Amber | Betrayal Weekly

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

makes sense.

I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Betrile, 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 Keele 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, hop and fences to take shortcuts in the summer. We were out until the sun came down,

living on roller blades 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, my pre-pubescent 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 adult she met there weren't safe either. There were some pretty dangerous men in the

neighborhood offering cigarettes and drugs in 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 and empty vodka bottles. And I remember just yelling out, I'm 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 methenphetamines. That was it for me. I had a pain, the outer body experience I was looking for.

So I just kept looking for it. I didn't continue shooting it, 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 methodiction 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 six 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 into pieces. And I was just there with these two little boys and so much fear.

This was the 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 two 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

it's 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

a 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 son 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

and he positioned it like, hey, I just need you to get us by this one time. Like I just need to do

this one thing. You're just going to go give us a hand job and that's it. He's going to pay you

this much and we're going to 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. Well, 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'm just remember the lights freezing, passing like he's driving really fast and

ended up in an emergency room. Amber was rushed into the hospital, still fighting for consciousness.

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 an 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 being sex trafficked. And that went on for five years.

Five 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, I had had broken ribs and broken arm and black eyes and all sorts of issues.

Stitches, but this is the first time I'd 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 going to tell the truth

and my life's going to 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 press 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 detectives like, okay,

I don't want to tip them 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. A stuffed little piece of paper in my pocket.

And she headed home. I folded up into a little square and I hid 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 then 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 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 two 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 9am, 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 at the patrolman outside her house to protect Amber day and night.

Law enforcement would come in and they 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 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 three days at a detox center. And I was an employee detox. 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's 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 can tell he is so angry. And his defense attorney is asking the most horrible

questions right like, oh, you liked it. And you wanted to do this. And I could not believe it.

Up on the stand, Amber thought of familiar feeling taking over. That over simulation 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 with the suffocating feeling,

smelling up higher than before. I drove right to the block, bought the most heroine 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, God damn it. The sun is down. I'm like totally

disoriented. And I'm like looking around. I've been robbed. Like the ripped cereal 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 have 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 a check-in by email. We're

not going to have a drug test or anything. So of course, I just continue 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 almost steering

well and I sit back and I try to open my eyes. She realized she was in front of the police department.

I had side-swiped 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 going to 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 going to 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. They knew that there was

something growing in me that was going to take me far. I felt like I was obligated to turn what

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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 nine 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 save 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 Exodus. 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 Candace 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 Candace a message.

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

This time Candace responded and they hopped on a call.

Amber explained who she was and told Candace 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.

Candace 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 in 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 and all.

Candace greeted her and encouraged her to sit down and make herself at home.

Then, Candace 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 wasn't pressed. That was exactly the kind of work she was passionate about.

She was excited to meet someone who shared her goals. The two women kept talking and Amber learned

more about Candace's life. She's a single mom and she's a nurse and she's raising two

boys of her own. I was like, oh, God, she's kind of inspiring. You know, like she had that

super mom thing that I had only obtained while on cocaine. She motivated me.

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

Utah is 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,

Candace 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, Candace 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

was 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,

ran-unikes, 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 going to align with this nonprofit and I'm just going to put

all my fire into it. She told Candace she was all in. She wanted to volunteer as much as she could

to help the organization grow. Let's get this scene going in. Let's do it right. Let's get it up

off the ground. And that's what they did. Together, Amber and Candace 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 is survivor needs in advocacy? What navigating the court

system looks like. And that's kind of my forte. Amber began working directly with survivors.

Lawyers have reached out to me and they'll 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, Candace, here's a survivor. I'm going to utilize Polaris Project for flights.

Safehouse Project for placement. LDS Hospital for detox. She's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, cool, do it all.

As they began working closely together, Candace offered Amber one-on-one coaching to help her

achieve her goals. Amber was eager to learn from Candace. 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. Candace would invite Amber over to her house. Amber met her two 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, Candace told Amber that she thought it would

be really powerful if Amber shared her story publicly. To promote what after care can do for

her survivor and how Exodus can be that organization. Amber always had to fight hard to be heard,

kicking down doors herself. Now Candace 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,

Candace had some recommendations on how Amber presented herself.

I cost a lot and for Utah women, it can be really off-putting. She did explain that to break

down certain doors, it 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 Candace started coaching Amber on how to deliver her story in the most impactful way.

Candace 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. Candace 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.

Candace 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, Candace made Amber feel like the most important

person in the room. She would take me right to these individuals and she said this is the

Amber I was telling you about. And then with the camera's rolling Amber would tell her story.

She'd explained the realities of what sex trafficking looked like in Utah and how Exodus

was working to change that. Candace was right there with her supporting her.

She made me feel like surviving the hars that I had been through and some of these really embarrassing

moments of my life like prison and rehabs and psychiatric stays were not to be shamed based and

that they can be transmitted 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

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 sitting 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 Candace out on site to the hotels because she's a medical

professional. And I'll say headquarters at Homeland Security from when they bring the survivor

back if they 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 staying operation was covered on the news, highlighting Candace'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. They were safe housing and

transport in 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 a 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 two 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 have this done. This was my dream.

One day, Candace 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, Candace 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 extra curricular 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 that 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 Candace that

she was ready to come on full time as a paid employee. I've already been working so hard at this.

I can imagine that the work now that I've been 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 full time. Get 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 relaxed.

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

Like, okay, well, maybe I just need to be more assertive.

So she reached out to Candace and her personal assistant, Orra.

I'm like, hey, I'm going to get a meeting. I need to have access to the share point.

SharePoint is the platform where Exodus stored all of their documents and files. Candace responded

right away. Oh, yeah, yeah, you know, let's do it. Let's do it. But then, for three days, it was just

more silence. I'm feeling so guilty. I'm taking a paycheck and I'm totally my thumbs.

Like, what the hell? That can't be what leadership position is.

So she reached out to Candace again. She told her she needed to be fully on board it.

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.

Candace, like, oh, yeah, Orra has access to all of that stuff.

So Amber reached out to Orra and Orra is like, oh, okay. Well, let me talk to Candace first

because I haven't heard that. It's like this weird communication is happening and it's stalling.

Red flags are going off inside of me. I'm like, what the hell is going on?

Finally, Orra had an update. She's like, Mimi O'Hare Candace's house. I found a laptop for you.

I go over to Candace's house and I get this laptop and I get the log into the share point.

For Exodus Companywide.

What she saw next stunned her.

I'm looking at it and it isn't enough documentation to fill a short story for 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, as stuff that you would need, uploading, uploading

everything into share point. But I'm trying to find any reason to make any of this make sense.

She asked Candace what all these documents were missing.

And Candace, 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 Candace 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 one. They'll need medical, they'll need detox. Upstairs will be a

girl that are a little bit more stabilized just need continuing case management.

This was a much needed resource. Amber was surprised that Candace 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 a wash hatch now. It's stunning.

Candace 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. Candace 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. They 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

Candace's stuff that was in the basement and first floor of the house. Candace 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, Candace 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 in order that I really want to.

So Amber just focused on getting Candace's house ready. I'm working my butt off,

taking things off the walls, patching holes, taking trash to dumps, grinding it out,

nine, ten 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 and walked off the off.

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 Candace and the

authorities. One morning, Amber was getting ready to go over to Candace's house.

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

Then, her phone rang. It was Candace. She was 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.

So,

one morning, Candace 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, spraying 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 Candace's bank.

Sure enough, a law enforcement officer was standing by Candace's car. He gave Amber the keys

and they took the car back to Candace'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 Candace. We got

to get her out of there, you guys. This is bullshit. Something's going on. And, or I'm like,

well, I just don't know who to trust anymore. And I'm like, what? Amber had always known aura

to be Candace's best friend. What do you mean? You don't know who to trust anymore. You're going

to jump ship right when your boss best friends need you the most. What the hell is going on?

Then Amber's phone started ringing again. It was Candace. She's devastated, crying. She's like,

Amber, there's so many charges. I'm like, well, what is it? It'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 Candace. I know we're

going to get you out of there. Don't worry. I'm still in rescue mode. I'm like, I got to get my

girl out of there. I'm contenty, Bill Boswell's 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 Candace's kids from school. She even took Candace'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. Candace, Alexandria, leard, also known as Candace Rivera, 30-seps,

and a nurse. But she was never licensed or registered in Utah.

In false representations to donors, we 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 started banging on the walls and then I started 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, a chimafon on and its

Instagram messages, a hundred text messages, 14 voice smells.

I'm just stastantly going through all of them and I'm calling people.

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

When she was like, I'm so sorry, I wish I could have told you. And I'm like, what?

What do you mean? I wish you could have said she like Amber 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 Candace for months.

Many people Amber worked with in politics and law enforcement knew.

Desperate for answers, Amber Googled Candace's name and up came the 34 charges.

Fraud, theft, forgery. 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 and Homeland Security. They already knew.

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 all of them 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 got to lock in. I've got to

identify and locate and we got to figure this out. There's real cases that are happening and being

jeopardized right now. Her 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 Canvas. They don't believe Canvas. 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. The 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 asturbed. 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. Candace had been embezzling money from Exodus. She stole the money

that they had raised that was supposed to go toward supporting survivors and spend it on herself.

For instance, she stole $200,000 of donations. I used them for the down payment of her house and

Alpine. Amber felt sick. I'm like, oh God, I remember that. She remembered Candace talking about

how she'd been able to afford the down payment. At the time, Candace told her, she had explained she

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

The down payment was just one example out of many. For years, Candace used the non-profit

donations as her personal bank account to fund a lavish lifestyle. She went on international

vacations, drove multiple luxury cars, ate at the most expensive restaurants, bought designer clothes,

$200,000 to be coming in from donors that went to her own personal expensive.

Candace repeatedly prayed 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,

Candace spent that money on herself. Candace Rivera was not who she said she was. Even her name

was a lie. Her legal name is Candace Leard. She created a false persona and fabricated medical

credentials. Candace gave trafficking survivors prescription medications,

evaluated wounds, and made medical recommendations. It was later reported in outlets like

a weekly in Yahoo News that in her international work, Candace performed medical procedures

and administered drugs to sick children, all without having a license.

The dark is part of her crimes. Don't even appear on her long list of charges.

Unicorn Girl, a recent investigative podcast about Candace's crimes, reported on her international work.

Candace 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 literally did buy and spoiled herself,

bought new Rolexes and clothes and traded herself to the finer things that Dubai has offered

where people would die. We need to be exited. Some of them lost their lives. Sometimes the 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

thought unsteady and shaky. The organization she poured years of her life into was a fraud,

and Candace was a dangerous person. And then I get a call from Candace from the jail. I'm like,

Candace, I just got off the phone with the agent's office and they're saying this and this.

They said that no one was ever even rescued from Afghanistan and she's like, Amber, they're lying.

I

Amber started pressing her about specifics, like the $200,000 donation that Candace stole to pay

for the down payment of her house. I was like, Candace, what did you do with this $200,000 that was

sent? She was like, that was a mistake and I just immediately to recognize the lie. Amber kept

pressing her, demanding answers. And she's like, Amber, I did all of this for you. I remember

she was 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, Candace insisted that she was innocent.

And that was the last time she ever called. The last time she ever called, I think she knows she

had been caught. Amber started looking back on the year she spent volunteering and working with

Exodus. Since the very beginning, Candace 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 Candace had stolen that money for

herself. Candace took my story and made millions off of it for herself, living with lavish lifestyle

and utilizing my story for credibility and for her own personal gain.

Candace even coached Amber to tell her story in a very specific way, a way that would encourage

people to open their pocketbooks. And what 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 Candace ever planning on turning her house

into transitional housing for survivors? Or had Amber just been sent to do busy work?

Just to get me off her back, asking questions of what the hell was going on with the paperwork,

what is going on with the efficiency of this organization?

Exitist 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 Candace, all that work was just a front for her larger cash grab.

Amber cares deeply about improving the systems that failed her. And Candace 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, Candace,

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.

It took care of me until I re-acclimated back into my body.

Amber had to reset her life. The list of people she trusted had shrunk dramatically.

She stayed updated with Candace's trial by communicating directly with the investigators.

In the end, Candace pled no contest to nine 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 Candace'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 Candace'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 Candace, 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.

I'm gonna 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 walks

sides with me and she could tell she's just angry and I'm like, oh shit.

The judge was not pleased, but Amber's complaint worked.

Candace's 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, Candace leared was sentenced to three 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 that didn't.

And she was sent to prison on consecutive sentences.

At the time I'm recording this, Candace is still serving a prison sentence.

Some people who knew her have tried to make excuses for her,

saying that Candace met 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 not. People were hurt.

Since the truth about ex-dison Candace has come out,

law enforcement is reticent to collaborate with anti-trafficking non-profits in Utah.

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

But perpetrators like Candace?

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 Candace'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

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.

Candace has a parole hearing coming up in November, 2026.

She wants to remind people about the damage Candace 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 partners of 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?

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