Latest / Blood Trails / Paradise Prison: Chapter 3

Transcript

Paradise Prison: Chapter 3 · Blood Trails

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: You've heard how American hunters ended up arrested in Turks
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: and Caicos for forgotten ammunition in their luggage. You've heard
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: about the prison conditions, the baffling legal system, and the
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: US State Department's lack of involvement. What you haven't heard
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: is what happened when they decided to fight back, and
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: how that decision put not just them but their wives
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: and children in the crosshairs.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: That's next on Blood Trails.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: The Americans who'd been arrested in Turks and Caicos knew
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: their situation was dire, but Michael Grimm's account of Grand
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Turk prison put a steely edge on that anxiety to
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: make matters worse. The sentiment on the islands was not
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: in their favor. The judge had sentenced Michael to prison
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: to send a message Americans weren't immune from the law,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: and future offenders could expeck to even worse treatment. With
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: all that pressure bearing down on them. Ryan Watson found
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: ways to cope, however he could.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: Every morning, I wake up and I'm thinking somebody plucked
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: me from my life and dropped me into some Netflix
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: true crime docuseries like this Isn't this is like the
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: most extravagant joke of all time. I had to check
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: in every day at the jail, so I had to
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: run to the jail and check in. And that run
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: to the jail had kind of been like my form
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: of like therapy or self torture or whatever the case
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: may be. I want, like I want, I needed to
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: feel something like burn or let you know, like just something.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: On May tenth, twenty twenty four, about a month after
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Ryan was arrested, he set off on one of these runs.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: I had my AirPods in, hadn't dawn on me that
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: I had taken the same route every time. At one point,
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: I'm running on a sidewalk and I don't even know
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: how I can explain it. It's just if he like
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: since like a flash or something like in your periphery
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: that just causes you to jump. I I was jumping
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: to the side before I even realized my brain process
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: that I was jumping to the side. When something grabs
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: my heel, it spins me around, I do a one eighty.
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: I land, you know, on my face, and you know,
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: skin my elbows up and I stand up and I realized,
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: I'm like, I just got hit.
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: By a car.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Ryan wouldn't have been the first inattentive jogger to be
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: struck by a vehicle, but he quickly realized that this
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: may not have been an innocent mistake. For one thing,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: he hadn't been crossing a street. He'd been jogging along
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: a sidewalk.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: Which luckily was a very tall curve, because if that
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: curve was any shorter that car would have made it
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: would have hit me.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: As Ryan picked himself up off the pavement, he saw
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: that the driver wasn't getting out to make sure he
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: was okay. In fact, that person seemed to be gearing
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: up to do the opposite.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: I'm looking around and there's this four door seday and
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: sitting idling in the middle of the street, and it's
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: just sitting there, and I'm like, oh my god. I
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: jumped to my feet. I see them throw it reverse.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: I thought, oh shit, I gotta get out of here,
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: and so I jumped to my left. There was a
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: fence that had a bunch of vegetation over there that
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: had grown through it. I jumped to grab a hold
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: of that, and whenever it did, the fence beneath the
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: vegetation had just collapsed. Underneathing, and I thought, oh crap,
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: this isn't an option, and so I turned around and
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: I stepped off the curb. It's starting its way back
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: to me, and about that time, I see it stop
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: and throw it in gear and take off, and I'm like,
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: what just happened? And I turned look over my shoulder
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: and another car had just pulled out onto the street,
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: and I was like, Oh my God, Like, did that
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: just happen.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Brian believed that whoever was driving that car tried to
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: hit him intentionally, and when they failed, drove back to
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: finish the job. Under normal circumstances. That might sound like paranoia,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: but these were not normal circumstances.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: He got the most dangerous in early May when the
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: bomb threats started. And that's when things really came to
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: a crescendo in terms of the threats against us. Someone
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: we don't know who it was started calling in bomb
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: threats to their airport and got their airport shut down.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: A total of seventeen bomb threats were issued in May
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: of twenty twenty four, and almost all of them referenced
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: the Americans who'd been arrested for ammunition possession. One of
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: them said, quote, we don't like doing this, but this
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: is nothing compared to what Tyler Wenrick, Ryan Watson, and
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Brian Hagrich are going through at the moment. Along with
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: the bomb threats, the email I reviewed threatened to assassinate
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Turks and Caicos government officials and to send more threats
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: to schools, factories, ports and hotels. Ryan and the others
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: were blamed for this disruption to the Turks and Caicos economy.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: One op ed published in a local paper claimed that
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: making these threats was an act of quote cowardice, fear
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: and bullying. It exhorted the Americans to quote be bold
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: and brave and face the judicial process.
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: So their local media started crafting the story that I
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: was orchestrating all the bomb threats, so that in turn,
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: all the locals started putting out hits on me on
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: WhatsApp and people were sharing our location of people came
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: to find out where we were staying.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: The situation was getting out of control. Ryan's experience with
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: a mysterious sedan underlined the fact that they weren't just
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: facing twelve years behind bars. They first had to survive
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: long enough to attend their sentencing. Ryan stopped wearing his
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: customary cowboy hat, and Brian told me they were forced
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: to move from the airbnb they were staying in.
• 5:50
  Speaker 5: And I felt unsafety even just go go for a walk,
• 5:54
  Speaker 5: or go anywhere and do anything. Do you have a
• 5:56
  Speaker 5: bullsig on your back?
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: These death threats added another layer of danger to an
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: already perilous situation, But the truth was they weren't entirely unforeseen.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: That's because Ryan, Brian, and Tyler had decided to take
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: drastic measures to get themselves off the islands and back
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: to their families. These measures were designed to put pressure
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: on Turks and Caicos officials, force the hand of the
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: US government, and tell the world about the injustice of
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: their situation. They accomplished all three objectives, but as you'll
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: see in this episode, they got more than they bargained for.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: Their strategy confirmed that Turks and Caicos was targeting Americans.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: It spurred a congressional delegation, a dramatic confrontation with the
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: State Department, and the support of millions of people. But
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: it also increased the metaphorical temperature on the already sweltering islands,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: and they didn't know whether it would secure their freedom
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: or at decades to their time in prison. I'm Jordan
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Sillers and this is Blood Trails Paradise Prison, Chapter three,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: Part one. A bold Strategy. Ryan first spoke to Michael
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Grimm just a few days after his arrest, while Valerie
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: was still on the islands. He knew that he and
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: his wife were facing a long prison sentence, so he
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: was willing to take almost any risk to increase their
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: odds of being released.
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: A guy I grew up with in Shawne, Oklahoma, had
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: married a girl who ended up being the head anchor
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: of NBC Boston. And she sends my wife a message
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: and said, hey, if you thinks getting your story out
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: there will help you, like, let us know, I'll do it.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: And so we look down, we see these messages. We're
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: on the phone with Michael, and I said, Michael, what
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: if we went to the media.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Up to this point, these stories had garnered little media attention.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Brian Hagrich's case had been largely ignored, and Michael's had
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: only been covered by local outlets. Michael explained that he
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: opted to keep things quiet partly because he works for
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: a member of Congress, but also because he'd been warned
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: against it. By his attorney, Oliver Smith.
• 8:03
  Speaker 6: And his advice to me was, do not do that,
• 8:07
  Speaker 6: because you will rock the boat and then you will
• 8:10
  Speaker 6: get even harsher punishment, right Like, all you're gonna do
• 8:15
  Speaker 6: is piss them off, and we don't want to do that.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: Michael conveyed this same advice to Ryan that day on
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: the phone.
• 8:23
  Speaker 6: I just told him. I was like, be careful. Instead
• 8:25
  Speaker 6: of getting six months, they may be like, well, CNN
• 8:28
  Speaker 6: is pissed, so we're going to give you ten years.
• 8:30
  Speaker 6: So there are there could be unintended consequences.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: In Ryan's recollection of this conversation, Michael was clear about
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: what those consequences might be.
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: He said, don't do it. He said, it's a death sentence.
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: So Amian is a death sentence. He said, Ryan, ninety
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: percent of their GDP is American tourism. He said, this
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: is you're talking about economic warfare. And he said they
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: will kill you. He said, mark my words, they will
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: kill you.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Ryan knew that escalating the story in the media carried
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: real risk, but being separated from his family was not
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: an option.
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: Cutting off ties with my family, man, I just couldn't
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: accept it. I was like, Nope, this is not going
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: to happen. I don't have any options, and if they're
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: talking about me never seeing my kids again, give me
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: your best shot.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: The problem was Ryan's actions could impact not just his situation,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: but Brian's as well. When Ryan asked his fellow American
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: about going to the media, Brian's initial answer was the
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: same as Michael's.
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: The next day, I reached out to him, arranged a
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: meet with him, and I was like, hey, buddy, like,
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: we're both in a world to hurt here. I said,
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: this is we have a plan to go to the media,
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: and he was like, Nope, already been warned. It's a
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: death sentence. We can't do that. And I said, man,
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: I just I don't see any other way.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Brian was still hesitant, but Ryan argued that going to
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: the media, shining a light on the injustice of their
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: situation might be their only hope of avoiding Grand Turk
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: prison entirely. Valerie, who hadn't yet been released, also pointed
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: out that they had something Michael Grimm didn't.
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: As much as I like to pride myself on my
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: career in sales, my wife was the one that ended
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: up talking him into it, and she said, do you
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: think that if if you guys went to the media,
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: it would have more of an impact. If I were
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: there with you. I'm a woman, I'm a mother, we
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: might have a chance to get more sympathy. Like I
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: feel like I can help you guys out.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: Valerie says her decision to put herself in the public
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: eye wasn't made lightly, but it was grounded in her faith.
• 10:37
  Speaker 7: And I told Ryan, I was like, Babe, the only
• 10:40
  Speaker 7: thing that I feel peace about is the media. Like
• 10:44
  Speaker 7: I feel like God keeps dropping things in our lap
• 10:47
  Speaker 7: and it has just been so easy, Like taking this
• 10:50
  Speaker 7: media route to do anything else did not feel right.
• 10:55
  Speaker 7: I was like, I truly believe this is what God
• 10:58
  Speaker 7: wants us to do.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Valerie's conviction convinced Brian that calling attention to their plight
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: was the right thing to do, even if it came
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: with a serious level of risk.
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: Our fate is probably the same at this point, so
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: we're either all in or all out together, and we said, hey,
• 11:16
  Speaker 5: we're all in, like we've got nothing.
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: To lose, And it was late at night, and he
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: finally agreed. We all put our hands in the middle,
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: and we're like, all right, we're going to do this.
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: And we shook and said let's.
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: Go to war.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Of course, there's an inconvenient truth about war. You only
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: control the first shot. After that, the other side gets
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: a say. Once Valerie got off the islands, she lifted
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: the media embargoes they'd arranged with some of the world's
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: biggest news outlets, and the story went absolutely viral. Much
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: of the attention was positive and sympathetic, but some was
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: less than welcoming, including Ryan, was horrified to learn threats
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: against his wife and kids back home. Part two, The
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Home Front. When Valerie walked into the waiting area at
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: the airport in Oklahoma City, she knew there would be
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: news cameras and journalists waiting to ask her questions, but
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: the flashbulbs and noise weren't enough to take away the
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: joy she felt at seeing her kids.
• 12:22
  Speaker 7: I walked out those doors and saw my kids' faces,
• 12:26
  Speaker 7: and they came running up to me, and I was
• 12:29
  Speaker 7: able to just hold their little bodies. Was definitely a
• 12:34
  Speaker 7: moment that I wasn't sure I was going to have
• 12:36
  Speaker 7: again with them at that size and at that age.
• 12:40
  Speaker 7: Every time I see the pictures of the video replays
• 12:43
  Speaker 7: of me hugging those babies, it was a super surreal
• 12:48
  Speaker 7: and super sweet, unforgettable moment, but it was also heartbreaking
• 12:54
  Speaker 7: at the same time because I felt like Ryan should
• 12:58
  Speaker 7: have been there too, and now I'm faced with hard conversations.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: Valerie and Ryan had told their kids that they'd been
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: delayed by a storm. That was only true in a
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: metaphorical sense, but they weren't sure what else to tell
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: their seven and nine year old. When Valerie came home,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: she explained the situation in full, how Ryan had been
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: caught with four rounds of hunting AMMO and he was
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: still on the islands, fighting to come home.
• 13:22
  Speaker 7: And I didn't want to emphasize the twelve years. I
• 13:26
  Speaker 7: knew they were going to hear it on the news,
• 13:28
  Speaker 7: and so when that time came, you know, and he
• 13:31
  Speaker 7: did hear that, he was like, Mom, is he not
• 13:34
  Speaker 7: going to be home for twelve years? And I was like, well,
• 13:36
  Speaker 7: I said, there's a lot of things that can happen
• 13:39
  Speaker 7: that can make it less time. I said, so we
• 13:42
  Speaker 7: are just going to pray.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: Valerie did her best to encourage her son, but she
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: said he was still understandably upset.
• 13:50
  Speaker 7: It broke my heart that very first night. He was angry,
• 13:55
  Speaker 7: he was you know yelling. He was like trying to process,
• 13:58
  Speaker 7: like these people took my dad from me, and he's
• 14:02
  Speaker 7: just feeling angered.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: Brian knew his family was struggling, and he was doing
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: everything in his power to get back to them. He
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: and Brian had moved into the same airbnb where they
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: spent their days doing one thing.
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: From that point on, it's as many interviews as we
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: can do. It was our form of economical warfare. We
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: had to tell the world, and we had to keep
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: our story in the headlines. Part of the reason that
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: helped our story go viral is it didn't pass the
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: sniff test. Everybody heard twelve years for that, like what,
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: like something's going on here.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: In one sense, their strategy was working. Their story was
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: resonating with people around the world, but they wouldn't know
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: if they'd made the right decision until they were actually sentenced.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: In the meantime, they learned that attention can be a
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: double edged sword.
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: But it tipped me off that something was up. Whenever
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: I got a request to download a ring app on
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: my phone and I was like, I don't have a
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: ring camera at my house. And my wife sends me
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: a message and says, hey, your friends have come and
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: installed a ring camera, like so I started texting them,
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: I'm like, why are you installing a ring camera run
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: in my house? And they were like, not for you
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: to worry about. We got this, like we're taking turns. Ryan,
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: He's like, we got this. And they were installing gates
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: on our property.
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: I was like, something's up, Something was up. Valerie isn't
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: sure how people found her phone number and home address,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: but they did, and they weren't shy about sharing that information.
• 15:39
  Speaker 7: People were getting my number, and you know, these were
• 15:42
  Speaker 7: things that I wasn't sharing with Ryan at the time
• 15:44
  Speaker 7: because he's still going through what he's going through, and
• 15:48
  Speaker 7: it's stressful enough, you know, being down on the island
• 15:51
  Speaker 7: trying to figure out what is going to happen there.
• 15:56
  Speaker 7: But yeah, I would get these weird text messages and
• 15:59
  Speaker 7: they would have my address, you know, and it was
• 16:02
  Speaker 7: like I'm so and so, and I know you live
• 16:04
  Speaker 7: at this place.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: And there were people that were making threats against my wife,
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: saying that well, we know he's not ever, he's not
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: going to be there, so she's free game. There was
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: millions of people in the United States that hated us
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: and wish that we were you know, killed by firing
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: squad instead of you know, going to prison.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Why anyone would feel such animosity towards the Watsons is
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: an open question. Reviewing comments still posted online, many zero
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: in on the fact that Ryan is a hunter and
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: gun owner. When the Turks and Kikos police posted on
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: Facebook the announcement of Ryan's arrest, one person said, quote,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: so what you're telling me is that this fool was
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: irresponsible with handling ammunition given that he has two children
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: in his home. Lock him up and throw away the key.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: Another claim that Ryan brought the ammunition into the country
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: on purpose, while yet another read simply give him the
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: death pen. Others attacked the fact that Ryan's sister had
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: set up a go Fundme to help pay their legal fees.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: That fund ended up raising about two hundred and fifty
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars, which Ryan said was used exclusively for their
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: own expenses, as well as the expenses of the other
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: Americans on the island. But commenters didn't know that or
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: didn't care, and so they painted the Watsons as profiting
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: off of a stupid mistake. Those comments were difficult to read,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: but they weren't the only troubling communications being sent back
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: to the home front. Michael had warned Ryan about the
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: extortion attempts he had dealt with in prison and said
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: the Watsons, the Hagriches, and the Wenricks should expect the same.
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: And he said, they capitalize on your desperation and the
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: moment you call your family, they've got their phone number,
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: and those people they know that those people are willing
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: to pay anything to keep you alive.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: These attempts came even before any of the Americans were sentenced.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: Here's Michael Wenrick, Tyler's father, telling me about a call
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: that Tyler's wife Jerry received while her husband was still
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: in prison.
• 18:03
  Speaker 8: I'm working one day and I get a text from
• 18:09
  Speaker 8: her tower's coming home. She says, I'm on the phone
• 18:13
  Speaker 8: right now with the local police on the island and
• 18:18
  Speaker 8: that if I pay this fine, they'll let them go home.
• 18:22
  Speaker 8: And so she's working on getting that paid, and I'm
• 18:24
  Speaker 8: sitting back, thinking, some don't sound right.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: Mister Wendrick called Tyler's lawyer, who confirmed that this was
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: a scam. But you can understand why Jerry Ann was
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: so tempted to believe it, and she wasn't alone all
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: the families received similar calls at one point or another
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: from individuals trying to capitalize on their desperation. Ryan believes
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: they were made by the guards in the prison and
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: the jails who got their phone numbers after the Americans
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: called home, but these extortion schemes could have just as
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: easily been perpetrated by scammers in other countries who heard
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: about the situation thanks to the increased media attention. Whatever
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: the source of the death threats, hate mail, and extortion schemes,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: they forced all three men to consider more drastic means
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: of getting home to protect their families.
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: There were plenty of random people that reached out to
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: us on signal who offered for large, large sums of
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: money to land a floatplane.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: You may have already wondered why the Americans didn't try
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: to run away. They all eventually made bail, and there
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: were plenty of boats and jet skis that could have
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: gotten them to international waters.
• 19:30
  Speaker 5: And I don't want to go into too much detail here.
• 19:34
  Speaker 5: Those plans were discussed. Those plans involved at a much
• 19:39
  Speaker 5: higher level than what Ryan and I could even begin
• 19:43
  Speaker 5: to think to coordinate. But yes, there were contingency plans
• 19:49
  Speaker 5: in place. There were GPS coordinates. There was a day
• 19:55
  Speaker 5: where all of our bags were packed, families were ready
• 19:58
  Speaker 5: to board a flight back to the US. Yes, and
• 20:02
  Speaker 5: we were ready to hop on a helicopter.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: The problem was Turks and Caicos is a British territory
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: and they signed an extradition treaty with the US. So
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: even if the Americans managed to make the perilous journey
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: back home, there was a good chance they'd be turned
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: around and sent back to Turks and Caicos. If that happened,
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: they'd be looking at a lot more than twelve years
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: in prison. They could have tried fleeing to a non
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: extradition country, but Ryan said that would have been almost
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: as tough on their families as prison.
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: Now we're living in shadows, looking over our shoulders, you know,
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: for the rest of our lives, and we both had
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: young kids. It started to feel like a selfish act,
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: you know, to be honest with you, and I didn't
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: want to bring that hurt to my family.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: With that option off the table, the Americans had to
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: trust themselves to the legal system. But while the media
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: attention had many negative side effects, it also spurred action
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: not from the state Department, at least not exactly, but
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: from the US Congress. All three Americas had reached out
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: to their representatives soon after being arrested. Some had been
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: more helpful than others, but as the story gained steam,
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: these representatives and senators began to consider using one of
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: the only instruments Congress has to impact foreign policy. They
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: didn't know whether this tool would be effective, but they
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: knew it would send a powerful message the United States
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: was watching and Turks and Keiko's officials should proceed with caution.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: That's next after.
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: The break.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Part three. Codell As you heard in the last episode,
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: the United States Department of State had been far less
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: helpful than the Americans would have hoped. Ryan knew this
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: from personal experience, but as part of his media blitz,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: he decided to bring the receipts.
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: What we had was an email that was sent to
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: Michael Grimm's mother when Michael Graham was in prison.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: Michael's mother, whose name is Teresa, had sent an email
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: to the head of the US Embassy in the Bahamas,
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: a woman named Usha Pitts. Teresa wasn't asking for a
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: special treatment for her son, She just wanted to know
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: what the visitation rules were whether Michael was getting medical
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: care and if Pitts had discussed Michael's case with the
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: governor of the Islands. The response she received was again
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: less than helpful.
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: She responds to Michael Graham's mother something to the tune of,
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: I don't know how you got my number, but your
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: sons have no concern to me and get lost.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: This isn't an exaggeration. The email pit sent to Teresa read,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: in part quote, please remove me from your emails. I
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: do not involve myself in ongoing health and welfare cases,
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: and I did not give you my email address, nor
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: will I provide you with details of my interactions with
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: the governor.
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: And so I called Michael and I said, hey, man,
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: we need a face. I don't want to breach your trust.
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: I said, but can I weak that email? And he
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: thought about it and he said, yeah, okay, you can
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: do it. So we leaked that email to NBC.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: The gambit succeeded in getting the attention of the State Department.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: Here's a clip from that NBC report.
• 23:20
  Speaker 9: We asked Pitts and the State Department about that email.
• 23:23
  Speaker 9: A State Department spokesperson tells us we apologize to the
• 23:27
  Speaker 9: grim family for the tone and substance of the emails.
• 23:30
  Speaker 9: They were not in accordance with the high priority we
• 23:33
  Speaker 9: place on care for Americans abroad.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: Along with the apology, the State Department reassigned Pitts to
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: Haiti in the wake of these revelations. They also sent
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: someone to do a welfare check on Ryan and Brian.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Though that was the meeting at the deli you heard
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: about in the last episode, the one where the embassy
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: official laughed at them and told them they should get
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: on a boat and leave. Still, Washington d C. Was
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: beginning to take notice. Then. Oklahoma Senator Mark Wayne Mullen
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: had been in touch with Ryan and Valerie the entire time,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: and he told Ryan that their media campaign was working.
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: He's like, I thought you were crazy for going to
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: the media, he said, but what you're doing is like
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: you're having influence.
• 24:12
  Speaker 7: Ryan.
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: He's like, I know, it doesn't feel like it there.
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: He's like, but you are having influence on that island.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: The attention Ryan and the other Americans were generating made
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: it easier for Senator Mullen to organize something called a
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: congressional delegation or codell, and.
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: He said basically I'm going to as symbol a group
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: of Senators and congressmen. We're going to fly to the
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: island and we're going to force basically to sit in
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: with their government.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: The Senator was able to organize this trip in record time,
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: and on May seventeenth he called Ryan to say they'd
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: be landing in Turks and Caicos in two days.
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: That was like, holy crap, this is the biggest blessing
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: of all times.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: But then they hit a roadblock.
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: Later on that evening. I get a call and he's like, Buddy,
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: I got bad news. I don't know if we can
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: make it. And I was like, you talk about he said,
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: Chuck Schumer just shut it down. He said, because if
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: we fly in on the nineteenth, the twentieth is a Monday,
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: they have to call recess on the Senate floor for
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: us to make this trip happen. And Chuck Schumer is
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: refusing to call recess so that we can go. He's
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: blocking it because it's not a quote unquote bipartisan trip.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: New York Senator Chuck Schumer was at the time Senate
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: majority leader, so he had the power to block the
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: trip entirely. But Mullen had one more card to play.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: He told Ryan he planned to ask Senator John Fetterman,
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: a Democrat from Pennsylvania. Senator Fetterman was one of Brian's representatives,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: and he and Mullen were on good terms.
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: He said, I'll let you know about ten o'clock tonight.
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: He said, that's when our NSA has to have our
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: security glarance is done by it It's okay. Ten o'clock
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: rolls by. We don't hear anything, and you know we're defeated.
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: Ten ten he calls, and he says. Vetterman's in.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: Along with Mullen and Fetterman, the delegation consisted of Representatives
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: Guy Reschenthaler of Pennsylvania, Michael Cloud of Texas, Bob Good
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: of Virginia, and Josh Burkeen of Oklahoma. They flew in
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: on May seventeenth and planned to meet with the detained Americans,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: state department employees, and Turks and Caicos government officials. While
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: they didn't have the power to impose sanctions or issue
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: travel advisories, Representative Burkeen told me they were there to
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: deliver one simple message.
• 26:27
  Speaker 10: Why they needed to make sure that United States citizens
• 26:31
  Speaker 10: felt comfortable continuing to travel to Turks and Kkos. Sixty
• 26:35
  Speaker 10: five percent of their GDP was tourism related, of which
• 26:39
  Speaker 10: that eighty percent of that came from the United States.
• 26:43
  Speaker 10: And to have a twelve year prison sidence hanging over
• 26:46
  Speaker 10: your head because you accidentally left Ammo in a bag
• 26:52
  Speaker 10: was madness.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: The first meeting was a dinner attended by Codell, the Americans,
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: State Department officials and represent it is from the United Kingdom.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: Brian had a chance to chat with Senator Fetterman, who
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: he said was encouraging an empathetic.
• 27:06
  Speaker 5: Senator Fetterman was to my left and at one point
• 27:10
  Speaker 5: he said, hey, hey, Brian, did you kill a deer
• 27:13
  Speaker 5: last year? And I said, yes, Senator, I did. He goes,
• 27:18
  Speaker 5: was it a buck? And I said, yes, sir, it was.
• 27:21
  Speaker 5: And this is the middle of the dinner while everybody
• 27:22
  Speaker 5: else is speaking, and I said, well, you know, it
• 27:25
  Speaker 5: was kind of a funky rack. But he had thirteen points.
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: He goes, oh, we stood up.
• 27:29
  Speaker 5: Oh wow, that's a giant congratulations. At this point everybody
• 27:35
  Speaker 5: got caught quits and chuckle out of it, and it
• 27:38
  Speaker 5: was kind of great to relate about, you know, something
• 27:41
  Speaker 5: that you know, Pennsylvanians can share together, and that's outdoorsmanship
• 27:45
  Speaker 5: and hunting.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: After they ate, Senator Mullen began the discussion by asking
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: each detained American to tell their story. You already heard
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: what had happened to Ryan, Brian, and Tyler, but there
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: was another American there who I mentioned in chapter one,
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: a woman named Sharita Career. When she told her story,
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: the gathered politicians could hardly believe what they were hearing.
• 28:07
  Speaker 11: I was so excited because I'm like, oh my god,
• 28:09
  Speaker 11: I never been out of the country.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: Sharita is from Florida and her daughters had planned a
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: trip to Turks and Caicos for Mother's Day. They had
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: a good time, but as they tried to leave the islands,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: airport officials found two rounds of nine millimeter in her bag.
• 28:23
  Speaker 11: So they got me in the room. You know, they're
• 28:26
  Speaker 11: just talking, this is this series, you facing twelve years
• 28:30
  Speaker 11: mandatory prison. I'm just baffled it this time. I'm crying,
• 28:34
  Speaker 11: my daughter crying, and she was just like, no, you're
• 28:37
  Speaker 11: gonna have to come go with us.
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: We need to talk to you.
• 28:39
  Speaker 11: And I'm like, talk to me.
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: I don't know what the dude. We did as hysterical
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: at this moment.
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: It was awful.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: Sharita told her daughters to get on the plane and
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: fly home while officials hustled her off to jail.
• 28:53
  Speaker 11: And I'm thinking to myself, I ain't never been in
• 28:56
  Speaker 11: jail dead my life. I'm just baffled, Like in jail
• 29:01
  Speaker 11: this thing, you know. They take my luggage, They had
• 29:05
  Speaker 11: me in her own conference room. They gave me a
• 29:09
  Speaker 11: filthy blanket and put it on the floor, and they
• 29:13
  Speaker 11: changed my leg to a chair and made me sleep
• 29:15
  Speaker 11: on the floor.
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: In a room in a conference room.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: The jail only had one holding cell and there was
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: a man in it at the time of Sharita's arrest,
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: so officials decided to keep her in that conference room
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: with her ankle shackled to a chair. Shrida told me
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: it was one of the scariest, loneliest moments of her life.
• 29:36
  Speaker 4: The most thing I did was pray.
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: I prayed and cried, cried and prayed, you know what.
• 29:42
  Speaker 11: Finally, like that second day I was praying, I was
• 29:46
  Speaker 11: crying out of God. I said, God, I know you're real.
• 29:49
  Speaker 11: I said, I just need you to give me a
• 29:51
  Speaker 11: sign that I'm gonna be okay. That's when she came
• 29:54
  Speaker 11: I heard a lady say, I'm here to check on
• 29:57
  Speaker 11: Sharita Grill, and I'm saying to myself, was that I
• 30:00
  Speaker 11: don't know nobody over here.
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: Don't nobody know me.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: Strida was the last to be arrested, and Ryan and
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: Brian heard about it through the contacts they developed on
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: the island. They drove to the jail the next day
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: and Ryan's mom went inside to visit.
• 30:14
  Speaker 11: They brought her down in the hall and when she
• 30:15
  Speaker 11: came in the room, I'm crying. She cried, and she
• 30:18
  Speaker 11: was like, You're gonna be okay, anster. You know, she
• 30:20
  Speaker 11: was just trying to courage men stuff. But it was
• 30:22
  Speaker 11: just like when I prayed at prayer. It was like
• 30:25
  Speaker 11: instantly she called me by name when she came to
• 30:28
  Speaker 11: the jail, because I ain't even know how she knew
• 30:31
  Speaker 11: I was there. You know what I'm saying, you know
• 30:32
  Speaker 11: all this type of stuff. So I'm just like, before
• 30:35
  Speaker 11: I can wipe the tears from my eyes, she called
• 30:37
  Speaker 11: me by name.
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: My mom comes back probably forty five minutes later, just
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: absolutely in tears. I was like, what's going on? She said, well,
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: she's in there, but Ryan, it's not good. I said,
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: what do you mean, she said, they have her handcuffed
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: to a chair. It's like you kidding me, She said no,
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: but she told me that she has a history of
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: blood cloths. She doesn't have access to her Anti kauais.
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: So we fire off an email requesting the embassy to intervene.
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: There is American life at risk. She's obviously in very
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: in email conditions without a medication, and nothing, no response.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: Ryan and the others brought Sharita food and blankets while
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: she was detained, but officials refused to remove the handcuff
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: from her ankle until she made bail four days later.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: Scharita told me her ankle started to swell up and
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: she barely slept or ate the entire time.
• 31:34
  Speaker 4: It was awful cool.
• 31:36
  Speaker 7: I just.
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: I'n hain't damn Maddy.
• 31:40
  Speaker 11: I just never experienced anything like that before in my life,
• 31:44
  Speaker 11: you know what I'm saying. To being shocked to a
• 31:47
  Speaker 11: chair and in another country, no family, no nothing, you know,
• 31:53
  Speaker 11: all alone.
• 31:55
  Speaker 4: It was devastatum.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: Sharita went to live with Ryan and Brian while theynavigated
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: the legal system, and they developed a bond that remains
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: to this day. But when the way Sharita had been
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: treated came out at the Codell dinner. Tyler said the
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: gathered delegation was not happy.
• 32:11
  Speaker 12: They ringed out the State Department in front of us
• 32:13
  Speaker 12: during that dinner. It just fired up Mullins after we
• 32:17
  Speaker 12: went into some of those conversations and it got pretty heated.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: Senator Mullen asked the State Department officials if they hadn't
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: bothered to check on the health of Americans immediately after
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: they'd been detained. Had they at least tried to make
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: sure the prison conditions had improved. One of the officials
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: there said she toured the prison while Tyler was incarcerated
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: and determined that many of the problems had been fixed.
• 32:39
  Speaker 13: And so she starts to tell this story about touring
• 32:44
  Speaker 13: the prison, and Tyler Weinrick, who was on Grand Turk,
• 32:50
  Speaker 13: which is where the prison is located, interjects and he
• 32:53
  Speaker 13: said wait, wait, no, no, no, no.
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: He said, you were able to meet me earlier than
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: where than when we were supposed to me because they
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: didn't allow you past the lobby and they didn't allow
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: you to tour the prison. You told me that firsthand
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: when we sat down to meet. This is Tyler speaking,
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: and at which point she realizes she's been caught it yet.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: Believe it or not, these weren't the only explosive revelations
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: that hot summer night in Turks and Caicos. Ryan had
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: one more story to tell, one that raised serious questions
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: about whether local officials were applying the law equally and
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: why the state department hadn't caught it sooner. That's next
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: after the break Part four the Brazilian. In order to
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: understand what happened next, we have to rewind the tape
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: all the way back to Ryan and Valerie's second interrogation.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: Ryan was sitting across the table from Sergeant Charles, trying
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: to convince him that those were his bullets and that
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: was his bag.
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: He he gets a phone call and he says, Hey,
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: what's going on? And hear an airport security officer on
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: the other end of the line say, hey, we just
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: caught you another one, And his eyes perk up and
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: I lift my head up. I thought, did I just
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: hear what I thought I heard? About the time the
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: airport's security officer comes back on. He says, yeah, young
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: Caucasian female mid twenties, two live rounds of ammunition and
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: her carry on come snagger who bolts out the room,
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: and I can hear him ordering two other police officers
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: to go to the airport. He comes back in, acting
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: as if I didn't just hear exactly what had transpired.
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: And I was like, hey, did I just hear that, right?
• 34:51
  Speaker 3: And he's like, don't pay any attention to that. It's
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: none of your business. And at that point I was like,
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: this is a game, Like something is going on.
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: Ryan was interrogated for about forty five minutes and then
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: let out into the lobby. As Valerie was hustled into
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: the room, he just left. As he sat there waiting
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: for his wife to finish answering questions, he turned around
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: to see a woman in her twenties being dragged into
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: the station, and.
• 35:14
  Speaker 3: She's balling her eyes out. She's hysterical. She looks scared
• 35:18
  Speaker 3: to death. I don't get like a great look at
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: her face because her head is buried down in her hands.
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: But I have a pretty good description of her. I
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: assume that she's an American. I mean she looked Caucasian.
• 35:33
  Speaker 3: They put her in a different room. They slammed the door,
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: and I can hear loud speak, but I can't hear
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: I can't make out what they're saying.
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: As Ryan and Valerie left the station that day, Ryan
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't quite right.
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: On the way back to the hotel room, I had
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: turned to my wife and parents and I said, Hey,
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: something's going something else is going on, Like we're gonna
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: talk about this when we get to the hotel room.
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: Don't say a word in front of anybody.
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: When they got back to the hotel, Ryan did everything
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: he could to identify the woman he'd seen. He downloaded
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: flight tracking data to find her flight, and he asked
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: about her in conversations with reporters and others who might
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: know something.
• 36:15
  Speaker 3: There was a guy who had been extorted in years
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: past who had come into contact with us, and he
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: was actually still paying one of the officers on the island,
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: and he put us in contact with this officer and said,
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: I think he might be able to help you guys
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: out and get you some information. And so when we
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: reached out to he's like, guys, I have the only
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: record that I have of any female being arrested is Valerie.
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: We don't know who you're talking about. We knew she existed,
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: we knew somebody had gotten apprehended. I saw the evidence
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: bag with the two rounds of ammunition in it, and
• 36:50
  Speaker 3: so we felt like we were going crazy.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: Ryan wasn't able to identify this mystery woman until a
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: few weeks later, when he told the story you just
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: heard to the representatives and plomats at the Codell dinner, at.
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: Which point the charged affair looks up and looks over
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: to the other embassy official sitting across the table and says,
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: is he talking about the Brazilian girl? And Mullin's head
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: about spins off his shoulders and he's like, what are
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: you talking about Brazilian girl? And he's like, well, is
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: he talking about the Brazilian girl that was arrested for
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: having ammunition at the airport. And Mullin like slams his
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: head on the desk and he's like, you just got
• 37:27
  Speaker 3: through in a briefing before this dinner telling us that
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: there is no knowledge of a non American citizen being
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: apprehended and released for having ammunition at you know, and
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: now all of a sudden, you know this girl's country
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: of origin. And it became pretty clear that they were
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: lying at that point.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: In other words, while every American who got caught with
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: ammunition was arrested, jailed, and threatened with serious prison time.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: Citizens of other countries who were caught breaking the same
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: law were relief.
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: It proved our claim that they were targeting American citizens.
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: Later on in the conversation, it's revealed that there was
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: she wasn't the only one that they knew, that there
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: was another non American citizen who had been apprehended and
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: then released from that airport for the same exact thing.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: Turks and Kiko's officials denied the accusation. Premier Charles Missik
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: took to the local papers to say, quote, we do
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: not target US citizens or any other nationality. Any contrary
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: statements are without merit. Premiere Mystic issued his statement in
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: response to Pennsylvania Congressman Guy Rushenthaler, who had reiterated Ryan's
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: claims to multiple media outlets. Three days later, Congressman russian
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: Thaler confronted then Secretary of State Anthony Blincoln in a
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: fiery House committee hearing.
• 38:49
  Speaker 14: Mister Secretary, it's it's my estimation that your department is
• 38:53
  Speaker 14: just weak, it's factless, and at best, your department is incompetent,
• 38:57
  Speaker 14: and you can't tell me that you can't put a
• 39:00
  Speaker 14: do not travel today on Turks and Caicos and bring
• 39:04
  Speaker 14: the four Americans that still remain in Turkisan Gekos home.
• 39:07
  Speaker 14: It would take one order to bring four Americans home.
• 39:10
  Speaker 14: Four Americans, by the way, one is a grandmother from
• 39:12
  Speaker 14: Florida with two She was called with two rounds of
• 39:14
  Speaker 14: ammunition in her purse. She was chained to a desk
• 39:18
  Speaker 14: for three days. Your state department, your officials did not
• 39:23
  Speaker 14: come and visit her. It was up to the other
• 39:24
  Speaker 14: American detainees to bring her food, water, a pillow, a
• 39:28
  Speaker 14: blanket for that night.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: Secretary Blincoln said he disagreed with Russian Thaler's assessment.
• 39:34
  Speaker 15: We have a state Department, an extraordinary men and women
• 39:38
  Speaker 15: who every single day are working to get arbitrarily detained
• 39:41
  Speaker 15: Americans back home with their families and loved ones. And
• 39:45
  Speaker 15: it's our number one priority. So I will apologize to
• 39:48
  Speaker 15: no one.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: As you heard, Sharita's story became a powerful weapon in
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: the media battle for the detained Americans, but it was
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: more than that. During the Codell Dinner, Oklahoma, Josh Burken
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: told me he used Charita's story to do some real diplomacy.
• 40:05
  Speaker 10: I look down at the end of the table after
• 40:07
  Speaker 10: these stories are being laid out, and I said to
• 40:09
  Speaker 10: this representative from the United Kingdom, I said, what do
• 40:12
  Speaker 10: you think is going to happen when we, as members
• 40:13
  Speaker 10: of Congress, when we go back and we get into
• 40:16
  Speaker 10: a media situation and we're talking about that that woman
• 40:21
  Speaker 10: was handcuffed around a chair all night long? What do
• 40:24
  Speaker 10: you think the story's going to get out? And the
• 40:26
  Speaker 10: response from that government official from the UK said, it's
• 40:30
  Speaker 10: not going to be good.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: These members of Congress had no official power on Turks
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: and Caicos, but the British government did. Ret burken knew
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: that and he used the opportunity to nudge them in
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: the right direction. The next step in the Codell's mission
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: was to meet directly with Turks and Caicos government officials.
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: The first people that the Codell met with were the
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: Minister of Tourism for the island. We knew we had
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: already heard word that the Minister of Tourism and the
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: Resort Association had like three or four separate emergency meetings
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: because there were so many cancelations for their resorts and
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: hotels and vacation rentals on the island. Says that we
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: reckon their economy, demands that I use my quote unquote
• 41:19
  Speaker 3: public presence to go and apologize and encourage other Americans
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: to travel to the island, to which mull and Lassner
• 41:26
  Speaker 3: face He's like, not a chance, Like you've lost your mind.
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: After that less than encouraging interaction, the delegation met with
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: Premier Charles Missik. The congressman pointed out that tourism wasn't
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: the only way American taxpayers contributed to the local economy.
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: The US Coast Guard patrols the waters around the islands
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: and they intercept guns and ammunition being imported by Haitian gangs.
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: According to Ryan, Senator Mullen threatened to pull that Coast
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: Guard protection if the Turks and Kcoast government refused to
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: play ball.
• 41:57
  Speaker 3: Which point Missic erupts and tells them and he's not
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: going to respond to his threats, saying, you don't intimidate me.
• 42:03
  Speaker 3: You can fly in as big a plane as you
• 42:05
  Speaker 3: would ever dream of. He said, it's not going to
• 42:07
  Speaker 3: intimidate me. Molly gets up and walks out of the meeting.
• 42:10
  Speaker 3: End's the meeting right there, calls me and says, buddy,
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: we got to figure out a plan.
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: B Bryan and the others had hoped to fly home
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: with the Codell. Now they knew that wasn't going to happen,
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: because while the congressmen could make threats, they couldn't force
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: the island nation's hand without cooperation from the State Department.
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: On the other hand, Turch and Kikos officials had incentives
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: to play hardball. They didn't want their constituents to think
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: that they caved to foreign pressure, and local media praised
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: Mysic and others for standing up to the Americans. Still,
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: they weren't without hope. As Senator Mullet explained.
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: Mullin calls me and he says, hey, man, I've been
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: on the phone all for like the past four hours
• 42:49
  Speaker 3: with the UK. Up until this point, he couldn't get
• 42:51
  Speaker 3: the UK to do anything to get involved, much less
• 42:55
  Speaker 3: answer a phone, right, He says, Yes, they say that
• 42:59
  Speaker 3: they're going to get involved. They understand what's going on
• 43:02
  Speaker 3: now and they want to be involved. So we have
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: to trust them right now. This is our only play.
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: As it turned out, Retburkeen's instinct was correct. The UK
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: officials at that dinner had heard about Sarita's experience they
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: listened to Ryan, Brian, and Tyler relate their frustrations with
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: the police, the jail conditions, and the arbitrary ways their
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: cases had been handled. They had also heard how local
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: officials had targeted American citizens, whose government constituted one of
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: their closest allies. The Kodel hadn't been successful in the
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: way that Ryan and the others had imagined, but they
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: hoped those UK officials would be working behind the scenes.
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: Now it was time to face the sentencing hearings they'd
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: all been dreading. Those dramatic courtroom scenes are next after
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: the break, Part five The verdicts.
• 44:01
  Speaker 5: May third was my hearing date. My defense made their
• 44:06
  Speaker 5: case their prosecution. Truly, it wasn't much of a legal case.
• 44:11
  Speaker 5: It was more or less these Americans, these Americans, they
• 44:15
  Speaker 5: deserved twelve years, These Americans. I mean that was just
• 44:17
  Speaker 5: repeated over and over again.
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: Brian wasn't sentenced at this hearing, but his account illustrates
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: why he and the others were so concerned. The prosecution
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: had a strong case the law clearly prohibited ammunition possession,
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: but he was worried that this anti American sentiment might
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: unfairly impact their punishment.
• 44:37
  Speaker 5: And everybody knew at that point, like, you know, whatever
• 44:40
  Speaker 5: my fate was was more than likely very similar for
• 44:44
  Speaker 5: the rest of them. So there was a ton of
• 44:47
  Speaker 5: emphasis placed on my case. You know, whatever we had
• 44:50
  Speaker 5: to do was very dependent upon my outcome, and everybody
• 44:54
  Speaker 5: was just kind of waiting for that May twenty fourth date.
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: As his sentencing date approached, Brian said vacillated between optimism
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: and despair.
• 45:03
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 45:03
  Speaker 5: Leading up to that, you know, we had every emotion
• 45:06
  Speaker 5: under the sun.
• 45:07
  Speaker 7: You know.
• 45:07
  Speaker 5: Part of us was, hey, I'm going home. Part of
• 45:10
  Speaker 5: us was I'm going to be in prison. You know,
• 45:13
  Speaker 5: I had given my wife the list before her last
• 45:16
  Speaker 5: trip down there. We had the black bag and we
• 45:18
  Speaker 5: had the green bag. One was the prison bag, one
• 45:22
  Speaker 5: was to go home bag, and I had two bags
• 45:25
  Speaker 5: packed on the twenty fourth. They were both in the
• 45:28
  Speaker 5: trunk of that car. You know, we were prepared for
• 45:31
  Speaker 5: every single thing.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: At the hearing, Brian sat in a plexiglass cage while
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: his family sat in the audience.
• 45:38
  Speaker 5: I sat and literally at the penalty box. You know,
• 45:41
  Speaker 5: it wasn't a three minute icing penalty. It was an
• 45:43
  Speaker 5: hour and thirty minutes of just their jargon, a lot
• 45:48
  Speaker 5: of it's hard to interpret. So she started, you know,
• 45:52
  Speaker 5: when she said, okay, you know we're going to start
• 45:55
  Speaker 5: at I forget even what the number was. But then
• 45:59
  Speaker 5: she gave me credit for some of the time served
• 46:03
  Speaker 5: and my good character and the references. So then it
• 46:07
  Speaker 5: went down to two years, and all of us knew
• 46:11
  Speaker 5: once we got to that two year point, they could
• 46:14
  Speaker 5: suspend our sentence essentially, meaning that you would not go
• 46:18
  Speaker 5: to their prison. You could serve it outside of the prison,
• 46:22
  Speaker 5: and if you're not, you know, don't get any other troubles.
• 46:26
  Speaker 3: It's waived.
• 46:27
  Speaker 5: I mean, I was a bundle of nerves, but when
• 46:29
  Speaker 5: I heard that two year mark, I had a glimmer
• 46:33
  Speaker 5: of hope. And then when she credited some of the
• 46:36
  Speaker 5: other pieces, it was down to I think nine months.
• 46:41
  Speaker 5: And then when the word suspended was said, I didn't
• 46:44
  Speaker 5: even care what the fine was. At that point I
• 46:47
  Speaker 5: knew I was going home. There was actually a really
• 46:53
  Speaker 5: special moment before the sentencing took place where we all
• 46:57
  Speaker 5: prayed together. Even some of the clerks in the courtroom
• 47:00
  Speaker 5: they prayed with us. Some of their media described it,
• 47:05
  Speaker 5: you know, in a very perfect manner that you know,
• 47:08
  Speaker 5: all these guys they pulled together and it was truly magical.
• 47:13
  Speaker 5: I had tourists on vacation there from the US that
• 47:16
  Speaker 5: attended the sentencing just because they felt so strongly about this.
• 47:20
  Speaker 5: I'm just forever grateful, you know, for all the people
• 47:23
  Speaker 5: that stood behind me, that pushed to make what happened happen.
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: When Brian parked a rental car in the airport, he
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: left the black prison bag in the trunk. He doesn't
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: know what happened to it, and I got the sense
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: he doesn't really care. Now at this point, you might
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: be wondering, didn't the appeals court rule that the judge
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: must sentence someone caught with ammunition to at least some
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: prison time. That's true, and the judge in Brian's case
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: acknowledged that quote. The sentence of the court is not
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: at large, and the court has no jurisdiction to impose
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: a non custodial sentence, meaning a sentence without actual prison time.
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: How then, did Brian escape with a suspended sentence and
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: a sixty seven hundred dollars fine. The answer is no,
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: one really knows. I read the judge's decision and she acknowledges,
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: but then seems to ignore the appeal's court ruling. She
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: cites a twenty thirteen case from the UK in which
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: a Bulgarian man received less than the mandatory minimum after
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: being caught with a stun gun. Like Brian, that man
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: had an exemplary character and family commitments, but he was
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: caught with a gun, not ammunition. What's more, the case
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: happened in the UK, and I would expect a Turks
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: and Keiko's court decision to supersede that precedent. What's the
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: point of this riveting legal analysis. Well, I think it
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: indicates that the Americans media campaign had actually worked. This
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: judge was willing to bend the rules to keep Brian
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: out of prison, which was a huge encouragement for the
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: other Americans. Unfortunately for Tyler, he didn't have the same
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: judge as Brian, in part because he'd been arrested on
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: Grand Turk Island, not provo. He also had a different
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: lawyer and the circumstances of his case did not match
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: the other two men. Unlike Brian, who may have been
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: the first person ever to bring six five PRC cartridges
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: to Turks and Caicos, Tyler had been caught with a
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: far more common cartridge widely used by criminals. We don't
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: know how those facts influenced his case, but it's safe
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: to say they didn't help. At the hearing in which
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: Tyler pleaded guilty, the prosecutor did everything he could to
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: convince the judge that those nine millimeter bullets posed a
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: threat to the citizens of Turks and Caicos.
• 49:36
  Speaker 12: And he's just like saying the most absurd things because
• 49:41
  Speaker 12: I don't know if it's just ignorance or what, but
• 49:43
  Speaker 12: I mean, one of the comments that he made that
• 49:45
  Speaker 12: stuck out to me to the judge was how dangerous
• 49:49
  Speaker 12: these two bullets could have been because all you have
• 49:51
  Speaker 12: to do is hit the back of them and they'll
• 49:53
  Speaker 12: go off. That was his argument to the judge. And
• 49:57
  Speaker 12: I just, I mean, I was already super emotional at
• 50:01
  Speaker 12: that time, but like I was sitting back and I'm
• 50:03
  Speaker 12: just like, this is ridiculous. Like this, people just don't
• 50:06
  Speaker 12: understand what they're saying.
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: That hearing was less than encouraging, but the sentencing was
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: the real test. Like Brian Tyler sat in the defendant's
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: box listening to the judge run through his reasoning.
• 50:18
  Speaker 12: He explained the law, explaining previous cases. You know, it's
• 50:21
  Speaker 12: going downhill, is what you're thinking.
• 50:22
  Speaker 3: In your head.
• 50:24
  Speaker 12: And and then he's kind of switches tunes and gets
• 50:27
  Speaker 12: positive about you know, my character and you know this
• 50:31
  Speaker 12: is a mistake, and you kind of get some hope
• 50:34
  Speaker 12: up built up, and then he goes back down to
• 50:37
  Speaker 12: some other things. So it's just like a roller coaster
• 50:39
  Speaker 12: sitting there with the motions and you're waiting for the
• 50:42
  Speaker 12: punchline because it's you can't get a you can't get
• 50:45
  Speaker 12: an idea where he's going with it. He finally gets
• 50:48
  Speaker 12: to the sentencing part and we hear you know, your
• 50:52
  Speaker 12: sentence with time served and a nine thousand dollars fine,
• 50:56
  Speaker 12: And I just remember a whole weight being lifted off me,
• 51:01
  Speaker 12: and I just I just started tearing up and enjoy
• 51:05
  Speaker 12: just being the whole process was over. You know, I'd
• 51:08
  Speaker 12: get to go home at some point.
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: Thankfully, Tyler, like every other American I spoke to, was
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: delayed in leaving because authorities couldn't find his passport. When
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: they eventually located it, he then had to go to
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: the customs office to get it stamped for an extended
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: stay because, as his lawyer explained, if he tried to
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: go through the airport with a one day stamp, they'd
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: arrest him for being there illegally, so Tyler enjoyed one
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: more day on the islands with his wife and family
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: before they eventually flew home. Ryan's sentencing was next, and
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: he wasn't as confident as you might expect.
• 51:48
  Speaker 3: And the sentiment on the island at that point was, Ryan,
• 51:51
  Speaker 3: you were the whistleblower. They're going to drop the hammer
• 51:54
  Speaker 3: on somebody. It's going to be you. All these rumors
• 51:56
  Speaker 3: that me being the fall guy or you know, taking
• 52:01
  Speaker 3: the bullet because I was the whistleblower started to seem
• 52:05
  Speaker 3: like they were coming to fruition. The media had kind
• 52:08
  Speaker 3: of put a bow on the story. Everybody was like, oh, well,
• 52:10
  Speaker 3: right if I get the same thing, and I was like,
• 52:14
  Speaker 3: oh crap. Like the world's moved on.
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: Ryan's sentencing. Hearing kept getting delayed, and during those weeks
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: he fell into a serious depression. Brian and Tyler had
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: left the island, the media had moved on to hotter stories,
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: and even though Valerie and Ryan's parents were there, he
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: felt alone and unsure about his future. He needed some encouragement,
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: and on June nineteenth, twenty twenty four, five minutes before
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: his first hearing.
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: He got it.
• 52:43
  Speaker 3: I was walking in to the Supreme Court. I saw
• 52:47
  Speaker 3: my attorney running up the stairs, which I thought was
• 52:50
  Speaker 3: strained because he's that's not his style. Hands me his
• 52:54
  Speaker 3: phone and I look down and it takes me a
• 52:57
  Speaker 3: while to realize what I'm looking at, and realized that
• 53:01
  Speaker 3: that they had just repealed the law that made it
• 53:03
  Speaker 3: a twelve year minimum mandatory prison sentence, which and now
• 53:07
  Speaker 3: we're going to give the judge discretion.
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: Obviously the judges had some amount of discretion prior to this,
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: but their leniency in Brian's and Tyler's cases made it
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: more likely that they dropped the hammer on Ryan. They
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: couldn't ignore the appeals court ruling forever. Ryan worried that
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: they'd be forced to send into prison to if nothing else,
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: say face with their constituents. Now the judge had an
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: out if she wanted to take it, but the prosecutor
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: wasn't going down without a fight.
• 53:35
  Speaker 3: Even though they repealed the law the DPP, which is
• 53:40
  Speaker 3: like essentially the attorney general for the island, he was
• 53:43
  Speaker 3: still hell bent on sending me to prison. And he
• 53:48
  Speaker 3: was trying to make the case that I had committed
• 53:51
  Speaker 3: this crime before this change in the law had taken place,
• 53:55
  Speaker 3: and so then I should be sentenced to the twelve
• 53:59
  Speaker 3: year minimum Man Tory.
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: Ryan's attorney, Oliver Smith, used the same strategy he'd used
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: in Brian's case. He argued that Ryan fell into the
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: exceptional circumstances category. He'd never been convicted of a crime,
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: and he had a wife and children back home.
• 54:14
  Speaker 3: I had a firearms expert right on the uniqueness of
• 54:19
  Speaker 3: the six to five creed More round, and how at
• 54:23
  Speaker 3: that point in time there was like no homicides ever
• 54:28
  Speaker 3: committed with a six point five creed more. It was
• 54:32
  Speaker 3: not readily commercially available.
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: We'll never know exactly what convinced the judge to rule
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: one way or the other, but this point about Ryan's
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: six to five creed more hunting cartridges was one of
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: the pivotal moments in the case.
• 54:47
  Speaker 3: And I look over and see Joseph Clement turn and
• 54:50
  Speaker 3: make this real, you know, emphatic nod to one of
• 54:54
  Speaker 3: the armed guards in the corner of the courtroom. And
• 54:58
  Speaker 3: he comes marching across the floor of the courtroom with
• 55:01
  Speaker 3: this bag, the bag of ammunition from my bag, and
• 55:07
  Speaker 3: I catch a glimpse of it, and I realized there's
• 55:10
  Speaker 3: three intact rounds of six or five cremore. But I
• 55:14
  Speaker 3: noticed a casing, and I noticed powder, and I noticed
• 55:19
  Speaker 3: the projectile all disassembled, lying in the back, and I
• 55:23
  Speaker 3: was like, wait a minute. I read in a court
• 55:26
  Speaker 3: case that the ammunition had to be test fired to
• 55:31
  Speaker 3: ensure that it was actual live ammunition. And so I'm
• 55:37
  Speaker 3: sitting there thinking, I'm like, all the components are there,
• 55:42
  Speaker 3: but that thing's disassembled. That thing was never fired. The
• 55:45
  Speaker 3: projectile was completely intact. And he gets to the front says,
• 55:50
  Speaker 3: we want to submit this to the King for evidence,
• 55:53
  Speaker 3: and you know, asked if my attorney would accept the submission.
• 55:59
  Speaker 3: And I'm trying to get Oliver his attention, and he
• 56:02
  Speaker 3: turns around and walks to me, and he's kind of annoyed,
• 56:04
  Speaker 3: and he's like, what I said, allow it? He said,
• 56:07
  Speaker 3: what are you talking about? He said, you gotta be crazy.
• 56:09
  Speaker 3: I said, allow it. And he's like, the whole reason
• 56:12
  Speaker 3: that he's doing this is to show the judge how
• 56:15
  Speaker 3: dangerous those bullets look. He's like, and you want me
• 56:20
  Speaker 3: to allow this? And I said, well, I read somewhere
• 56:23
  Speaker 3: that they have to test fire ammunition on this island.
• 56:25
  Speaker 3: Is that correct? And he said yes, And I said,
• 56:30
  Speaker 3: they didn't have a gun on this island that could
• 56:31
  Speaker 3: testifire that ammunition. They had to pull the ammunition apart,
• 56:35
  Speaker 3: and I saw it click. I saw the light bulb
• 56:38
  Speaker 3: go off in his eyes, and he turned around. He
• 56:40
  Speaker 3: spun on his heel and went back and he said,
• 56:42
  Speaker 3: we'll allow it, but we want the King to pay
• 56:44
  Speaker 3: special attention to the fact that there was not a
• 56:47
  Speaker 3: firearm on this island capable of firing and testifiring that ammunition,
• 56:52
  Speaker 3: and that bullet had to be pulled apart in order
• 56:54
  Speaker 3: to make sure that all the necessary components were there.
• 56:57
  Speaker 3: And at which point, at the corner of my eye,
• 56:59
  Speaker 3: I see Joseph Clement slump over in his chair like
• 57:03
  Speaker 3: in defeat, and I was like, checkmate.
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: The judge ended the proceedings and said Ryan would receive
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: his sentence in two days time. When that day finally arrived,
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: Ryan got back into the defendant's box while Valerie watched
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: from the gallery.
• 57:16
  Speaker 7: I'm sitting here just praying and hoping that this judge
• 57:20
  Speaker 7: can see that he is not a bad person. It's
• 57:23
  Speaker 7: terrifying at the same time, because at this moment, like
• 57:27
  Speaker 7: she can say what she's gonna say, and we just
• 57:31
  Speaker 7: live and deal with whatever her decision is. At all,
• 57:34
  Speaker 7: it's all up to her.
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: The judge began in the same way she had with Brian.
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: She started with a sentence of many years and eventually
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: worked it down to a suspended sentence, along with a
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: fine of only two thousand dollars five hundred for each bullet.
• 57:50
  Speaker 7: I remember when she said suspended sentence, and I knew
• 57:54
  Speaker 7: what that meant. So I was like, praise Jesus, Like
• 57:59
  Speaker 7: this is good news, you know, And so everybody started celebrating.
• 58:04
  Speaker 7: Just that initial feeling of all the bricks that are
• 58:09
  Speaker 7: just weighing you down just lifted. It was an undescribable
• 58:15
  Speaker 7: feeling for sure.
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: Ryan got his passport back after a bit of a delay,
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: paid his fine, and made a mad dash back to
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: the airport to catch his flight.
• 58:24
  Speaker 3: I almost passed out going back to that security line.
• 58:28
  Speaker 3: I thought I was having a heart attack. I'm not
• 58:30
  Speaker 3: gonna lie. I mean, I was scared to death. But
• 58:34
  Speaker 3: thanks Goodness, we get on a plane, we get home.
• 58:37
  Speaker 7: We made it back to Oklahoma, and that arrival was
• 58:41
  Speaker 7: something I think Ryan even said it too. You know,
• 58:44
  Speaker 7: you can still hear the cheering, and we walked through
• 58:46
  Speaker 7: those glass doors even when we travel now, like we
• 58:49
  Speaker 7: can't help but hear the scream of one of our
• 58:52
  Speaker 7: best friends, and then the cheers from everybody else. Our
• 58:57
  Speaker 7: kids were there, They had all made posters, signs, watching
• 59:01
  Speaker 7: you know, our kids run up and getting to see
• 59:04
  Speaker 7: him hold them and hug them for the first time.
• 59:07
  Speaker 7: That was a really sweet moment. Some of my favorite
• 59:09
  Speaker 7: pictures and videos still and it still makes me kind
• 59:14
  Speaker 7: of weepy whenever I see him embrace our son because
• 59:18
  Speaker 7: he just had lost it. Finally getting to you know,
• 59:21
  Speaker 7: see his dad and hug his dad and having gone
• 59:24
  Speaker 7: through all that time, not knowing when that was going
• 59:28
  Speaker 7: to be so pretty pretty sweet moment for sure.
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: Part six Questions and Answers. Sharita was still on the islands,
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: though she had reason to hope her sentence would follow
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: Brian Tyler and Ryan's. But that doesn't mean she was
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: out of danger. Ryan had been home for a few
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: weeks when he looked at his phone and saw Sharita
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: was calling.
• 59:55
  Speaker 3: So I answered my phone on speaker, same as Shrida,
• 59:58
  Speaker 3: and all my kids say to Srida, and I immediately
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 3: once they stop, I hear her crying on the other
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 3: end of the line.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: Sharita explained that her court hearing had been delayed, which
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: meant she'd be stuck on the island even longer.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 3: She says, Ryan, and I they just delayed my court hearing.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 3: I am out of my anti coagulation medication. Called to
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 3: my doctor back in Florida, and he can't prescribe me
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 3: the medication until we do blood work. I can't get
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 3: my blood work done here on this island, and now
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 3: they've delayed my court and I don't know how I'm
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 3: going to do it. I'm scared.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: Ryan advised her to call the US embassy and ask
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: for help. Shreeda said she would, so he hung up
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: and started drafting an email to Senator Mullen, along with
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: the governor and senators from Florida. But thirty minutes later,
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: Sharita called back to say she'd gotten in touch with
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: a woman who worked for the embassy, but not in
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: a place she expected.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 3: Completely different tone, happy, she says, Ryan. I called her.
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 3: I said, Okay, it must have gone good. She said, yeah,
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 3: she was actually at a party with missic I said
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 3: she was at a party with Premier Charles Missic. She said, no,
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 3: what in Charles miss It was Michael missing.
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: Charles Missic was the Premiere of Turks and Caicos in
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty four. Michael Missic was his brother. Michael had
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: been the Premier from two thousand and three to two
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: thousand and eight. When the British Parliament accused him of
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: illegally selling off public land to fund his investments. Missic
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: was arrested by Interpol in twenty twelve in Brazil and
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: ironically enough sent briefly to the Grand Turk Prison, but
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: he made bail and his trial was delayed, and delayed
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: and delayed. In twenty twenty four, when Sharita called Ryan,
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: he was still a free man. This is why Ryan
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: could hardly believe his ears when Charita told him that
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: not only did the consul jen Ll speak to Michael
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: Missic on the phone, he seemed to be the one
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: who pulled the strings to get her the medication she needed.
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 3: And I was like, Treta, you must have under or
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 3: you must have misunderstood her. Michael Missics the younger brother,
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 3: Charles Missics, the Premiere. Charles Missic's the one that she
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 3: would have needed to talk to. And she said, Ryan,
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 3: you don't think I got hears She said his name
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 3: five times. She said, hey, Mike when she called him over,
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 3: Hey Michael, she's doing this, Michael, she's doing this. She
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 3: needs this. Okay, thanks Mike, Thanks so much, Mike, she
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 3: said Ryan. She said it multiple times while I was
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 3: on the phone with her.
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 11: And I'm telling myself what she needed ters well, hifull
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 11: you know, like, what are you supposed to do?
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 3: That's what I was confused them out.
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: This raised a question Ryan still can't fully answer. Why
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: was a US diplomat so friendly with a man facing
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: active corruption charges and did that relationship have anything to
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: do with how the State Department handled the American's cases.
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 3: Just whenever I thought I'd like kind of put this
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 3: like like puzzle piece like back together like this like
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 3: information just like spreads it back all across the floor,
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 3: and I'm like, holy crap, what do we do.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: Ryan doesn't know if we'll get answers to any of
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: these questions, but one thing is clear. Turks and Caicos
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: has changed its policies in the wake of the twenty
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: twenty four scandal. Sharita was released and allowed to return
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: home after paying a fine, and a few months later,
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: Ryan got a call from Senator Mullen. An American pilot
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: had been arrested after Turks and Caicos officials discovered a
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: loaded magazine in the lock box of his cockpit. Ryan
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: reached out to this pilot to give him the lay
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: of the land and recommend a meeting with his former attorney,
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: Oliver Smith.
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 3: Once you sign your contract for representation, stand up and
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 3: tell Oliver that Ryan and Senator Mullen are ready for
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 3: round two and are about to unleash hell on the media.
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 3: So he does that. On Friday, His account was Oliver
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 3: made a pretty big said a few cuss words, pulls
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 3: his phone out of his pocket, calls someone that nobody
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 3: knows who, and says we need to have an emergency meeting.
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 3: Hangs up the phone. Then on Tuesday, I get a
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 3: call from pilot and says, Ryan, I'm getting called into
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 3: the courthouse right now. I don't know. I'm freaking out
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 3: on what's going on. So we make a bunch of
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 3: phone calls. We can't figure out what's going on. About
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 3: an hour later, I get a selfie and pilot's wife
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 3: boarding and plane, saying, hey, they just dropped all charges
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 3: in there, letting us go, so no media is necessary.
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: The pilot had to pay Oliver a cool fifty grand,
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: but it was a lot better than the hundreds of
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: thousands of dollars Ryan and the others had to pay
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: in legal fees and living accommodations, and a whole lot
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: better than Michael's six months in prison. I first spoke
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: to Ryan in March of this year, and he said
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: that Pilot was the last American he'd heard of being
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: threatened with prosecution ammunition possession. Sharita told me she's been
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: contacted by several other Americans who've been caught with ammunition
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: on the islands, but they've been processed and sent home
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: far more quickly. Based on what Scharita has heard, it
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: sounds like they're being allowed to settle their court cases
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: from home via zoom. So while Turks and Caicos officials
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: are still enforcing the firearms ordinance against tourists, they've softened
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: their stance. A fine is still on the table, but
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: threats of jail time no longer appear to be a
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: part of the official playbook. Again, we reached out to
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: the Turks and Caicos government for comment on this story,
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: but have not received a response by the time of
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: this recording. Part seven, Meaning in the chaos. Throughout my
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: time reporting this story, I was consistently struck by the
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: seeming pointlessness of these hardships. The Americans I spoke with
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: didn't mean to break the law, so it wasn't as
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: if they could learn and reform from their tribulation. They
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: all say they checked their bags more carefully before traveling,
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: but that's hardly a life changing lesson. They also weren't
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: suffering for some kind of noble cause, like serving their
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: country or helping the less fortunate. I was curious to
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: hear their takeaways from this experience. How did they understand
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: the purpose of their ordeal.
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 3: I knew pretty early on that I was there for
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 3: a reason, and I had to come to grips the
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 3: fact that I might not ever see that reason that purpose.
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: Not all of those reasons were obvious, but some were.
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: One of the clearest takeaways was how the islands decided
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: to handle these cases moving forward. Ryan said, it's gratifying
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: to know that, thanks in part to their advocacy, Americans
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: who make similar mistakes won't be facing prison time. Brian
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: told me that he also sees the relationships he formed
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: with Ryan and the others as profoundly meaningful.
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 5: God had a plan, and when I say that, I
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 5: truly mean that, not only to get us off that island,
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 5: but to connect us all together. The brotherhood in the
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 5: bond that this created was something that you know, you
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 5: could not write up in the textbooks.
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: Sharita agrees. She calls Ryan's mom her angel mom for
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: showing up exactly when she needed her while she was
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: shackled to that chair.
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 3: I call Ryan my brother.
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 4: You know he called me his sisters, Me and Ryana.
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 11: We don't have the same blood, but that's how I
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 11: look at Ryan as my blood brother because the way
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 11: he treated me, the lawyerty in respect that he had
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 11: for me, So nothing can changee.
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: Then those relationships don't just include the other Americans. Everyone
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: I spoke with had their own stories of Turks and
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: Keikos Islanders who went out of their way to help
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: them in a time of need. Ryan always mentions Reuben,
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: the driver who put up his taxi to keep the
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: Watsons out of jail. And if you're wondering, he would
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: have received his car title back after Ryan's sentencing. Brian
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: says he still keeps in touch with one of the
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: guards he met during his nine days in jail.
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 5: Just a great human being that I truly believe was
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 5: genuinely interested in seeing me get home to my family,
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 5: and that, you know, you're stuck on a foreign island.
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 5: You don't know what you're going to get, and that
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 5: was that was somewhat comforting knowing that somebody you know,
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 5: cared about you.
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: Michael Wenrick, Tyler's dad, told me that he also interacted
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: with an official who went out of his way to
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: be encouraging. As mister Wendrick was walking back to his
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: Airbnb after visiting Tyler in prison, a police sergeant offered
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: him a ride. Mister Wenrick was hesitant at first, but
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: he eventually accepted.
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 8: He was trying to offer me some encouragement, which was
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 8: which was a surprise. And I said, you know what
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 8: I find amazing on this island is the people here
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 8: are very, very friendly. But I saw them. I said,
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 8: you know, Americans could learn a lot from the attitude
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 8: of the citizens here. And I remember he just beamed,
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 8: smiling something proud.
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 5: Ninety nine percent of the locals on that island, the
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 5: everyday working people are people with integrity, people with the
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 5: biggest hearts, that welcome Americans with open arms. But the
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 5: government and the elected officials, that was an eye opening
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 5: experience to see. They could have dealt with us in
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 5: so many different ways, and they chose not to.
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: This dichotomy between how the Americans were treated by the
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: government and how they were treated by everyday citizens is
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: a big part of this story. The local threats on
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: WhatsApp were legitimate, and as Ryan experienced, some of them
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: made their way into the real world. But on the whole,
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: the people they interacted with on a day to day
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: basis were anything but hostile.
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 5: I can't even begin to go into detail about how
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 5: many locals that said, you know this is it's crazy,
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 5: Like yeah, you're innocent, Like you have nothing, You've done
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 5: nothing wrong, Like they're truly just trying to exploit Americans
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 5: at this point. You know, from the place I lived
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 5: for a few months, to restaurant owners to other people
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 5: that would say, hey, come here and eat for free,
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 5: we had people that put us up to stay for free,
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 5: truly genuinely great people outside of their political system.
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: Not all the repercussions of this ordeal were as weighty
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: as the ones you've heard. Ryan said it took him
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: a few weeks to adjust to being home, and once
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: he did, he realized he'd lost something while he was away.
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 3: I've got a bird dog that I had put a
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 3: lot of training into, a lot of training into, and
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 3: then unfortunately, whenever I was trapped on an island for
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 3: seventy five days while I was gone, my bird dog
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 3: became my emotional support animals. So she rubbed all the
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 3: training off of her, and she she won't retrieve or
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 3: point anything at this point in time.
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 4: She's lazy and spoiled.
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 3: And so I've kind of surrendered my dog to my wife,
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 3: and so she's not my dog anymore, that's for sure.
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: Brian and Tyler also told me it took them a
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: few weeks to get used to the rhythms of home life,
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: but none reported any long term impacts on themselves or
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: their families. Ryan does wonder if his reputation is preceding
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: him when he applies for ELK tags.
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 3: I can't get drawn for damn ELK tag to save
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 3: my life. New Mexico has something against people on the
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 3: inner pol list, I guess because I cannot get drawn.
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 4: I cannot get drawn to save my life.
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: The good news is that Ryan can still go hunting
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: in Oklahoma and at the Dyer's ranch in Texas, and
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: he doesn't have to rely on others to make sure
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: his son gets another shot at a set of gobblers.
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: That brace of Jake's Ryan's son heart harvested turns him
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: into a diehard turkey hunter, and Ryan is relieved to
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: say that he'll be there to hunt with his son
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: for many springs to come.
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 3: Proud dad moment, like we got plenty of gripping grands
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 3: and he was hooked. He is a turkey hunter every
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 3: time spring girls around. My wife is like, can you
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 3: buy him a drum set? Because the amount of squawking
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 3: and squealing.
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 4: That's going on in his house is blessed, it's hard.
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 3: He thinks he's making some serious turkey calls.
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to our first ever Blood Trails miniseries.
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: We took this story somewhere a little different. No body
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: in the woods, no cold case, but the idea that
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: someone could be ripped from the Caribbean vacation and thrown
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: into jail was in my opinion plenty terrifying to cover
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: on this podcast. Hunters mistakenly bring ammunition into airports every
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: single day. This is definitely what you'd call a worst
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: case scenario. Huge thanks to everyone who agreed to speak
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: to me, Ryan and Valerie Watson, Brian Hagrich, Tyler and
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: Michael Wenrick, Michael Grimm, Sharita Greer, and representative Josh Burkeen.
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: If you want more on these stories, you should check
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: out Ryan's book titled Turks and Chaos, which would have
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: been the name of this series if he hadn't stolen
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: it first. Tyler also published a book called Two Bullets
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: Twelve Years, and Sharida's book is titled fifty nine Days
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: Between Me and God. All three accounts include tons of
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: extra details and anecdotes that we weren't able to fit
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: into this series. You can find them all on Amazon.
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: If you have a tip about this case or another
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: you think we should cover, send me an email at
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: Blood trailsatthmeateater dot com and I want to know what
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: you think about this mini series. Did you love it,
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: hate it? Should we find more pre in stories or
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: have we had enough jailhouse rock for a while. Let
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: me know at blood Trails at the meat eater dot com.
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: See you next time. Stay safe out there,