Original subtitles

Brandon was the full package.

You like that, baby?

Oh, yeah.

Charming. -That's good.

You like that.

Charismatic.

[tense music]

[laughs]

But sadly, it was too good to be true.

The person that I thought he was, he didn't exist.

-Just stop. Stop. Stop! -You need help.

I wake up to a text message, "Your time is coming, bitch."

We found out Brandon was in California.

And there's a new woman that's being preyed upon.

He was following her.

His behavior started becoming more possessive.

He was sneaking around her house at night,

looking through her windows.

He's gonna kill her.

Brandon has multiple charges stacked against him.

The resisting arrest, the police chase

with my daughter in the car.

Why isn't he being arrested for all this stuff?

She finally answers the phone,

and I can hear panic in her voice.

And he's got what appears to be a gun.

It's like a predator going after his prey.

[glass shatters]

[relaxing music]

♪ ♪

Rachel and I were next door neighbors.

We actually did it.

I can't believe we did it.

She was definitely more than just a friend.

Rachel was like family.

[screams]

Newly single, she hadn't been dating for a very long time.

So she was working through it.

She was looking for a guy who was family-oriented,

who was a good person.

So when Rachel came to me and told me

she found a guy that was perfect, I was very excited.

See? Look at that.

All opens up.

He had a daughter, and his name was Brandon.

He had a PhD. He dressed nice.

And he looked really good on paper.

I thought this could go further.

I knew that her new boyfriend was gonna be

my new best friend and my husband's new best friend,

and so I was really excited to go out with them.

[suspenseful music]

A little bit later, we went out axe-throwing.

We had a couple drinks there.

Yeah, throwing axes while drinking, that's fun.

Take it!

[laughs]

The first half of the night was so much fun.

Good job!

We had a great time.

Then Rachel and I found a girlfriend,

and we were dancing with our new friend.

The girls are dancing,

and I'm just having a beer at the bar.

Brandon had been there, keeping an eye on her.

And then next thing you know, it's like, where'd he go?

[upbeat music]

We had to go to the bathroom.

We were there for a couple of minutes,

and then the door slams open.

And I look up there, and there's Brandon.

His eyes were blacked.

They were glossed over.

He looked like he wanted to murder somebody.

And he started yelling at Rachel.

"How dare you disrespect me?

How dare you dance with this other girl?"

He had a glass cup.

He smashes it down, smashes everywhere,

and just walks out.

I was terrified because I did see the devil.

I saw the devil in his eyes.

[tense music]

I was just very grateful that my husband was there.

And Rachel came home with us.

I told Nikki that I just got a really bad feeling about him.

He's going to chop her up into a million little pieces.

He's... he's gonna kill her.

After the incident, after the axe-throwing,

I thought that that was gonna be

the end of Rachel and Brandon.

[uneasy music]

If it was up to me, that would have been

the last time we ever heard from Brandon.

[all yelling]

But he turned the entire situation around.

He told Rachel he did not throw the glass down.

He manipulated her into believing that

she was in the wrong, not him.

And she felt sorry for him.

But I didn't trust him.

I thought Brandon was gaslighting her.

Rachel and I had been really close friends

for about 11 years.

[camera shutter clicks]

Rachel was just getting back into dating after her divorce.

And we were online dating at the same time,

and I actually came across Brandon's profile, I think,

before she did, and I swiped left on him.

I thought he looked like a serial killer.

There were just a lot of things that

he was doing with Rachel that was making me very cautious.

He said that he had a degree in psychology.

I never saw him do any type of psychology work.

Never saw him have a job.

He said that his ex-wife was pretty much out of the picture,

and he spent a lot of time with his daughter.

To me, that was a red flag,

because why is he living in California

with no child that I ever saw.

In the beginning, Brandon only told

Rachel he had one ex-wife.

He did not tell her that he had two ex-wives.

And then Amber and Athena reached out to Rachel.

No one ever saw this coming, but here we are.

-My name is Athena. -And I'm Amber.

And we are "Ex-Wives Undercover."

We found out Brandon was in California now

and there was a woman named Rachel being preyed upon.

We knew that we needed to get her

up to date on the real Brandon.

We were scared of what he might do.

We were able to get a phone number,

and we crafted a well thought-out text message.

Hi, Rachel.

We were given your information recently,

and we wanted to reach out to you

and tell you the truth about the guy you are dating.

He is not the person you think he is.

But we knew that she might not believe

everything that we were saying.

She did open the door a little bit with us.

And I got on the phone with her and definitely

let her know that I understand where she's coming from.

I was in her shoes.

With Athena and Amber reaching out,

Rachel confronted Brandon,

and Brandon had an entire sob story.

He was basically telling her he had done some things

that he wasn't proud of, like cheating,

so they had done this podcast as kind of their revenge.

He was adding yet another woman to his harem of chicks.

He told Rachel his ex-wives are not very stable.

He's a fucking liar.

And out to get him.

I think we got a bad one.

And did not want him to be happy.

Oh, man, that is embarrassing shit.

Rachel had this dilemma of who do I trust.

Do I trust Brandon, or do I trust these

two women that I don't know?

And when you're with someone,

you wanna take their side.

You wanna believe them, you know.

She was a very loyal person.

That's one of her great qualities.

He had a story for everything.

He told her that he is a new person.

He is doing all the things necessary for him to heal.

Rachel was a very kind person.

If she felt that somebody was sorry and repentive

over the situation,

she would give you another shot.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

By 2022, I didn't know if

Rachel and Brandon were together at this point,

but he is still in my life.

[police siren wailing]

After the crazy experiences with Brandon,

with my daughter Sydney, and the police chase with him,

I remember just going to bed completely exhausted.

♪ ♪

One night I wake up to a text message.

And it says, "Your time is coming, bitch."

Receiving the threat

and seeing a phone number that,

you know, I didn't recognize,

it completely threw me off-guard.

I just felt very panicked.

As soon as I get that text, I'm locking my doors.

There's nothing that would make me believe that

Brandon wasn't just, like, standing outside in my backyard

or my front yard just waiting, waiting for me.

I got a phone call from Athena.

We did not recognize the phone number that

texted that message, but without a doubt,

we knew it was Brandon Johnson.

I want to go to the police about this,

but what did we have? An anonymous threat?

We knew that police would not be able to do anything

unless we had 100% proof that we could connect Brandon

with that phone number.

It was gonna be very difficult,

but Athena came up with the idea of, maybe Rachel knows.

Maybe he had used this number speaking with Rachel.

We were hoping she would respond,

but we really didn't know.

My text to Rachel was just simply,

"Does this phone number look familiar to you?"

To my surprise, she said yeah.

But from my prior experience, I knew that

I had to get solid evidence of this.

Then I just asked if she could take a screenshot

and she didn't hesitate.

As soon as I got that screenshot from Rachel,

my thought was, "I got you."

I knew that death threat was going

against Brandon's probation,

and I am fully aware that Brandon has

multiple charges stacked against him.

The resisting arrest, the police car chase

with my daughter in the vehicle,

the violation of the no-contact orders.

And he also had 13 felony counts pending

because he was embezzling money from an employer,

and this is another check on his list of offenses.

I'm just hoping that this takes us over to the next step.

Maybe jail time.

I just thought, why isn't he being

arrested for all this stuff?

That's the million dollar question.

We had talked about it on our podcast,

but the problem was that now he's in California

and the jurisdiction don't match.

So all the things that were going on in Washington,

you know, no one's gonna be driving down

to California to arrest him.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

Brandon's behavior started becoming more possessive,

and Rachel believed he was reading her text messages.

He was following her.

His behavior was erratic.

I didn't want Rachel to be with Brandon,

and I tried to help her get out many times,

but I could understand why it was so,

so hard for her to get out.

I'm a forensic nurse examiner for rape and strangulation,

sexual assaults, and I have a lot of experience

of coercive control and abuse.

The abusers pick victims that are usually

very kind-hearted, that they know

are gonna have a hard time leaving.

They twist things around to control

and manipulate their victims.

They have gas lit them.

They have confused them.

They'll often do things like threaten suicide.

Brandon did this as well.

They do many, many things where it is so hard

for the victim to get out.

I could see all of the signs that Rachel was

in this type of relationship.

Brandon knew Rachel's group of friends did not like him.

Brandon especially knew I did not like him.

One night he approached me and started talking to me

about Nikki and how controlling she was

and how she was basically ruining

his and Rachel's relationship.

He told Lauren, the only thing in the way

between Rachel and me is Nikki,

and he will do whatever it takes to get Rachel.

It was a huge turning point for all of us.

We all got together and did tell her

that we did not think he was good for her.

-And he lied about it all. -Oh, my God.

And she realized that the podcasts were true.

Girl, don't do it.

Don't be me. Don't be me.

And everything she was told was one lie

after another lie after another lie.

And so she was done with the relationship.

And that's when Brandon started to really get angry,

and things started to escalate.

I knew that if Brandon was gonna hold

anybody responsible, it was gonna be me.

[soft music]

♪ ♪

By the beginning of 2022, we are so proud of Rachel

for breaking it off with Brandon.

No Brandon, no drama.

And we were able to live our lives

and not look over our backs.

[ominous music]

But one day, I noticed that the side of my car was keyed.

Her car wasn't parked at home or at her job,

so I just went, oh, well, what did you do?

Did you cut somebody off?

I felt that it was a random act of vandalism.

Not long after that, my tire was slashed.

And a couple days later, I walk out from work again

and the other side of my car is keyed, every panel.

And that's when I got really scared.

And that's when I knew someone was targeting me.

Nikki and I and Rachel all talk about it,

and the only conclusion that we come to is Brandon.

We can't prove that.

But Rachel did reach out and text message Amber and Athena.

♪ ♪

Rachel asked if this was something

Brandon could have done,

and immediately our response was yes.

In our opinion, this had Brandon written all over it.

♪ ♪

We knew from our own experiences, as well as

other women that dated Brandon, that the minute

they tried to break free

that this type of thing would happen.

And if he's vandalizing this car,

that could mean there was a tracker on it.

So we were very adamant that you need to get

your car checked right now.

I checked the fuel filler and under the hood.

Then I got underneath the vehicle

and just worked my way around.

And was about to give up when I reached up

and found a magnetic device

about the size of a hockey puck.

Oh, my gosh, there's a GPS tracker on my wife's car.

It was scary, you know, somebody...

somebody's tracking us.

Somebody is watching us.

After I text Rachel and told her about the tracker,

about 20 minutes later, I get a picture

of the exact same tracker on her son's car.

As soon as I hear that, I...

I couldn't be more serious.

I told her, you need to go to the police right away.

We knew that if Brandon was putting a tracker

on Nikki's car, that he was really escalating

and becoming more and more aggressive.

Brandon wants to be your one and only.

The woman had given us a video of an incident where

a man appeared to crouch behind a car

parked in front of her house.

The brake lines were cut on that vehicle.

We certainly couldn't prove that it was Brandon,

but we were incredibly suspicious.

I was worried about Brandon was capable

of doing far worse to Nikki, to Rachel.

We didn't know where he was gonna hit,

how he was gonna hit, when he was gonna hit.

But it was just a matter of time.

And I think he just took it beyond anything

that was even imaginable.

[eerie music]

After we found the tracker, Amber and Athena said

Brandon's actions is a part of his playbook.

Brandon has been known to do whatever he could do

to isolate the girl that he is dating from her best friend.

I called the police, but we were told that

because we couldn't prove that it was Brandon

that it would be difficult to qualify as stalking.

And all they could do was take a police report.

I wasn't really surprised because these types of abusers

get very clever and know exactly

what they can and cannot get away with.

I felt fearful for myself and the safety of my family.

We're pretty vulnerable.

It's like, what... what is he willing to do at this point?

You know, kind of looking over your shoulder.

[gunshot]

We purchased a couple of handguns.

We took a firearms class.

And we were... we were gonna be ready if he showed up.

[tense music]

Brandon wouldn't go away.

He would go wherever Rachel went.

He would stalk her.

He followed her at work, yoga studio.

He was everywhere.

She felt fearful.

Things were getting very creepy.

Brandon would send Rachel text messages

quoting exact sentences that we said in private.

♪ ♪

We... we were all really confused.

We didn't know where the information was coming from.

Rachel had texted me.

I just kept saying, he's got to have your phone, like, bugged.

He probably has spyware. That's gotta be what it is.

Rachel kept reassuring me that she absolutely

had her phone checked, her computer checked,

and that they found nothing.

I'm kind of dumbfounded and absolutely clueless

as to how he is finding out all of this.

I was scared for Rachel.

We don't know where his eyes and ears are.

It's like a predator going after his prey.

♪ ♪

Because of Brandon's behavior,

Rachel planned a Valentine's Day girl weekend,

and she wanted a fun good time.

Unfortunately, I was too scared to go, so I stayed home.

Our friend Erin had come to visit,

and we were having a lot of fun together.

But then Brandon started texting Rachel things

that we were saying, like almost in that moment,

as in to like respond to it.

[eerie music]

♪ ♪

He would contact her on, like, many phones,

so it's not like you could block him.

We were all kind of getting freaked out.

I'm like, we need to check the house

because he has a bug in here.

So we start, like, looking around.

We checked everywhere.

And then Rachel finds this box kind of thing...

Tied to under the bed with her hair ties.

And it ended up being the camera and listening device.

♪ ♪

It turns out he had been listening under her bed

for God knows how long.

It's creepy.

And it's just, like, all kinds of wrong.

Rachel called me and it all came together at that moment.

A lot of our conversations took place in her bedroom.

It must have been transmitting to his phone directly.

We felt violated.

Rachel reported it to the police.

They were concerned, but the police did say

that it would be difficult to prove that

it was Brandon who put it in.

I know that several people actually touched the camera,

and so it would be difficult to dust it for fingerprints.

They took a report, but we felt defeated.

We started to wonder, like, how did he

put the camera under the bed?

My guess is, he broke in through a window

and planted it when she wasn't there.

And that made us very scared for her safety.

One of us mentioned that she should reach out

to Amber and Athena and get their advice

because they've already lived through this.

I thought, wow, camera under her bed.

Oh, shit.

Hearing that he was hearing her private conversations,

we immediately thought, oh great, like,

he's gonna know what we've been telling her.

We spoke on the phone while she was seated on her bed,

and now we were all at risk for Brandon's retaliation.

♪ ♪

We said, you need to catch him red-handed.

So the only way we knew to make sure that she had proof

was installing cameras both inside and outside her home.

♪ ♪

At that point, it's not if Brandon will do something,

it's when and what will Brandon do today.

She had placed cameras in there,

and he was sneaking around her house at night.

Looking through her windows.

And one night, she called me and told me that he had somehow

broken into her place again and turned all the cameras

in her bedroom off.

Rachel did reach out to law enforcement.

They took a report, but we had no idea where he was at.

I panicked.

I told Rachel, whatever it takes,

you need to get that camera back working ASAP.

Then we made a pact that we would check in with each other

several times throughout the day,

just to make sure we were safe.

I mean, he was gonna stop at nothing.

[eerie music]

♪ ♪

That following Tuesday, she worked

a very, very long shift.

It was dark. It was nighttime.

I called her several times and she wasn't picking up,

and I was terrified.

[line trills]

My heart rate's probably at 150.

I am debating about calling the cops.

And she finally answers the phone,

and I can hear panic in her voice.

♪ ♪

Rachel told me Brandon came out of nowhere

wearing a black sweatshirt

with zip ties around his wrist.

He tried to pull her in the van that he was driving.

[line trilling]

And at that point,

I was calling over and over and over,

and Brandon did hear her phone ringing

and let go of her wrists and allowed her

to escape to her car.

We advised Rachel to go get a restraining order ASAP.

This is an incredibly scary time

because the minute he knows

that you're going to that extreme,

he will flip on you.

However, in California, in order for a restraining order

to be valid, not only do you need all the evidence,

but you actually have to serve

the restraining order to the individual.

When we didn't want him around, he was everywhere.

And then when Rachel got a restraining order

and tried to get him to serve him, he was gone.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

On March 1st, Rachel told everybody

she wanted to stay at home

because she had a hot date with her laundry.

And then Brandon called Rachel and she answered.

Since Rachel wasn't able to find him,

she basically sat on FaceTime with him

while she was doing laundry so that she could

try and find out where he was so that she could serve him.

By the end of the call, you know,

he's trying to flirt with me.

Like, he's complimenting me like, oh, you look

really cute in that tank top.

You know, I'm still talking to him,

just trying to have some type of information on

where he's staying in order to try to get him served,

but he's like, let me come see you.

It's like, no, we're not doing this.

This is not a relationship anymore by any means.

And so I hung up the phone and then I just went to sleep.

The next morning, Rachel called me

and it was a phone call I will never, ever forget.

[eerie music]

♪ ♪

[knocking]

That night, she was asleep.

Brandon broke into her house.

Next thing she knew is, Brandon was in her room.

And he's having sex with her.

And she was telling him no and he did not listen.

I mean, he's a huge guy too.

I mean, he's like, I don't know, 6'2".

He's built.

You know, it was heartbreaking to hear that

from your best friend.

[somber music]

♪ ♪

It was very shocking that after that night,

Brandon acted like he did not think he did anything wrong.

But he did. He went in there unannounced.

She told him no, and she was incredibly scared.

I truly think Brandon had everything mapped out.

But the camera that was in Rachel's room

that captured the assault,

Brandon thought he disabled, and he did not.

I tried to like, talk to her and asked if she wanted

to contact law enforcement.

She didn't want to at the time.

I think there's a lot of shame, you know,

with sexual assault victims of even going forward.

A lot of people feel like it's their fault.

It was just really sad.

The next day, Rachel had to go to the police station

for all the documentation for the restraining order,

and she started receiving text messages from Brandon.

He was worried.

And once she receives all of these text messages,

it's very apparent that he was still tracking her.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

I got pissed, and so I told Rachel, you know what?

This is how we're gonna get him.

You tell him, you text message him

that he needs to come in person to take

that tracker off your car, and he needs to meet you now.

♪ ♪

So once Brandon agreed to meet Rachel,

she got a friend to serve him the restraining order.

I was relieved that he was served,

but I knew that it would make him more mad.

On March 11th, Rachel and I had to go to court

to get that no-contact order ratified,

and we were expecting Brandon to show up.

Brandon was not there.

He was on a Zoom call,

and also, Brandon's camera was off,

so we didn't know if he was in Washington or California.

And then he requested for the court date

to be changed to a later date so he could obtain a lawyer.

And that is what happened.

But he knew that there was no going back.

And since he knew that, what now?

It's March 11th, I'm downstairs,

talking to Amber on the phone.

As we're talking, I receive a text message

from a close friend of Brandon's.

Brandon had texted him.

This is it. I'm gonna end it.

Bitches pushed me too far.

Who were the bitches?

Me? Athena? Rachel?

All of us?

[tense music]

And then I get a video, and it shows him driving

in a truck or some rented car,

and he's got what appears to be a gun in his seat.

That was the scary part.

I've never seen him with a gun.

He is not legally allowed to carry a gun.

The fact that he would risk doing that in a car

and sending a video means that the man is cracked.

He clearly had serious intentions with that gun.

Something bad is about to go down.

♪ ♪

After everything going on with Brandon,

Rachel and I decided to go have a drink.

Randomly, an old friend, Austin,

reached out to her for the first time in quite some time.

I didn't actually know she was going to court that morning

for the restraining order, so I called Rachel that day

asking her, are you available later that night?

Austin is a very mellow, chill kind of guy.

He's the complete opposite of Brandon,

and I thought it was perfect.

She had a stressful day, so I think

it was relieving for her that she wanted company to come over

and she was happy.

We went back to Rachel's house.

I think Austin showed up about 30 minutes after I left.

I had no idea that that could have been the last time

I ever saw my best friend.

[soft music]

♪ ♪

Okay.

Are you sure you're ready for this?

Yeah.

Yeah, let's try.

Okay.

Okay.

You never think that something like this

is gonna happen to you.

And you do, you think, this is just the stuff I see on TV.

And...[chuckles] I was wrong.

[eerie music]

That night, Austin and I were just over at my house,

and it felt like a great way to just forget

about everything that was happening.

We're in her room.

She wanted somebody that she knew

she could trust to be around.

Austin and I are just having casual conversation,

and then all of a sudden, I noticed this light

appears on his forehead.

And then all I see is a big light

just walking through the door.

Austin's expression abruptly changed.

I knew when I was about to turn around

that it wasn't something good.

I knew who it was.

Brandon had appeared out of nowhere,

and it looked like a gun in his hand.

He had a knife in his hand.

I was really scared.

There was this just negative dark energy coming from him.

There was no exit.

Rachel was sitting next to me.

I felt trapped.

My mind attempted to protect me, to tell me to stay calm.

And there isn't really a man in here with a gun

pointing at you who's here to attack you.

So my instinct was to attempt to talk to him,

to bring him out of it in a way.

What are you doing here?

Give me that. -No.

But there was no getting through.

You're looking at her right now?

-Yeah. -Brandon!

So you're looking at her now?

He put me into a headlock.

It became clear that as I attempted to struggle,

he was not gonna be letting me go.

You're looking at her right now?

Yes.

This man has a strength that I don't possess.

And he pinned me down with his forearm.

You know who I am?

[grunts] [thud]

And then he hit me straight on the forehead.

And the gun or the knife split my forehead open.

You just cut my head with a knife.

It was a pretty good amount of blood dripping down my face.

I'm gonna fucking shoot you right now.

And then was just screaming and yelling, you know,

I'm gonna blow your head off. I'm gonna kill you both.

Do it and I'll shoot you, little fuckers.

Are you serious right now?

Throwing her against the wall.

That's what made me freak out.

I'm fucking shoot your fucking head off.

I jumped up off the bed.

There was no thinking. There was no thought.

It was just go.

[Rachel yelling]

Fuck out of my way, man.

[both grunting]

He had that gun in his hand.

I had grabbed him, and he had shot it off

and it had missed me.

But after I heard that first initial pop,

that's when I figured out that, oh, this isn't a gun.

Seeing the cords coming out of the tip of it,

I found out this is a Taser.

But he still did have that knife in his hand.

Hey! Calm the fuck down!

They were wrestling and fighting

and things were moving fast.

Brandon! Stop it.

[overlapping yelling]

I had to seize whatever moment I could

to grab my phone and call the police.

Calm the fuck down!

And then actually holding my phone,

the fear and overwhelm was really starting to come in.

Calm down now!

Calm down!

And I just froze and was like,

what... what phone number do I dial?

Where's the phone button?

It was just so overwhelming.

Calm now!

You done?

He was a lot bigger than me,

but I had trained in jiu jitsu,

so finally I choked him unconscious.

Finally, I was able to pull myself back in

to actually make that phone call to the police.

Please, walk out.

At that point, I started taking him out of the house,

and that's when I heard the sirens.

[sirens wailing]

Hey, Brandon. Come here.

The cops kind of swarmed in.

Stop fighting!

Don't fight me. Stop! You're gonna get tased.

You're gonna get tased!

Get down on the ground now!

Get on the ground! -Okay, okay.

And it looked like they started to subdue him,

putting one handcuff around his wrist.

-Get on... -Hey, Brandon.

Come here.

And he took off down the street.

[indistinct radio chatter]

Pop that fence.

24-40. Go back to his car.

He's working his way back towards that.

He's right there to your right.

-He was just in here. -Hands up.

Brandon! Come out!

Get down on the ground now!

Get down on the ground now!

Get down on the ground, Brandon!

You're gonna get tased. Taser.

Oh, God damn, stop.

Oh, fuck.

Here, I got him.

Yeah, we're good.

[indistinct radio chatter]

Taser, three times?

Five.

[sirens wailing]

Finally, when they arrested him, took him to jail,

we just went, what the heck just happened?

[tense music]

♪ ♪

Once Brandon was arrested,

the police collected the evidence.

And I noticed that on the inside of the sweatshirt,

there's strips of duct tape.

Why?

Why would there be strips of duct tape

on the inside of the sweater?

And then I started to just look at the officers' faces,

watching them pull things out of the truck.

I remember watching one of the deputies pull a wig out.

There was a huge shift where everyone was quiet.

But I remember looking at that wig and thinking,

why does he have a wig of long hair

that happens to be the opposite color of my hair?

♪ ♪

When the police talked to Brandon,

I knew that he was a person that was gonna try to

change the story, to flip the script, to try to get out

of anything he could.

This is kind of your one time to give us

your side of the story.

This is your time to...

to tell us how everything makes sense.

I couldn't really tell you what story

he would come up with, but just that I could

100% tell you that he would not tell the truth.

Rachel and Brandon were together

for four or five months.

I mean, Rachel and I didn't have any communication

out of respect for that relationship.

So she asked you to place this device on her son's car?

I would never ask Brandon to put a tracker on my son's car.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

Did she ask you to put the camera there?

It felt very violating.

Absolutely disgusting.

It's violating in every way.

The DA told me that Brandon had

a completely different story of what happened that night.

But what they didn't know is that this was all on videotape.

♪ ♪

I only remembered the next morning

that I had that camera on my dresser.

And when I informed the detective

that I had a recording of everything that happened,

he was surprised and very much elated

that they had everything they needed.

I knew that Amber and Athena were concerned,

so I reached out to let them know

that the event had actually been caught on camera.

When we learned there was a camera that caught the attack

and everything, it was just, like, jumping up and down.

Like, we got him, we got him.

And I cannot wait to see them play that video for him.

I cannot wait.

Would it surprise you if Rachael had a camera

set up in her bedroom?

Because she does.

Yeah, she has a camera in there that captured

Friday night's incident.

And it paints a different picture

than what you're telling us.

I'm gonna go grab a file real quick.

Sure.

He was clearly surprised it was a working camera

because he had made an attempt to disable it.

There we go.

The beauty of the video is that it shows that

he clearly puts me in a headlock and pins me down.

Yeah, I mean, does that several times.

What are you doing in...

I'll fucking shoot you. I'll shoot you.

Shut the fuck up!

I heard when Brandon was shown the video,

he can't handle it.

Because there's no getting out of this one.

Gotta do it. Gotta shoot you.

No. Are you serious right now?

Shortly after, the DA came over, sat me down,

and showed me a picture they had of all the things

he had in his truck.

In addition to this wig, there were handcuffs,

and there were zip ties, and there was tape.

And it was in that moment that...

I looked at the picture

and it was like something out of a scary movie.

It didn't make any sense.

And I believe the only intention

behind having something like that

would be to disguise somebody.

And then following up with the thought of,

why would he need to disguise me?

It was conveyed to me at that time,

his plan was to kidnap and rape me at minimum.

But at what point do you get kidnapped and set free?

♪ ♪

-It's Rachel, right? -Correct, yes.

-Are you okay? -Sorry.

I didn't believe it.

There's a person out there that claimed to love me.

I didn't believe that they were also capable

of also having the intention to kidnap and rape me.

It was... it was gut-punching.

[eerie music]

♪ ♪

But then when I discovered that his plan was possibly

even worse than I thought.

A short while after the attack, I was in my garage,

and I stumbled across a shopping bag

that contained ammonia and bleach

that I knew I had never purchased.

Clearly, somebody else had placed it there.

Why?

And then that got me thinking that his plan was

possibly even worse than I thought.

And having to have that conversation with my son,

and just see the fear in his face

and his voice about...

so Mom, like, really there was a chance

that like, I wouldn't...

there's a possible chance that I was

never gonna see you again?

You know, so to have to hear him say those words,

that's when it was... became really devastating.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

My main concern was, he's extremely manipulative,

he's well-spoken, good looking, he's charming.

I worried if he gets in front of a jury,

how is he gonna come across?

Even though I had the video, my worry was

what his side was gonna be.

♪ ♪

I remember Amber and Athena offering me advice

on how to proceed legally,

and to do it in a way that creates a paper trail,

because he had a way of flipping things

within the legal system and creating false documents

to support his side of things.

[phone rings]

My phone rings, and a detective

with the El Dorado Hills Police Department is calling.

At this point, Brandon was in custody

and Detective Chris Macres

was really trying to build his case,

and he reached out to myself and Athena to get our help.

Thankfully, because of the podcast,

we had documented all of Brandon's criminal charges,

even just timelines, events, women.

Having the two ex-wives school them

on Brandon Johnson was kind of eye-opening for him.

All the evidence painted a very clear picture

for those detectives to see that, wow,

this is so much bigger than just this incident

here in California.

But by the end of this, Amber and myself

were never subpoenaed to go to court

because the case against Brandon

was so strong it wasn't needed.

[soft music]

I receive the phone call that

there's a deal on the table, a plea deal of ten years.

And I remember asking, do you think this is fair?

And my representation said yes.

And then I was like, okay,

that seems valuable enough to me.

He's going to jail for 10 years.

Solid?

No option to dispute it,

ten years in the slammer.

Oh, my God.

I feel like I should cry, but I can't.

I think I'm just in shock.

Yeah.

This was the moment that I've been waiting

probably 16 years for.

It's just a very long time to wait for justice to be served.

♪ ♪

In all honesty, he deserves so much more.

He really does.

But there was just relief that now he was

going to start his prison sentence.

Our mission statement on the podcast at the very beginning

was that women had each other's back.

And I did very much feel that...

that this was vindication, so to speak.

I'm definitely very grateful for Amber and Athena,

for their support and their guidance.

Without that, we wouldn't have taken

a lot of the protective measures that we did.

And I think they're important as to why Rachel's safe.

After everything that had happened,

I realized that someone's kind of taken something from you,

but you can take it back.

And that's been really important for me.

[wind chimes tinkling]

Sadly, Brandon will never change his ways.

He is who he is, and this is just an evil person.

There's another woman out there who's potentially

his next victim, and I just don't want anyone else

to have to ever go through that.

Brandon Johnson will never win.

I won't allow it. Mm-mm.

[hopeful music]

The big change I would make is to have a database,

a system put into place to make sure that if you are entering

a domestic relationship, no matter where you were,

you would see that person's, all of their criminal activity.

We could lobby. We could make a change.

Brandon Johnsons exist all around the world

in different sizes, shapes, names.

They... they're out there.

So we're not gonna allow them to terrorize women anymore.

[soft dramatic music]

♪ ♪