allegations made through this series and inviting her to respond to what has been said. She made it clear to me that she didn't want to be involved with the podcast. The invitation remains open to Caitlin should she change her mind and wish to respond. This is a BBC and BBC World Service production. The show is written, researched, and produced by me, Sarah Treleven. It was also written and produced by Kathleen Goldhar. Extra production support from Andrew Friesen and Alexis Green. Sound design and scoring by Mitchell Stewart. Emily Quinnell is our digital coordinating producer. Our senior producer is Veronica Simmons. The fact checker is Emily Matieu. Our executive producers are Cecil Fernandez and Chris Oak. Tanya Springer is our senior manager, and Arif Noorani is the director of CBC podcast. For the BBC World Service, Kat Collins is the senior producer, and John Manell is the podcast commissioning editor. Ing Editor. A BBC World Service and CBC podcast production.