Original subtitles

[soft music]

- They had a very idyllic life.

ANDREA MERRIMAN: What are you doing, Shawn?

- Relaxing.

- I used to lay in bed at night and go, our life is so perfect.

- But that came at a cost.

- He starts to see the writing on the wall.

- He destroyed my universe.

- A warning tonight to be careful who you trust.

MERRIMAN: He told me, the whole time we've been married,

I've been living a secret double life.

[suspenseful music]

- It doesn't feel real.

SHAWN: I'm Shawn Merriman.

- My husband's a dark, horrible, greedy criminal.

- Life is ripped out from under you.

- Nobody can believe this.

MERRIMAN: A neighbor was so angry with Shawn.

He had a gun.

- It was a terrifying situation.

MERRIMAN: Everything is racing.

The end was near.

♪ ♪

ANDREA GUNNING: I'm Andrea Gunning, and this is Betrayal,

a show about the people we trust the most

and the deceptions that change everything.

[suspenseful music]

Andrea Merriman fell in love

with a charming and ambitious man

who made her family rich in more ways than one.

But a shocking confession reveals that everything

she thought she knew about her husband

was a lie.

Andrea, it's so good to see you again.

- It's good to chat with you again.

- How would you define the betrayal that happened to you?

- The ultimate betrayal on every front.

The man I married turned out to be capable of things

I could never have comprehended.

[soft music]

♪ ♪

I grew up mostly in Grand Junction, Colorado.

I'm the oldest of five.

KIM: We had an amazing childhood.

We grew up with lots of opportunities

and wonderful parents.

MERRIMAN: We were a household of faith.

We belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ

of Latter-day Saints.

So when I was going to college, I was accepted

to Brigham Young University.

I worked part time in the office at the apartment complex

that we lived in as college students.

And one day, a boy named Shawn Merriman

showed up to pay his rent.

He had a reputation of being a very nice guy,

a successful guy.

He drove a BMW.

He shopped at the best stores.

He had the finest shoes.

I just thought he was a very nice person,

but I also thought he was really intelligent.

And that was attractive to me.

But also, my faith is something very important to me,

so I was totally happy that Shawn was a man of God.

♪ ♪

GUNNING: Andrea was raised her whole life

in the Mormon church, and they put a huge emphasis

on community and shared values.

So it was important to her to find someone

that was in the church as well.

MERRIMAN: He would make fun, friendly comments

when he came into the office.

And then he started asking me out.

He took me to concerts,

took me to really amazing restaurants.

He took me to do everything he knew I loved.

KIM: Andrea introduced me to Shawn

when we were both in college.

I was very happy for her.

They seemed to work well.

They seemed to have similar desires.

They seemed to have similar ambitions.

And there was nothing to dislike about Shawn.

He seemed to have her well-being

forefront of his mind.

MERRIMAN: Shawn proposed to me in California on a beach

because he knew the beach is my favorite place.

I didn't take a lot of time to think about it.

Our wedding took place in the Jordan River Temple

of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I was preparing to have a happy life,

and I felt like the future was ours.

Prior to dating Shawn, my goals were strong.

I had gone to school with the idea

that I would then go to law school.

But after we got married, I decided

to stop at a bachelor's degree and focus on supporting him.

We moved to Denver, Colorado, for his career.

He went to work at an investment firm.

And he had a lot of success at it.

He worked just the last quarter of 1990 as a stockbroker,

and he made about 50 grand in that last three months.

GUNNING: The $200,000 that Shawn made

in his first year alone would be the equivalent

of nearly a half a million dollars today.

That number is an astonishing amount for someone

so new in the investment world.

MERRIMAN: Here's Shawn, who's really happy because he just

landed another big client. [laughs]

Let's zoom in on that smile.

GUNNING: Shawn's reputation was growing,

and he was getting lucrative job offers from other firms.

MERRIMAN: He moved around to a couple of different firms,

and he would always get a large signing bonus.

Getting ready for a meeting.

I love this shirt on him.

Having a healthy breakfast. [laughs]

One company would give him $50,000 or $60,000 or $70,000

to go work for them.

- Ho, ho, ho.

- And then he'd be there a year,

and another one would pay him another big bonus

to go and work for them, so he was making a good living.

GUNNING: With the success of Shawn's job,

the couple felt ready to start a family.

MERRIMAN: When we married, we talked about

that we wanted a large family.

So when our first baby was born, I thought I had it all.

Hi, pumpkin.

Here is Sarah.

She's just about two months old.

How are you? What are you doing?

- I was really excited for her.

I was having children at the same time,

and so our kids were friends.

Andy, what are you doing?

- I'm playing with Sarah.

KIM: Oh, how nice.

It seemed like they had a very idyllic life.

There's Andy. Wave, Andy.

GUNNING: They had four children.

KIM: Hi.

- Andrea just really loved being with her family

and spending time together.

SHAWN: Tick, tock.

What time is it, Andy?

Tick.

- But the thing that really stands out was the traveling.

- We definitely got to go to some fun places.

SHAWN: Where are you? SARAH: Zurich.

SHAWN: In what country? - Africa.

SHAWN: Switzerland.

- My mom always thought it was important to learn

about different cultures.

In the limo, going out for a night on the town in Vegas.

Shawn's happy and content.

- They traveled a lot, and they accumulated things

that most wealthy people do.

He started to collect art, cars,

and toys for entertainment.

MERRIMAN: Eventually, he came to me one day and said,

you know, maybe I ought to start my own company.

He started his own investment company

that he named Market Street Advisors.

As he starts his investment firm,

he upgrades our house to another home.

He said, I'm going to be working from home.

This will give me the space to eventually

build an office outside the house but on our property.

- The couple moved to a community

called Stage Run in Aurora.

♪ ♪

JILL: The Merrimans lived in our same neighborhood.

And their house was amazing.

[exciting music]

They had the biggest lot in the neighborhood,

3 or 4 acres.

One thing I remembered about Andrea's house

is that she had a grand piano right when you walked in,

and she could play it beautifully.

[soft piano music]

♪ ♪

She loved the sun shining in.

It was beautiful and bright.

It was probably the nicest house in our neighborhood.

GUNNING: Even though Shawn's working from home,

he still had to build his list of clients,

which meant that he had to travel

and be away from his family.

MERRIMAN: At first, Shawn traveled a lot

for old car clubs.

And then he would go on these golf trips

with wealthy golfers.

He was networking and making friends.

A lot of them were older people

that would be able to invest money with him.

He also started and ran his own investment club.

SHAWN: Hi, I'm Shawn Merriman.

I'm getting ready to go whitetail hunting.

[grunting bird call]

MERRIMAN: He also started hunting

and started doing it intensely.

[gunshot]

SHAWN: Here we are in Kamchatka, Russia,

with my first ever moose.

MERRIMAN: He would travel to South Africa,

to Zambia, to Namibia,

wherever there were trophy animals

that he wanted to hunt.

And he would always say, wealthy people

can afford to do this,

so I will be there with them for a few weeks.

I'll get to know them, and I will get their money to invest.

[suspenseful music]

- Last chance to make any money here, buddy.

[laughter]

♪ ♪

MERRIMAN: One trip that stands out in my mind,

he was traveling in Tanzania.

He came back, and he talked about how he'd been hunting.

And they were on a mountainside,

and it was a very narrow trail with a drop-off.

One of the local trackers that was guiding him slipped

and was going to plunge off the side of this mountain

to his death.

Shawn grabbed his hand, grabbed his arm,

pulled him to safety, saved his life,

and he was the hero in Africa.

But then the very first thing he did

when he got home was, he went straight to a doctor

to be tested.

Saying, well, you know, I cut myself up

when I was saving this man.

Looking back, I have reason to believe

that, when he was in Africa, he was doing more

than trying to save a tracker.

And that was why he returned home and got tested.

GUNNING: After one of Shawn's hunting trips,

he tells Andrea this wild story of how

he saved a local hunting guide's life

from tumbling down a cliff.

But Andrea had her suspicions.

- He wasn't a superhero.

- Andrea thinks that this heroic story

is really just a coverup

for some extracurricular activities.

MERRIMAN: Looking back, it should have been a red flag.

The wild stories never actually happened when I was with him.

But I just believed him because I was married to him.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

Is Dad wearing your same hat?

So Shawn was always busy working,

or he's got church stuff at night

as bishop of our local church congregation.

That's similar to a pastor.

But he was very supportive to help our kids

develop their talents.

ANNOUNCER: In sixth place...

- For example, our oldest son played on a baseball team.

Here's Andy in his first championship baseball game.

Shawn had bought a pitching machine and batting cage.

And not just any pitching machine,

the same pitching machine that the Colorado Rockies used

so that our son could practice batting.

ANDY: There is the game ball I got in baseball.

GUNNING: So they have everything

that they need in the world.

But to Andrea, at this point in her life,

the one thing that she wants is for her family

to own their home outright.

MERRIMAN: He would say, what do you want for your birthday?

What do you want for Christmas?

And I kept saying, I want my house paid off

so that I know I always have a home.

[soft upbeat music]

And so he did.

He paid off my house.

And that was a huge moment for me.

GUNNING: Shawn built a big structure

in the back of his house for his office,

but also as like a museum to all of his collectibles.

It was pretty incredible.

SKIP: He had his own little man cave

before man caves got to be real big.

And I always remember thinking, golly, how cool is this?

I would spend all my time down here.

MERRIMAN: It was a 4,800-square-foot building

that had a second story on top.

The second story was his Market Street Advisors office.

And then, if you went down, there was a wood shop.

Then he had an auto shop.

He had an art collection worth $6 to $7 million.

SKIP: He started collecting all the religious etchings

that Rembrandt ever did.

I think at one time he owned almost all of them.

- Then he had what he called the showroom.

And in that were his fancy cars lined up.

TIM: He had baseball memorabilia.

I was in this house one time, and he showed me a baseball

signed by Babe Ruth.

- And on the far side were literally

hundreds of trophy animals.

- I usually would not go down there.

It was not a fun place for a little kid to go.

GUNNING: Shawn was loving his new man cave,

and he was spending all of his time there.

But it came at a cost.

[suspenseful music]

JILL: Andrea took care of the kids,

but they weren't allowed back there.

That was his place.

He had to be serious about his work.

- Shawn only made time to be present

for five or ten minutes a day with our family.

- We just didn't spend a lot of time together

like we would before.

When we did, there would be stories about trades he made,

like, his success.

- Even though Andrea was appreciative of everything

that Shawn has done for the family financially,

she started to think, was it all worth it?

- I went to him and said, we don't need any more money.

We need a dad at home.

And he's like, I can't.

I felt like that was crazy.

I was totally happy living one reality,

not realizing there might be another

taking place at the same time.

♪ ♪

GUNNING: Shawn is fully immersed

in building his business,

and that took a tremendous time away from Andrea and the kids.

But for Shawn, more clients meant more money.

MERRIMAN: When Shawn started his business,

he wanted high-value clients

that could invest 250,000 or more.

But over time, people from the church or family members

that didn't have as much money approached him about investing.

[pensive music]

- I met Shawn Merriman through the

Auburn Cord Duesenberg Car Club.

And I found out that a couple of the club members

joined his investment club.

And they said, this guy is great, man.

You should get in with him. Minimum investment was $25,000.

MERRIMAN: Shawn with Matthew watching hunting videos.

All of my siblings, my two sisters, my two brothers

had invested money with him.

KIM: He always handled my mom's money,

and she was always very happy with it.

I had a little stash that I called my Europe money.

I was gonna go on a trip to Europe.

So I thought, invest that

so it's not just sitting in the bank.

- Over time, I started little savings accounts

for each of my kids, and I would build them up.

And he'd say, can I borrow those accounts?

I wanna invest it for them.

And I would turn it over to him.

When my mom passed away...

MERRIMAN: I had a small inheritance

that I invested with him as well.

TIM: Every month, we got a statement.

And we're doing very well.

Don't know what he's doing,

but he's doing something right.

KIM: When I would get the statements,

I was gaining almost $1,000 a month.

It was crazy to me.

Wow, my money is doing something.

This is investing.

GUNNING: Everything is going great.

Shawn is making a lot of money for his clients,

and he's also making a lot of money for his family.

And then the economy starts to change.

TIM: Now, this is right around when

the housing crisis started around 2008,

and the market's tanking.

REPORTER: The National Association of Realtors

reported the worst month-to-month drop

in existing home sales

since they started keeping track in the late '90s.

- The ripple effects from the housing slump

is, in fact, taking its toll on the U.S. economy.

- By that time, we probably had put maybe

$50,000, $75,000 in with him.

Well, he kept making money,

according to the monthly statements.

[suspenseful music]

We were at a Christmas party for the classic car club.

[soft festive music]

♪ ♪

And another investor came up to me.

He says, Tim, what do you think about Shawn?

The market is tanking, and we're still making money

hand over fist, you know?

And I says, yeah, it's kind of questionable.

And another investor came up to us at the same party,

and he says, no way.

I mean, Shawn is a bishop in the church.

We put a lot of money in. It was doing very well.

So we're staying with him.

And we left it there.

GUNNING: While Shawn's clients are convinced

that he's managing their investments well,

the financial market begins to freefall.

- Wall Street today took a nosedive sharp enough

to make investors' ears pop.

GEORGE W. BUSH: We are in the midst

of a serious financial crisis.

Our entire economy is in danger.

- My name is Dave Neueswander.

I'm a securities investor for the state of Utah.

And my job is to investigate and prevent fraud.

What happened with the stock market in 2008,

everything dropped.

It didn't really matter what you were invested in.

Shawn starts to see the writing on the wall.

I would imagine the same thing was

happening to Shawn's clients.

They were calling, saying, hey, get me out of the market.

Send me a check. I need my money back.

MERRIMAN: March 18, 2009,

I got the kids off to school, and my phone rings.

[phone rings]

And it's Shawn.

And he said, Andrea, I need you to come home.

[ominous music]

That was really uncharacteristic of him.

I drive home. I went in.

And he kind of looked at me.

And he said, I've been living a secret double life.

♪ ♪

GUNNING: Shawn was managing investments for clients,

friends, and family for nearly 15 years,

and everyone was thrilled with the results

until the financial crisis of 2008.

[suspenseful music]

- Shawn said, my company, Market Street Advisors,

is a sham.

I was running a Ponzi scheme.

♪ ♪

I am floored.

It was never a moment I expected to happen in my life.

This man, who I believe is a good man,

an honest man, a God-fearing man,

an upstanding member of the community.

In reality, he's a dark, awful, horrible,

greedy criminal.

It was just surreal.

- A Ponzi scheme basically is where someone gives you

their money to invest,

but then this money is then going out the back door

to pay for someone else who is invested as well.

So it's a continual process.

You need to bring in new money

so that you can go and take care of people

who want their money back.

GUNNING: Ponzi schemes can operate for years,

as long as there are a stream of new investors

to keep the money flowing.

But once withdrawals exceed the contributions,

the entire structure collapses, leaving investors with nothing.

CHRIS: During that era,

there was a rash of Ponzi schemes.

Shawn Merriman's case came to light

in the same general time frame as Bernie Madoff,

one of the most famous Ponzi schemes.

REPORTER: Fixture on Wall Street Bernie Madoff,

arrested by the FBI.

- It was just shocking and overwhelming.

My mind was just reeling.

Then he said, I hired an attorney.

I went and met him and told him what I'd been doing.

And we went and met with representatives

of the federal government and revealed my crimes to them.

He destroyed my universe.

- After the first $400,000, he never invested a dime.

He just spent the money.

And he knew that there was just no defense to that.

So he confessed.

- But he didn't get arrested right away.

The investigators needed time

to collect evidence and build a case.

So it would be weeks before he would be charged

and months before he would be sentenced.

MERRIMAN: I didn't know what I was gonna do,

and I couldn't comprehend anything.

Everything is racing.

But I remember saying to him,

well, at least the house is paid off.

So the kids and I would have a place to live.

And he said, no, you don't understand.

The house is gone. The cars are gone.

The savings are gone. The investments are gone.

Everything of value is frozen and scheduled for seizure

by the federal government.

And that was the worst moment.

♪ ♪

I just felt like I had fallen into the center of the Earth,

and there was not gonna be any way out.

And in that moment, I just thought, I gotta run.

I have to get out of here.

And I ran to my car and picked up the phone to call for help.

My first call was to my sister.

KIM: I was so stunned. I just sat there.

I sat there for so long that she thought I hung up on her.

Wow, that means he was going to go to prison,

and she would probably lose everything.

And that is when I just--

I was so, so blown away.

Sorry, I didn't even think I'd get emotional about it.

And I think in hindsight now,

I see how devastating it was and...

how scary that would be, as a mother of four kids,

to find out all that was happening

and that your whole life is being

ripped out from under you.

GUNNING: And there were other innocent victims at home.

Their children were ages 3 to 16.

And as hard as this conversation was going to be,

they needed to understand what was about to unfold.

MERRIMAN: That night, we're all in our family room.

♪ ♪

And he said, well, I need to tell you

that I've made a little mistake.

And I'm over there from the other side going,

you have lied not just once, but many times.

And then he says, I have stolen some money.

And I'm over there going, $20 million?

And I'll be going away for a little while.

And I'm over there saying, to federal prison for many years.

Like, I just felt like he was minimizing all of it.

The kids were shocked and stunned.

They all were crying.

And then my nine-year-old said, wait,

does this mean you're going to divorce Dad?

- When you're nine years old, you don't really

understand things like that.

You go from just being a normal kid,

thinking life is life to confusion.

It doesn't feel real when something like that happens.

MERRIMAN: That's how crime is.

It is a mess, and the fallout is always so much more.

It's a ripple effect, and it doesn't just hurt you.

It destroys marriages, families,

lives, friendships, relationships,

sometimes for all time.

- It didn't take long for Shawn's investors to find out

that they were victims

of a multimillion dollar Ponzi scheme.

[suspenseful music]

TIM: I had just flown into the airport from New York,

and I was on my way home in my car.

And I got a call from another investor.

He said, hey, Tim, it's all a Ponzi scheme.

We lost all our money.

MATT: He did wreck a lot of lives.

He stole a lot of money from investors,

stole a of money from family.

- In situations like this, people can lose their minds.

And a lot of dangerous things can happen.

[tense music]

One night, a neighbor, who lost a substantial sum of money,

he was so angry with Shawn, and he had a gun.

And he came over to our house, climbed the steps

of the front porch, made it to our front door,

ready to blow someone away.

[tense music]

GUNNING: Over the 15 years

that Shawn ran this Ponzi scheme,

he had dozens of investors that invested

a million dollars or more, and now it was all gone.

SKIP: Initially, there's this shock.

Nobody can believe what's happening.

Then there's this anger that comes,

and the anger gets kind of directed at the whole family.

[knocking on door]

♪ ♪

GUNNING: For one investor,

who was actually a neighbor of theirs,

the loss was too great to bear.

So he went over to the Merriman home with a gun.

MERRIMAN: I remember thinking to myself, the end was near.

I am there with kids looking at me.

- None of us had any idea of what was happening.

GUNNING: It was a terrifying situation.

Luckily, this man eventually came to his senses,

put the gun down, and walked away.

SKIP: To me, I was like, this is craziness.

I don't understand this at all.

And I remember thinking that the whole thing is ugly.

- I've had a chance to go and listen

to some of the victims, and it's heart-wrenching

to hear them.

This was their life savings.

They have no more retirement.

In my experience, a lot of people

never really get over it.

TIM: Our friend, they said, we trusted him.

You know, Mormon bishop and all this other stuff,

we trusted him with all this money, and now we lost it all.

GUNNING: Word of Shawn's crimes started to spread,

and news media started to take interest in the story.

- Among the swindled investors are even some

of Merriman's own neighbors.

Some lost their retirement savings.

We're told, in at least one case,

a man is going to lose his home.

- Very sad.

The people who had invested with him, I think, really

trusted him and thought that they were friends with him.

MERRIMAN: I remember feeling complete humiliation

that everything related to the demise of my family

was playing out on national television.

The media dubbed Shawn "The Mormon Madoff."

That was a combo of his religion

and the infamous Ponzi schemer, Bernie Madoff.

- A few weeks later, federal agents

show up at Andrea's home.

MERRIMAN: They just went through

every room of the house, looking for things of value.

GUNNING: They start taking everything--

the cars, the boats, the artwork, anything worth money.

And these items were going to auction in hopes that

it could pay back Shawn's victims.

There are federal agents, government vehicles,

all on her property.

I mean, it was a spectacle for her community.

MERRIMAN: My neighbors took to gathering right next door.

And they would just drink.

And they're all watching the horror going on at our house,

laughing, joking like they're at a party.

At the same time, I remember Shawn saying to me,

well, at least you had a good life.

At least you got to see a lot of fun places.

At least you got a lot of fun vacations out of it.

- And I just lost it on him.

I said, I don't love that I did any of that.

Everything was so tainted, even the memories.

[somber music]

I looked at him and said, you realize I have to divorce you.

And he didn't believe that that was necessary.

And I said, no, no. [scoffs]

With all you've done, all I know is,

divorce is the consequence of that.

- Andrea realizes there's nothing

left for her in Colorado.

- I knew that I had to figure out where I was gonna live,

where I was gonna go, make arrangements for a house,

try to find a job.

JILL: She was putting stuff in the car to drive to Utah

to look for a place to live.

And so I packed a bag, and I came with her.

Sorry.

I drove with her to Utah to be her friend.

MERRIMAN: I drove away without a backward glance

to the neighborhood.

And what I arrived to in Utah was,

I moved into my brother's basement.

It was embarrassing. It was sad.

It was frustrating.

KIM: From where she had been in her life...

that was quite a step down.

GUNNING: Andrea's life has fallen apart,

but there was one thing that was about to happen

that she did not expect.

♪ ♪

GUNNING: As Andrea attempts to rebuild her life in Utah,

back in Colorado, federal prosecutors

are building their case against Shawn.

[pensive music]

During this time, Andrea's divorce is finalized,

and she decides that she's not gonna go back

to Denver for Shawn's sentencing hearing.

JILL: She called and asked me,

can you please go to the courthouse

to see what his sentencing would be?

It was hard to be in that courtroom.

Shawn was shackled and in his yellow jumpsuit.

And he said, come here.

Jill, can you come here?

He just told me to tell Andrea he loved her,

and it was just weird.

I just turned around and walked

to the back of the courtroom and sat there

waiting for the sentencing.

- Several of the investors, the car guys were there.

Shawn was crying at one time.

KIM: I feel like he's very sad that he got caught,

not that he ran a Ponzi scheme.

I don't think that he's ever been remorseful about that.

MERRIMAN: His sentence was 12 1/2 years

in federal prison,

convicted of stealing more than $20 million.

He had around 40 or so victims.

DAVE: He even took his parents' money,

and he lost his parents' money.

The fact that that was not impacting Shawn

really tells you the inner workings of his moral compass.

- In addition to the prison sentence,

Shawn was required to pay back

the more than $20 million that he stole.

The sale of the assets that were seized

raised about $5 million.

But that wasn't enough to pay back everybody.

- I've never seen any restitution at all.

I didn't expect to see any restitution.

TIM: The million-dollar guys,

they're still waiting for money.

They're still extremely angry.

And I don't blame them.

- He can go to prison and "pay his time,"

but his victims are sentenced to something

for the rest of their lives.

GUNNING: Despite going to prison, Shawn was desperate

to still be a part of his kids' lives.

- My first birthday when he was in prison, he called me,

and I just remember, he was crying,

couldn't stop saying sorry.

And then reality kinda set in.

Like, yeah, he's in prison.

So you don't have the same relationship you once did.

- As hard as it was, Andrea and her family

worked to move on from what had happened.

[pensive music]

MERRIMAN: Post-betrayal, I was really fortunate.

I got offered a job in a down economy,

and friends helped me arrange a place to stay.

So I had a house taken care of.

And then, eventually, I was able to earn a master's degree.

I never realized this could be me.

I've met a few men in the years since my divorce.

Every one of them, when they found out

I was basically in poverty, were like, no, thank you.

But the voice in my head kept saying, don't give up.

I'm so glad I didn't give up because the voice in my head

turned out to be right.

[soft exciting music]

DAVE: We met for lunch,

and she was so easy to talk to.

I was attracted to how smart she was, how talented she was,

her life experiences, and I think she's beautiful.

GUNNING: Dave had worked in the financial world

his entire career.

And although he didn't work on Shawn's case,

he understood what Andrea had gone through.

And that created a unique bond between the two of them.

- It was just a great courtship,

very easy to fall in love.

We've been married going on four years now.

KIM: Andrea is very happy right now.

She just started to shine again.

- Andrea continues her healing journey from this betrayal.

And her husband, Dave, takes pride

in taking down perpetrators like Shawn.

MERRIMAN: He's working and doing that every day,

and I love it.

Makes sure that what happened to me

never happens to anyone else.

GUNNING: Andrea, what do you feel are some of the lessons

that you learned through the experience?

MERRIMAN: The biggest lessons I learned were,

we absolutely can't control all the experiences

that come our way.

But I just don't believe that we can

or should let them stop us.

So many people are living hard experiences.

And maybe, instead of judging people,

we should see what we can do

to lift and inspire someone else

and help someone else make their own comeback

and overcome their own loss or their own betrayal.

And then, beyond that, we just each have to be good people

and make sure we're never the one that commits a betrayal.

♪ ♪