EP 15 - Tammi

Are your money skills total trash? Well, trust me, you are not alone.

Personal finance ignorance is as American as apple pie, but you can improve. Think, Matt, if your emergency fund was invested, especially given the volatility we're experiencing right now.
Ouchies. Investing, it is ultimately a necessity, but you got to keep that emergency fund accessible.
It needs to be cash parked in your savings. It's time to learn and How to Money is here to bring the knowledge.
Listen to How to Money on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Something unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in Bone Valley Season 1.
Every time I hear about my dad, it's oh, he's a killer. He's just straight evil.
I was becoming the bridge between Jeremy Scott and the son he'd never known.

At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer. Listen to new episodes of Bone Valley Season 2 starting April 9th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
my mom used to always joke around and oh, you never marry a doctor because he knows how to kill you and get away with it.

She always said that.

So I always had that in the back of my head. I'm Andrea Gunning, and this is Betrayal, a show about the people we trust the most and the deceptions that change everything.

Tammy McCrary is a polite, easygoing woman. She's quick to laugh and to make herself laugh.
She says that above all, her kids are her world. I have three children and I treat all of them as though they are the only.
And now my grandchildren. Oh, those grandkids.
That's a whole nother level of love. Tammy grew up in Atlanta, where she was raised by her mother.
She was an only child, just her, her mom, and her mom's sister. As a kid, Tammy dreamed of having a nuclear family of her own.
Most of my friends were in a two-parent home.

I did not have the family structure of father and mom, so I admired that. I wanted to have that for myself and for my children.
In high school, Tammy started dating a guy she'd grown up with. We had known each other a long time and he'd always teased me about being his wife.
It was a joke at first because Tammy had other plans. I had planned to go to college.
But when she was 17, I found out that I was expecting. Tammy's college plans were put on hold and the two got married.
We both attended the same church, so we had a small wedding. They loved being young parents.
Looking back, she says it was easier for them than she expected. By the time they were 20, the young couple bought a house in the suburbs of Atlanta.
I am an only child. He's an only child.
And we both came from middle-class backgrounds. So we didn't have those struggles that you would think that a young couple would have.
They were stable and surrounded by community. Tammy and her husband had a second child a few years later.

I had so much support from my mom, from his parents,

and I had an aunt that was like a mom to me.

So I was all about my kids.

That was my life.

When her kids started school and she had more time on her hands, things started changing for Tammy. So I was all about my kids.
That was my life.

When her kids started school and she had more time on her hands, things started changing for Tammy.

I just got to this place where I wanted more.

I wanted to do more.

The time that I would have been in college, you know, having that freedom, I was a mom and I was a wife, so I missed that.

She wanted to grow her career, and she realized she missed out on so much in her early 20s.

Maybe there was more out there for her.

I remember getting all of this attention from these guys.

I was like, am I really that attractive? She was coming into her own and reevaluating what she wanted, including her marriage with her husband. He was like, I'm not dealing with this.
Either you want to be married or you don't. Ultimately, she decided she didn't want to be married.
So they separated and Tammy got a job as a flight attendant based out of Chicago.

She was able to work and travel one week and be home full time with her kids the next.

But in Chicago, she got into a horrible car accident.

It was actually a situation where I was pronounced dead.

It took me about six months to a year to recover from that car accident. After she recovered, her priorities changed.
I no longer wanted to be away from my kids. That was the main thing.
So she moved back to Atlanta and got a job where she could work from home and focus entirely on giving her kids stability. I pushed for them to have the best education.
I never wanted them to feel a difference in their lives and the lives of their peers. Every other weekend, her kids would stay with her father.
And on the weekend she had to herself... I was hanging out with my cousin, his wife and their friends.
We had our little crew, our little clique. And her cousin would try to set her up on dates.
They were professional, successful men, lawyers, doctors, but I wasn't interested in dating. I want to be a single mom, but my kids and I, we travel, you know, we do things and life is still good.
On one of these weekends, Tammy, her cousin, and their friends decided on a whim to go out to a nightclub. It's a pretty wild scene.
I can remember some women being barely dressed.

I had never been before. It's a pretty wild scene.
I can remember some women being barely dressed.

I had never been before.

But, you know, I'm just hanging with the crowd.

She admits to feeling a little out of place.

I may have just had on jeans and a sweater.

Definitely no club gear.

Nothing sexy. But she was still getting plenty of attention and even locked eyes with a guy across the bar.
But I made eye contact with several people. So, you know, it was nothing until he walked over to the area where we were sitting and he just started throwing money over the area.

Back then, I think they called it making it rain.

And so he did that.

And, you know, we were just laughing about it.

And everyone was like, oh, drinks are on Tammy because, you know, they were picking up the money.

And then he came back and he introduced himself.

His name was Eric, and he told her he had just moved to Atlanta for a fresh start. They hit it off, and by the end of the night, she gave him her number.
So crazy because the rule of thumb was always you never meet anyone in a club. Eric called her on Monday and asked her to lunch.
I didn't see the harm. I didn't see the harm in it.
At the time, Tammy worked as a loan officer, and Eric was looking to buy a home. It seemed like a possible opportunity for Tammy.
And he just moved from Chicago, where Tammy used to live. So over lunch, they swapped stories.
I enjoyed his company, very much so. He was very attentive.
He was a great listener and he definitely retained information well. That was an understatement.
It was really smart. He went to college really early.
He graduated from high school pretty early. So it was like he was a whiz kid.
He said he'd been married before, but it ended abruptly. He said that he walked in on her and another man.
So that was the end of the marriage. By the end of that lunch, she got the feeling that this was their first date and they scheduled another.
And so of course, you know, my next test is to take him around people just to see how he does or what they think about him.

And he definitely passed that test as well.

But she was cautious about who she brought around her kids.

If I met someone, I didn't allow anyone to come to my home. We would meet out.
Eric also worked remotely as an electrical engineer. So with their flexible work schedules, they went on dates during the day.
There was no 9 to 5 schedule for neither one of us. So there was a great deal of freedom.
After a few months of casual dating, Tammy's life took a turn. The aunt, who was like a second mother to her, was living with Tammy at the time.
And her aunt started to get sick. One night, her health declined rapidly.
She was so ill, I had to call paramedics to the house. She called Eric to tell him that she was going to the hospital and that she was worried.
He wanted to meet her there to be supportive. And in the ER together, she noticed something interesting about Eric.
He began interacting with the doctors about my aunt and her condition. All these medical terms.
I'm curious, like, what does he know? Eric had said he was an electrical engineer. But at the hospital, he was talking as if he was a doctor.
Like asking to see the results of tests and pressing them to do others. At that time, I'm really like, what is going on? And that's when he tells me he went to medical school.
He said he'd gone to med school at the University of Chicago. Another doctor in the room was familiar with the school, so the two started chatting about it.
Tammy's aunt was stable enough to move out of the ER, and finally there was an opportunity to ask Eric questions about his past and medical school. Now I want to know, why aren't you doing that? And that led to the conversation of him sharing with me his story.
His story was unlike anything she'd ever heard.

It was a nightmare. He explained to me that his parents, along with his two sons, were taking a trip by car and they were involved in an accident with an 18-wheeler.
He said the driver was DUI. He said one son may have died on the scene.
Father died on the scene, and his mom and one son were in the hospital,

but they both passed before he arrived.

So, uh, I was just heartbroken.

He's lost both parents and both children?

She sat there stunned.

He went on to explain that the accident derailed his career he just started working in the er when it happened but he had to quit it was just so devastating for him to know that on a daily basis he's saving lives but here it is he's not able to save the lives of those that he loved the most. And so it was just too soon for him to go back into medicine.
He just couldn't do it. Tammy herself had nearly died in a car accident.
With Eric sitting in front of her in the hospital waiting room, holding back tears,

she saw how resilient he was.

Just like her, he'd fought for a new life and a new career after a tragedy.

Of course, I'm saying, oh yeah, I understand.

I understand. Tariff whiplash is real, folks, and rapidly changing economic policies.
They affect all of us to one degree or another. Trump 1.0.
So that was more tariff talk. Now we are experiencing the widespread tariff action.
Totally scattershot, totally random. The theory, Matt, I think, is that we're trading short-term pain for long-term gain.
That's the tariff theory, at least. But I have a hard time envisioning the long game rosy outcomes if these policy priorities kind of continue.
It can be hard to know how to react to news of accelerating layoffs, increasing stock market volatility. That's why the How to Money podcast exists.
We cut through the hype to give you crucial information that can help you to achieve your money goals, no matter what is going on in the world. Yeah, it's our goal to help you make wise money choices that will allow you to build wealth over time and reduce anxiety levels so you can sleep well at night.
How to Money comes out three times a week, but our Friday flight episodes speak directly to what's happening in the financial news so you can digest this week's headlines without freaking out. Listen to How to Money on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Something unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in Bone Valley Season 1. I just knew him as a kid.
Long, silent voices from his past came forward. And he was just staring at me.
And they had secrets of their own to share. Gilbert King, I'm the son of Jeremy Lynn Scott.
I was no longer just telling the story. I was part of it.
Every time I hear about my dad, it's, oh, he's a killer. He's just straight evil.
I was becoming the bridge between a killer and the son he'd never known. If the cops and everything would have done their job properly, my dad would have been in jail.
I would have never existed. I never expected to find myself in this place.
Now, I need to tell you how I got here. At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer.
Bone Valley, Season 2. Jeremy.
Jeremy, I want to tell you something. Listen to new episodes of Bone Valley, Season 2, starting April 9th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
And to hear the entire new season ad-free with exclusive content starting April 9th, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Eric opened up and shared that he was a doctor but had to stop practicing after a family tragedy.
He lost his parents and two young children in a car accident. These revelations and Eric's vulnerability brought he and Tammy closer.
Eventually, they made it official. He started coming over to her house, where he met her son.
It was a big step for Tammy. They would make dinner together and watch a movie on the couch.
But on one of these nights... I remember it being a Sunday evening, and he received a phone call, and he wanted some privacy, so he actually came upstairs, took the phone call in my bedroom.
And I just remember him yelling for me. Of course, I ran upstairs to see what was going on.
And he is just like an emotional wreck. He is just crying.
I was finally able to get him to share with me what was the problem. And that's when he told me that his stepdaughter had committed suicide.
Tragedy had struck his life again. It was his first wife's daughter.
He helped raise her. Of course, I'm thinking, oh my gosh, this man, I know he's devastated.
And then I was just like, well, you know, just stay here. You don't have to go anywhere.
You can just stay here with us. You definitely don't need to be alone at this time with this devastating news.
You don't have anyone else. You just have us.
And so I think from that moment is when things really progressed. After that, Eric started staying over most nights.
He took the death hard, but he didn't want to talk about it. He did tell me of his plans to pay for her service, but he said that he could not bring himself to a tent.
He channeled his grief into their relationship. Doting on Tammy was a good distraction.
He would go above and beyond to make her happy. If I said, I used to love these strawberry Oreos, but I haven't been able to find them.
I don't even know if they make them anymore. He would pop up with those strawberry Oreos and say, I had to reach out to some people over in Europe,

but I had them shipped and here they are. He was like that.
Those are the type things that he would do. He even gave Tammy a nickname.
I'd never had a nickname, never, But he gave me the name

Princess.

And I tell you

just the way he said it and oh my gosh. And he treated her like one.
He's buying cards, flowers, no special occasion, just because. He's writing coins.
Once I did introduce him to my clique of friends, I mean, he would just say the most wonderful things about me. It's like, oh wow, he really loves her.
They'd been dating for a few months when Eric said he wanted to look at engagement rings together. So he took her to a custom jeweler.
He's telling the guy, you know, what he wants. And he's talking about it was a peerless diamond.
He wanted it in an antique setting. And I'm like, what is this? I think it was ringing up over $30,000.
I mean, the way he put it together, it was beautiful. So yeah, I was pretty excited.
She was ready to take the next step with him, but the safety of her family and her kids were always her first priority. She didn't have the ability to meet his parents or his friends back in Chicago, so she took it upon herself to vet him.
She called her friend who was a private investigator. She gave him Eric's name and birth date and asked him to run a background check.
He came back and was like, oh, he's clean. So I felt comfortable.
The findings were reassuring. The next time the topic of marriage came up, she told him that's what she

wanted. So right then and there, Eric got down on one knee.
But he didn't have the ring. The ring

that we looked at that he was planning to get me, that would have to be put on hold because

of the money that he had to spend for his stepdaughter's funeral arrangements. She didn't care about the ring, especially when he was spending that money on something so important.
Plus, they'd both been married before. They wanted something small anyway.
Eric offered to take the lead on planning their wedding and sending out the invitations. I'm thinking, oh,

wow, this is different because normally that's the behavior of the woman, but he wants to do it. Okay.
So I gave him a list and he created these invitations and we sent them out. And then I started getting the phone calls.

Everyone

was just saying,

Eric was a doctor?

I said, what? Well, the invitation says, Dr. Eric Petit and Tammy.
So, of course, you know, I approached him and I said, did you put on these invitations that you're a doctor?

Because I never told anyone about that, which I didn't because I felt he was no longer practicing. It wasn't important.
And he said, oh, yeah, yeah, I did that. It was actually supposed to be a surprise.
That was going to be my wedding gift to you. I was going to surprise you to let you know that once we come back from our honeymoon,

that I'm going to be my wedding gift to you. I was going to surprise you to let you know that once we come back from our honeymoon, that I'm going back into medicine.
Then he pulled out a folder of documents he'd been waiting to show her, his letters of recommendation, and his offer letter from a hospital. I said, and what brought this on? And he says, well, it's been some time and I have you now and I really feel that you deserve a certain lifestyle.
And I want to provide you with that lifestyle. I'll be going to work.
And I'm just like, wow. The choice felt selfless.
It meant a lot to her that he wanted to provide for her family. He was like, just start looking at the top private schools and we need to start looking for another house because I want us to be closer to the hospital.
You want to look at another house, you want to get a condo, whatever you want to do,

just go do it. Just start looking.

And I'm just thinking like, you know, someone just called and told me that I have that winning lottery ticket.

All of my numbers match.

He received an advance from the new job.

So after their intimate wedding ceremony, Eric paid for a honeymoon to the Bahamas.

He wanted the whole thing to do. match.
He received an advance from the new job. So after their intimate wedding ceremony,

Eric paid for a honeymoon to the Bahamas. He wanted the whole family to join them, Tammy's kids and her mom.
It was emotional for everyone considering what he'd been through. They were his family now.
The vacation ended, but the honeymoon didn't. And so when we returned, I remember him giving me a check.

It was a check for $5,000. And he's like, moving forward, I'm taking care of all of the bills and everything.
That week, he started his job in one of Atlanta's busiest ERs. So that meant crazy hours.
He was always working, always on call. I can still remember some nights when it was like two or three in the morning and he would receive a text or a phone call and he would have to jump up and go to the hospital.
They shared a car, so every day,

Tammy drove him to work and picked him up.

One day while Tammy was driving,

they came upon a car crash.

It looked like it had just happened.

The paramedics had not arrived yet,

so he jumped out to check on those that were involved and get their vitals.

There was one person that seemed to have been

critically injured. He got out to help and once the paramedics arrived, he was able to give them

information on each victim. I was impressed, I must say.
I was like, wow, he really knows what

he's doing. He could have saved those people's lives.
But this responsibility came at a price. His shifts in the ER were grueling.
When she picked him up after work, he looked spent. His scrubs were stained and wrinkled.
And he would share upsetting stories about what he'd seen. I can remember once he was very disturbed because he said that there was a child

that came in with an injury from the playground and he wasn't able to save the child and the child

died. So, of course, it triggered memories of his children.
The work was taking a

Thank you. And the child died.
So, of course, it triggered memories of his children. The work was taking a toll on him emotionally, changing him in more ways than one.
He became somewhat arrogant. I didn't think anything about it.
I was just thinking back, OK, so he's back in his zone, in his doctor zone. So that's where all of that is coming from.
On his days off, he rested and watched his favorite TV show. Episode after episode of ER.
That was his favorite show. After a few months of marriage, they had a routine.
She dropped him off at work. He texted throughout the day to keep her updated on when he'd be done.
And on the drive

home, they debriefed. That was their thing.
They did this day in and day out, week after week,

until... It was on a Sunday.
We went to church and came back home, spent the afternoon together, and he said he had to go in for the evening. But whenever he was awake, he would always call and check in, see how things are going with myself, let me know what's going on with him.

It was weird that this time I had not heard from him at all. I wasn't alarmed and then the next morning still hadn't heard from him and then once it started getting late into the morning And then I did start to worry.

I tried to call him on both cell phones,

no answer. So of course, I'm thinking maybe he's tied up or whatever.

After a while, I said, I've never called the hospital, but I'm calling today.

And when I called, they're like, there's no one here with that name. Okay, well, they don't know all of the doctors, you know.
And I'm like, okay, let me try these cell phones again. And finally, someone answers the cell phone.
But it's not him. It was a security guard at the hospital.
When I asked for

him, the guy, he's like, are you talking about the guy that had this cell phone? And I'm like, yeah,

yeah, that's what I'm talking about. He's like, oh yeah, well, he was arrested last night

for impersonating a doctor. Tariff whiplash is real, folks, and rapidly changing economic policies.
They affect all of us to one degree or another. Trump 1.0, so that was more tariff whiplash is real folks and rapidly changing economic policies they affect all of us to one degree or another trump 1.0 so that was more tariff talk now we are experiencing the widespread tariff action totally scattershot totally random i mean the theory matt i think is that we're trading short-term pain for long-term gain that's the tariff theory at least but i have a hard time envisioning the long game rosy outcomes if these policy priorities kind of continue.
It can be hard to know how to react to news of accelerating layoffs, increasing stock market volatility. That's why the How to Money podcast exists.
We cut through the hype to give you crucial information that can help you to achieve your money goals no matter what is going on in the world. Yeah, it's our goal to help you make wise money choices that will allow you to build wealth over time and reduce anxiety levels so you can sleep well at night.
How to Money comes out three times a week, but our Friday flight episodes speak directly to what's happening in the financial news so you can digest this week's headlines without freaking out. Listen to How to Money on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Something unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in Bone Valley Season 1. I just knew him as a kid.
Long, silent voices from his past came forward. And he was just staring at me.
And they had secrets of their own to share. Um, Gilbert King.
I'm the son of Jeremy Lynn Scott. I was no longer just telling the story.
I was part of it. Every time I hear about my dad, it's, oh, he's a killer.
He's just straight evil. I was becoming the bridge between a killer and the son he'd never known.
If the cops and everything would have done their job properly, my dad would have been in jail. I would have never existed.
I never expected to find myself in this place. Now, I need to tell you how I got here.
At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer. Bone Valley, Season 2.
Jeremy. Jeremy, I want to tell you something.
Listen to new episodes of Bone Valley, 2 starting April 9th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear the entire new season ad-free with exclusive content starting April 9th, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.
Tammy hadn't heard from her husband and was getting concerned. Finally, someone answered his cell phone.
It was a security guard at the hospital who told her that Eric had been arrested last night for impersonating a doctor. And strangely, the security guard seemed to know Eric pretty well.
He said, I don't know why he would do that because I had really grown to like him. So security, they were familiar with him.
Security knew him because Eric had been going into the hospital every day when she dropped him off. He got in using a forged ID card.
He had a badge that actually belonged to a doctor.

But he took that badge and put his picture on it.

Every day for months, he strolled the hospital hallways and mingled with nurses and staff.

He introduced himself as Dr. Eric Petit.

Everyone there knew who he was or thought they did.

There's one thing to say that you're a doctor, but to actually go through the act and show up on site and then to actually walk around the hospital and interact with other doctors, that is something different. Tammy was sitting at her kitchen table hearing from a complete stranger that her husband was a stranger himself.
And the one thing that I just kept thinking was, who is this person? Have I been with an axe murderer? A serial rapist? I've got to find out this person's real name. So she started digging.
He had a duffel bag that was in the closet. And I dumped everything out of that bag.
And I just started going through every piece of paper that I could find because I'm looking for clues. I came across his divorce decree.
It clearly states that his wife couldn't find him. Didn't know where he was, and she filed for divorce, and it was granted on the grounds of abandonment.
So his marriage hadn't ended, like he said, with his wife cheating on him. But one thing she found did corroborate his backstory, death certificates for his children.
I myself had never laid eyes on a death certificate before with the notary sticker and everything. What was real and what wasn't? There was so much contradictory information in these documents.
I also came across some papers showing me that he was on probation. So he really wasn't supposed to be in Georgia.
I came across telephone numbers. I think it was on the probation stuff.
And I just started calling those numbers. One of the numbers just happened to be to this really nice young lady.
And you know who she was? His mother. His mother was very much alive.
There was no car accident. And she confirmed that, no, his kids are fine.
And there was a stepdaughter, but of course she was fine as well. The death certificates in her hands were forged.
His mother said she hadn't talked to her son in years. She was a devout Jehovah's Witness, and so was the rest of his family.
Eric had left the faith. So because he was no longer practicing the religion, his parents were forced or obligated to treat him as though he was dead.
That's the way it was explained to me. So that's why he was disconnected from his parents.
His mom provided some answers, but Tammy was still in the dark as to where he was. So she started calling local police precincts.
I found out where they had taken him

and I went to visit him

because I wanted to hear his version.

I wanted to see what he was going to say to me.

On the drive to jail,

she decided she was going to play dumb

and not reveal anything she knew, just to see what he would say. I just wanted to see what he was going to tell me.
He still held on to the fact that he was a doctor. She went along with it as he stuck to his lie with conviction.
How do you as a doctor end up being in jail? How does that happen? And he tried to explain to me that he ended up getting into an altercation with someone at the hospital, which made no sense to me.

I let him tell his story, and I said nothing.

Eric finished his story, and they sat there in silence.

Before Tammy got up to leave, she asked him one final question.

I just said, why?

And he pretended to not understand. He wasn't going to give up the act, so she had to walk away.
That was the last time they ever interacted. If he wasn't going to tell her the truth, she'd have to find it herself.
I was on the mission to find out who was this person. And she started by finding out if his name was even real.
The only thing I could think of in my head was that, okay, if I could make contact with the media and have them post a picture of this person, I just felt like once a picture was posted, someone would come forward and say, oh, I know him. So she put him on the news.
The story became a sensation in Atlanta. And I never thought that the story would get the attention that it received.
All that attention did bring some answers. First, that Eric Petit was in fact his legal name.
It did surprise me that he used his real name.

I did later understand why my friend that had the security firm could not find any information on him.

Because I didn't have his correct date of birth.

So the age that he had given me, we were the same age.

I was in my late 30s, but he was actually 28.

Friends of theirs started coming out of the woodwork, saying that Eric owed them money.

Just different people that we know, you know, asking for money. So when I'm thinking that he's making money, he's really not.
And that wasn't all. When he was arrested, he was in possession of credit cards that did not belong to him.
The credit cards belonged to other women. There were women that worked at the hospital that had given him their credit card because they thought he was Dr.
Pateet. And he may have given some story like, oh, I ran out the house because of an emergency and I left my wallet.
And thinking that he's Dr. Patiz.
So that's how he'd been affording their lifestyle for the past year on borrowed money and stolen credit cards. I was devastated.
I was very angry and disappointed at myself. All the level of embarrassment.
I was so embarrassed. When people hear stories, they always seem to think, that would never happen to me.
I would have known, you know, or how could you not have known he was a doctor? And, you know, and I always ask the question, you explain to me how you would have known that he wasn't a doctor. You tell me how you would have known because he's at the hospital.
I mean, he was at the hospital wearing scrubs with an ID card to match. He'd successfully fooled the hospital staff, even the security guards, for months.
But that didn't stop people in town from judging Tammy. People were harsh.
Oh my gosh. Some of the things that I read, I could not read because, you know, the things that people were saying about how stupid I was, how dumb, how could you, you know, it was bad.
So I was so embarrassed. You know, I couldn't even go to church.
I could not because I was so embarrassed, so embarrassed. Over time, she realized that this wasn't her shame to carry.
And slowly, she started entering the world again. It took me about two to three months to just blend back into society.
I eventually just stopped trying to defend myself, and I just began to focus on moving forward. That's all I focused on.
Charges were brought against Eric for identity fraud and credit card theft. After the sentencing hearing, reporters swarmed the courthouse.
When asked for comment, Eric spoke directly to Tammy. He apologized to her.
It meant nothing. It meant nothing to me.
I did not show up for his sentencing. I didn't care.
But she did care about her privacy and protecting her family from Eric. I changed my telephone number so that he would not be able to contact me.
Looking back years later, there's only one thing that still haunts her.

He would have like syringes in his pocket.

And there was something in those syringes, some type of solution.

Makes me think like my mom used to always joke around and say,

oh, you never marry a doctor because he knows how to kill you and get away with it. She always said that.
So I always had that in the back of my head.

But I'm just so thankful that the situation did not have a tragic end. I really am.
Today, Tammy still lives in Atlanta and... Well, believe it or not, I am married again.
I was just excited to be with someone that was genuine, that had a really good heart. And he was real.
She finds that sharing her story takes the power away from Eric and people like him. I'm not afraid to talk about how I was vulnerable and how I allowed this person in, not seeing the danger and just totally

let my guard down because I'm so caught up on the fact that, oh, this person has lost everyone

and everything and they've lost nothing. It's all a lie.

We end all of our weekly episodes with the same question. Why do you want to tell your story? I don't know why people feel that they are above being deceived.

Everyone has an area of weakness. So I just don't want us to think that it can never happen to me.
No one is above deception. On the next episode of Betrayal.
I can feel myself start to just float away

because what I am seeing, I just cannot comprehend. And while I'm holding his phone

in my left hand, I take my phone in my right, and I just start recording. If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal team or want to tell us your Betrayal story, email us at BetrayalPod at gmail.com.
That's Betrayal, P-O-D, at gmail.com. We're grateful for your support.
One way to show support is by subscribing to our show on Apple Podcasts. And don't forget to rate and review Betrayal.
Five-star reviews go a long way. A big thank you to all of our listeners.
Betrayal is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Faison, hosted and produced by me, Andrea Gunning, written and produced by Monique Laborde, also produced by Ben Fetterman.
Associate producers are Kristen Malkuri and Caitlin Golden. Our iHeart team is Allie Perry and Jessica Kreincheck.
Audio editing and mixing by Matt Delvecchio. Additional editing support from

Nico Arruca and Tanner Robbins. Betrayals theme composed by Oliver Baines.
Music library provided

by Mybe Music. And for more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts.