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Millionaire CEO Fakes Death By Pretending To Have Mad Cow Disease · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Imagine for a second, just put yourself in this situation,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: that you are sitting in a sterile, heavily guarded room
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: in a federal building.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Right, which is terrifying on its own.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Exactly. And in your hands, you are holding a sealed
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: box of ashes. You've just flown back from a crematorium
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: in South America, and you are, frankly, absolutely terrified.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Because you believe a cartel is after you. Yes.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: You think this ruthless drug cartel is tracking your every
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: single move, And they are preparing to murder you and
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: your children.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: It sounds like a movie.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: It totally does. You think you're carrying the remains of
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: your husband, right? This hero who sacrificed himself to save
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: your family. But the reality.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: The reality is so much darker.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: It is. The reality is that the box in your
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: hands is full of literal floor sweepings. Just dirt and debris.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: And the man who put you in this absolute waking
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: nightmare is currently hundreds of miles away, completely fine.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Eating Thanksgiving turkey.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Literally eating turkey in a custom-built basement panic room.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: It really is the kind of scenario that, you know,
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: pushes the boundaries of human gullibility and just sociopathic manipulation.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Oh, 100%.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: It's like if you saw it in a thriller, you'd
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: probably just turn it off. The plot demands way too
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: much suspension of disbelief.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Which is exactly why we are tearing it apart today. So,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: welcome to The Deep Dive. Our mission today is to
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: completely dissect this unbelievable true story of Jose Lantiga.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And we're not just going to chronicle how a
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: guy faked his own death for a multimillion dollar insurance payout. Right.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: We want to dig into the actual mechanics of the deception.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: Exactly. We're going to explore the profound psychological warfare he
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: waged against his deeply religious wife, Daphne.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Basically turning her into an unwitting accomplice to federal fraud.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: And honestly, maybe the most fascinating part of all this
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: is looking at the absurd, almost comical arrogance that brought
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: his entire house of cards crashing down.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Because when you really analyze this case, it stops being
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: just a simple true crime narrative.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: It becomes this masterclass in the sunk cost fallacy of trust.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, it forces you to look at how human
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: beings process reality. OK, let's unpack this. Because to really
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: grasp how spectacularly this all derailed, you have to understand
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: the foundation he built first.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: You have to know who Jose was before he was
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: a fugitive. Right.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: We need to look at who Jose Lantiga was. This
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: is a man who seemingly achieved the ultimate American dream.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: He really did.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: He was a Cuban immigrant who moved to Jacksonville, Florida,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: and just built an absolute empire.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: He was a local celebrity, basically.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he was known as the Furniture King. He owned
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: discount furniture stores and this sprawling chain called Circle K.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: He wasn't just wealthy. He was a daily fixture in
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: the lives of the people in Jacksonville.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: And that's so important to remember.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: He starred in his own local television commercials. He'd turn
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: on the TV, and there was Jose Mendoza. you know,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: urging his community to buy American.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: And see, that local ubiquity is a massively important psychological primer.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: How so?
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Well, when you see someone on your television screen every
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: single day, you develop what we call a parasocial relationship.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Like you feel like you know them?
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Your brain categorizes them as a known safe entity.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: So for the people of Jacksonville and eventually for Daphne,
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Jose wasn't some stranger. He was the furniture guy. Right.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: He had a brand built entirely on trustworthiness and community presence.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Which makes his hunting ground so interesting to me.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Because Daphne Simpson comes into the picture from a completely
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: different world.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: Totally different.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: She's originally from Texas. She's a former pastor's wife.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: And someone whose entire life is deeply rooted in faith
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: and community.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: Right. A very trusting environment. Yeah.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: So she is looking for a genuine connection, and she
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: logs on to a Christian dating site. And who pops
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: up in her matches.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: The trusted, famous furniture king.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: You have two completely divergent operating systems colliding here. I mean,
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Daphne's background in the church and her faith-based worldview fundamentally
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: pre-program her to take people at their word.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Right. Trust is a virtue for her.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: Exactly. But for a predator like Jose, trust isn't virtue.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: It is a vulnerability that can be exploited for leverage.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: And he leverages it with just terrifying speed. If you
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: think modern dating moves fast... I mean, this is a
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: masterclass in emotional whiplash.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Oh, it's incredibly fast.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Within four short months of their first online message, Jose
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: takes Daphne to this incredibly upscale romantic restaurant.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: He pulls out all the stops.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: He really does. Long-stemmed red roses, table-side champagne, and he
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: drops to one knee with a massive five-carat diamond engagement ring.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: After four months.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Four months in.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: And what's fascinating here is the strategy behind that speed.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: In the clinical world, we refer to this as love bombing.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Right. We hear that term a lot lately.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And it is a cornerstone tactic for con artists, narcissists,
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: and cult leaders.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Let's break down the actual mechanics of love bombing for
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: a second. Because, you know, if you're just watching a
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: romantic comedy, a guy showing up with roses and a
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: massive ring just looks like true love.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: That looks like a fairy tale.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So how does it cross the line into psychological control?
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: Well, it's all about biochemistry and cognitive overload. When someone
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: overwhelms you with grand gestures, lavish gifts, and these intense
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: declarations of soulmate-level love in a highly compressed time frame.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Like 120 days.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: Right. They are effectively hijacking your brain, this dopamine system.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: It creates an intoxicating high, but more importantly, it causes
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: extreme disorientation.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Because it's just so much all at once.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: Exactly. By moving at warp speed, the manipulator completely bypasses
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: your critical thinking faculties.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Because you literally don't have the time to sit back
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: and evaluate his character.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: Precisely. You don't have time to process the tiny red
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: flags because you are constantly reacting to the next massive
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: emotional event.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: That makes so much sense.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: And it also engineers an immense sense of debt and gratitude.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: I mean, when someone gives you a five carat diamond
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: after four months, the social contract makes you feel obligated
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: to reciprocate that level of commitment.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Even if your logical brain is quietly telling you to
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: hit the brakes.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: And he didn't just target Daphne with this tactic. He
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: effectively love-bombed her entire family ecosystem.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: Which is so calculated. Yeah.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Jose was divorced. He had grown children of his own.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: But he seamlessly pulled Daphne's adult children and her sisters
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: into his orbit.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: He uproots them.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: He really does. He uproots them from Texas, moves them
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: all to Florida, and moves them into his mini-mansion on
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: Fleming Island.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: Which is a very nice area.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Oh, it's an incredibly exclusive, affluent coastal community near Jacksonville.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: And to seal the deal... He hires her kids to
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: work at his furniture stores.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: See, that looks like incredible generosity from the outside.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: Like he's just this great provider.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: Right. But if you look closer, this is textbook isolation.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: By moving her family across the country and making her
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: adult children financially reliant on his payroll, he positions himself
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: as the absolute epicenter of their universe.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: Wow. Yeah, he is their landlord, their employer, their patriarch,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: and their provider.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: He controls everything.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: They marry in this beautiful, intimate beachside wedding. And suddenly
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: you have this blended modern Brady Bunch family of eight
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: kids entirely dependent on the Bank of Jose.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: And everyone thought she was so lucky. Yeah.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: By all accounts, Daphne was euphoric. Her friends back in
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: Texas said she felt like she was living in a
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: fairy tale.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: But the fairy tale doesn't last.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: No. If you step back, the cracks start showing up
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: almost immediately, especially on their honeymoon.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: Ah, the North Carolina property. Right.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: So they go to the mountains in North Carolina for
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: their honeymoon. And Jose immediately buys this massive rustic retreat
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: with these gorgeous sweeping views.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: Beautiful place.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: But instead of popping champagne and relaxing, he decides the
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: house needs immediate renovations.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: Right away.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And the centerpiece of this renovation, he hires contractors
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: to build a subterranean panic room.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: A panic room.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: We're talking about a secret bunker built into the foundation
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: with 20-inch thick solid steel doors.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: Unbelievable. Yep.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Put yourself in Daphne's shoes for a second. You've known
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: this man for less than half a year. He buys
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: a romantic mountain house and immediately turns the basement into
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: a nuclear fallout shelter.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: Doesn't that trigger every alarm bell in your head?
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: Right. Like, does that not bump the needle on the
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: weird-o-meter for you?
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: It absolutely should. I mean, it is highly deviant behavior.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: But this is where the groundwork he laid really pays off.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Because he had been dropping hints, right?
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: Exactly. He hasn't just presented himself as a wealthy businessman.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: He spent the last few months dripping these vey intriguing
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: hints about his past.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Like military stuff.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: Yes. He alluded to a highly classified military background, suggesting
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: he was involved in top secret operations. So when he
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: installs a 20-inch steel door, he doesn't present it as
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: the paranoia of a madman.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: How does he frame it?
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: He frames it as an act of profound love. He
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: tells Daphne, this is to keep you and the family safe.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: If the world goes into chaos. Oh, wow.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: So he takes bizarre, deeply suspicious behavior and wraps it
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: in a blanket of paternal protection.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: Exactly. He's a knight in shining armor building a fortress.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: But that armor starts to rust incredibly fast. Just months
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: into the marriage, he initiates the first massive pivot.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: This part is wild.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: He sends Daphne down. He is weeping. He takes her
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: hands and he tells her that he is dying.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: And he doesn't claim to have, you know, a standard
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: relatable illness. No.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: He goes for something completely outlandish. He tells her he
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: has been diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, CJD.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: Most of us know it as mad cow disease.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Right. And he tells her the prognosis is grim, it's incurable,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: and he will be dead within six months.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: And this specific choice of disease is just a dark
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: stroke of strategic genius. I mean, if we look at
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: the pathology of CJD, it explains exactly... why he chose it.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: See, it seems unnecessarily complicated to me. I mean, why
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: not just say you have stage four pancreatic cancer? Why
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: dive into something so rare that people barely know how
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: to pronounce it?
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: Well, because cancer has protocols. If he said he had
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: lung cancer, Daphne might know an oncologist. She would immediately
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: start researching clinical trials, looking up specialists at Johns Hopkins
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: or the Mayo Clinic.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: She would want to fight it.
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: Exactly. She would expect to see chemotherapy, radiation, hair loss,
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: and very specific hospital visits. But CJD isn't a bacterial
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: infection or a standard cancer. It's a prion disease.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: Prions. Those are the misfolded proteins, right?
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Right. So a prion is an abnormally folded protein that
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: triggers normal proteins in the brain to also misfold. It
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: basically creates a cascading domino effect that literally leaves microscopic
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: holes in the brain tissue.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: That is terrifying.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: It is universally fatal. There is no cure. There is
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: no treatment. And it progresses with terrifying speed, usually killing
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: the host within six months to a year.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Wow. So by picking this, he shuts down all the options.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: Exactly. By choosing a disease that is both obscure and
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: an absolute death sentence, he systematically shuts down all hope.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: He prevents Daphne from demanding second opinions or looking for
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: miraculous intervention.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: He establishes a definitive, scientifically unchangeable timeline for his own death. Yes.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: And his explanation for how he contracted it is straight
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: out of a cheap Pulp Fiction paperback.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: He really is.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: He leans on those vague military hints he'd have been dropping.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: He tells her that years ago he was on a
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: highly classified deep jungle operation.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: He claims his unit was hosted by a local indigenous village,
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: and as the guest of honor, he was culturally obligated
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: to eat raw monkey brains.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: It is a fascinating manipulation of exoticism, really.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: It's just so absurd.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: It is, but the claim involves a classified mission, which
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: means Daphne can never legally verify it. And the specific
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: detail of monkey brains is so visceral, so culturally shocking
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: to an American pastor's wife, that the sheer disgust factor
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: distracts her from asking logical medical questions about prion transmission.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: Right. She's just focused on the horror of the monkey brains.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: But he knows that a wild story isn't enough to
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: sustain a lie of this magnitude. He needs props.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: And this is where his sociopathy really shines.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: It's crazy. He tells Daphne he needs a brain scan,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: and he actually takes her to a legitimate functioning MRI
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: clinic in Florida.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: A real clinic.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: A real clinic. You have to picture the scene. They
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: walk into a sterile medical building. You know the smell
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: of alcohol wipes, the fluorescent lights.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: Sure.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: She sits in a consultation room. A man wearing a
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: white doctor's coat comes in, pulls up an actual MRI scan,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: and shows it to Daphne. Unbelievable. He points to the
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: screen and says, look, here is the damage. Daphne later
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: testified she saw a bunch of white spots everywhere.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: And this guy in the coat. gravely answers all her
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: questions about CJD.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: I mean, the logistical audacity required to orchestrate that is staggering.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: How do you even do that?
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: We don't have the precise mechanics of how he compromised
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: that clinic. Did he bribe a radiology technician after hours?
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: Did he rent office space in the same building?
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Or just grab a random scan.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Did he acquire a random patient scan showing brain lesions,
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: perhaps from multiple sclerosis or a stroke, and simply relabel
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: it CJD? Regardless of the how, he deeply understands the
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: psychology of institutional authority.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: Because the uniform commands respect.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: Yes, 100%. When a terrified spouse is sitting in a
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: clinical environment staring at medical imaging and someone with a
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: stethoscope and a white coat speaks with authority, the human
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: brain is hardwired to accept that as absolute reality.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: She has no reason to believe a medical clinic is
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: a stage play.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: None at all.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: So they leave this clinic and they drive down to
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: Miami to break this catastrophic news to the extended family.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: And everyone is in tears. Right.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: They're devastated. But if you take a step back and
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: look at this from the outside, I mean, you just
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: found your soulmate. You've uprooted your family. You are living
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: a life of luxury. Yeah. And now you're told it's
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: all going to be ripped away in six months because
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: your husband ate monkey brains in a secret jungle. How
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: does a rational adult not stop and say, wait a minute,
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: this makes zero sense?
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: Because trauma fundamentally rewires how you process information.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: Really? Like on a biological level?
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: Yes. When you are hit with the impending death of
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: the person you love most, your brain abandons logic and
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: shifts entirely into survival mode. Your amygdala, the alarm center
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: of the brain, essentially hijacks your nervous system.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: So you literally can't think straight.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: Exactly. When the amygdala is screaming, the prefrontal cortex, the
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: part of your brain responsible for skepticism, critical thinking, and
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: logical sequencing... essentially goes dark. Daphne wasn't running an epidemiological
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: analysis on prion transmission rates in primates. She was drowning
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: in the grief of losing her husband. He engineered a
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: massive emotional crisis, specifically to disable her ability to think clearly.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: Which sets her up perfectly for the next twist, because
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: shortly after that heartbreaking trip to Miami, Jose pivots again.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: The script flips completely.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: He sits her down in her mansion, looks her in
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: the eye, And says, the mad cow disease. It was
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: a lie. I'm perfectly healthy.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: I mean, the emotional whiplash of that moment would be paralyzing.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: I can't even imagine.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: You are bracing to become a widow. You are planning
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: a funeral in your head. And suddenly you are told
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: your husband isn't dying. The flood of relief would be dizzying.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: But a con artist never leaves a void. Never.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: He instantly fills that relief with a new, sharper terror.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: He replaces the biological threat with a tactical one. He
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: finally confesses the details of his secret military past. Here
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: we go. He tells her he wasn't just in the military.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: He was a highly lethal special operations officer for the CIA.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: And during a mission in South America, he was the
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: operative who assassinated the leader of a massive drug cartel.
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: It just keeps escalating. Right.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: And now, he says, the cartel has discovered his true identity.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: They know about his business. They know about his Florida mansion.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: And most importantly... They know about Daphne and the kids.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: He brings the threat right to her door.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: Exactly. He tells her a cartel hit squad has been
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: ordered to wipe out their entire family.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: This is the absolute masterstroke of his psychological manipulation. By
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: swapping a terminal illness for a cartel assassination plot, he
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: completely changes Daphne's role in the narrative.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: Because with CJD, she was just sitting in the waiting room.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: Exactly. With the disease, she was a passive victor. There
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: was nothing she could do but grieve. But with the
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: cartel threat, she is instantly weaponized into an active co-conspirator.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: He forces her hand.
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: Yes. He tells her that the only way to save
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: their children is for him to fake his own death
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: and disappear, and he needs her to execute the plan.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: And he uses the kids.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: He takes her greatest vulnerability, her profound, fiercely protective love
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: for her kids, and uses it as leverage. He frames
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: the act of committing federal fraud not as a crime—
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: but as the ultimate necessary sacrifice of a loving mother.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: It is so deeply sinister.
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: It really is.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: And of course, the CIA assassin story is just as
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: much garbage as the monkey brains. He is layering these
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: insane lies to cover up a truth that is incredibly
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: mundane and pathetic.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: The oldest motive in the book. Right.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: The real threat to his life wasn't a cartel hit squad.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: It was his accountants. Jose Lantiga was drowning in catastrophic debt.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: Big time.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: His furniture empire, Circle K, had been tanking for years.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: We're talking millions of dollars owed to banks.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: Well, if you look at the economics of the furniture business,
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: especially around the late 2000s and early 2010s, it is
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: a highly volatile, capital-intensive industry.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: You've got huge showrooms.
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Massive showrooms with immense overhead, expensive inventory that just
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: sits on the floor. And if the local housing market dips,
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: furniture sales evaporate overnight. Right.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: And instead of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy like a
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: normal failed businessman, He devises this insane plot.
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: He goes for the nuclear option.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: His real goal has nothing to do with saving his
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: family from assassins. He simply wants to cash in on
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: seven different life insurance policies he's taken out, which total
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: more than $ 8 million.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: $ 8 million.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: He needs to die on paper so he can live
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: like a king in reality. But you have to wonder,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: how does Daphne not see the financial ruin? If the
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: business is bleeding millions, wouldn't there be collector's callings?
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: You would think so.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: Wouldn't she notice the lifestyle tightening?
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: Not necessarily, especially in a dynamic controlled by a financial abuser.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: Financial con artists are meticulous about siloing information.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: So he just hid it from her.
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: Completely. Remember, he built his entire identity around being the
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: furniture king. He drove luxury vehicles, maintained the Fleming Island mansion,
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: bought a mountain estate in North Carolina. He projected immense,
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: unshakable wealth.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: So she had no reason to doubt it.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: Right. And in a traditional dynamic where he specifically brought
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: her family in as his employees, he was the sole
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: authority on the ledgers. If your husband is paying for
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: everything and the outward trappings of wealth never falter, you
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: have no reason to demand an audit of the corporate accounts.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: So he has his wife terrified of a phantom cartel,
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: and he sets the real plan in motion.
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: The fake death. Right.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: He announces to the kids, who still believe he's dying
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: of mad cow disease, by the way, that he is
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: traveling to Venezuela to... for an experimental, last-ditch medical treatment.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: Just piling on the lies.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: And the cruelty of this next detail is hard to stomach.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: Before he leaves, he writes a fake, heartfelt letter to
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: his stepchildren. Oh, this is so dark. He leaves it
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: in his personal effects for Daphne to find later. In
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: the letter, he tells the kids he's choosing to go
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: to South America to die alone because he loves them
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: too much to let them watch him deteriorate. He wants
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: them to remember him healthy.
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: It is a calculated sociopathic manipulation of children's grief. I mean,
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: he is intentionally orchestrating emotional trauma for his stepchildren merely
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: to establish the narrative groundwork for an insurance payout.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: It's sickening. So Jose flies to Venezuela. He heads deep
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: into the rural interior of the country. And he uses
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: whatever cash he has left to tap into the local
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: black market.
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: He needs paperwork.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: Exactly. He bribes Venezuelan officials and locals to create a
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: completely fabricated paper trail of his demise. He purchases a
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: forged certificate of death and a fake certificate of cremation.
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: But he needs someone to validate it.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: Right. And this is where he drags Daphne across the
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: legal point of no return. He contacts her in Florida.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: and instructs her that she must fly down to Venezuela immediately.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: And bring money.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: Yes. She needs to bring roughly $ 20, 000 in undeclared cash
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: to pay off the fixers who made the fake documents.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: See, if you track the escalation of her involvement, this
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: is the pivotal moment. Daphne transitions from being a terrified,
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: manipulated spouse into an active participant in international fraud.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: Because she's the one carrying the money.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: She is smuggling cash across borders to finalize forged government documents.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: And it culminates in a scene that belongs in a movie.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: Daphne and Jose go to the United States Embassy in Caracas.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: The embassy.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: Now, if you've never been to an embassy, you have
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: to understand the layout. These are heavily fortified compounds. Armed guards,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: intense security screenings, bulletproof glass.
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: It's an imposing place.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Very. Daphne is instructed to walk inside, approach a federal
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: consular officer, and present these fake Venezuelan documents to get
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: an official consular report of death abroad.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: That's the golden ticket.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: Exactly. That piece of paper is the absolute requirement to
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: trigger the $ 8 million life insurance payout back in the States.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: So she is inside this fortress, sweating bullets, committing massive
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: federal fraud. And where's the dead man?
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: Oh, this is the craziest part.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: Jose Lentiga is literally standing on the sidewalk outside the
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: embassy waiting for her.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: The psychological detachment required to stand on a sidewalk while
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: you force your terrified wife to commit a felony inside
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: a federal building is just profound.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: He's just hanging out outside.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, right. He is entirely insulated. If she gets caught
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: at the window, she goes to prison and he just
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: walks away into the crowded streets of Caracas.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: He doesn't care.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: He is perfectly comfortable discarding his entire previous existence, letting
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: his community mourn him and watching his family suffer as
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: long as it gets him paid.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: That's like Tom Sawyer sneaking into the back of the
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: church to watch his own funeral, except instead of a prank.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: There is $ 8 million and decades in federal prison on
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: the line. In fact, he actually sat in a remote
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: Venezuelan hideaway with an internet connection and read his own
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: obituary online. Meanwhile, back in Jacksonville, his son is delivering
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: a tearful eulogy at a beautiful memorial service for a
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: man who is likely enjoying a cocktail by a pool
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: thousands of miles away.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: And you have to imagine the crushing cognitive dissonance Daphne
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: is experiencing during that memorial service.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: She knows he's alive.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: She is wearing black. She is hugging leaping children. She
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: is accepting condolences from the community. And she knows the
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: coffin is empty.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: It has to be maddening.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: But she is sustaining the lie because she believes if
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: she slips up, a cartel sniper will take out her family.
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: The sheer psychological weight of carrying that terror in isolation
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: is unimaginable.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: So the funeral is over. Daphne is back in her
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: Florida home. And she brings with her the final prop
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: of the illusion, a heavy urn. supposedly containing her husband's ashes.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: The ashes.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: She follows Jose's strict instructions, hires a lawyer, and files
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: the death claims on all seven life insurance policies.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: She thinks it's done. Right.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: In Jose's mind, this is the finish line. You slide
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: the death certificate across the desk, the insurance company stamps it,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: and they wire you $ 8 million.
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: But that's not how it works.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: Not at all. He radically miscalculated how the real world works.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: The insurance companies pump the brakes immediately.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: Of course they do.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: Because when you ask a corporation for $ 8 million, the
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: burden of proof is entirely on you. And the adjusters
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: took one look at this claim and smelled a rat.
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: Which is a classic vulnerability of the narcissistic con artist.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: What do you mean?
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: Well, they are phenomenal at interpersonal manipulation. Jose could manipulate
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: a grieving wife flawlessly. But they constantly underestimate the cold,
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: unfeeling bureaucracy of the institutions they target.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: He thought he could just trick a massive company.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Jose thought a stamped piece of paper from a
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: corrupt local office in South America would act like a
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: magic wand. He willfully ignored the fact that massive insurance
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: conglomerates have entire special investigative units.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: SIUs?
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: Yes, SIUs staffed by former federal agents, forensic accountants, and
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: seasoned detectives whose sole job is to dismantle international fraud.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: And those investigators don't just sit in cubicles in New York.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: No, they deploy.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: They deploy. A private investigator named Richard Marquez packs a
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: bag and flies straight to Venezuela, heading right into the
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: jungle to retrace Jose's final days.
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: And it falls apart so fast.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: Almost immediately. The red flags start popping up the second
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: he looks at a map. First, there's the sheer geography
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: of the claim.
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: A lodge, right.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah. The investigators ask a very simple logical question. Why
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: would an affluent American millionaire... seeking cutting-edge medical treatment for
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: a rare brain disease, traveled to a country grappling with
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: extreme civil unrest and a collapsing medical infrastructure.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: It makes no sense.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: And beyond that, why would he choose to stay at
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: a remote, dilapidated resort lodge that was a two-hour drive
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: away from the nearest major hospital in Caracas?
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: Not exactly a medical hub.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: And a lodge that by the way, had been officially
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: closed for business for years.
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: Right, it completely defies logic. If you are a millionaire
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: seeking experimental treatment, you fly to a pristine clinic in Switzerland,
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: or you go to Germany. You do not travel to
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: a closed rural lodge in a politically volatile jungle.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: But the geography of the death is nothing compared to
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: the biology of the cremation.
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: Oh, this part is crazy.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: According to the fake documents Daphne submitted, Jose died at
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: this remote lodge, and he wasn't cremated until five days later.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: Five days.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: Five days. The investigators look at the address of the
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: crematorium on the certificate, and they realize it is 250
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: miles away from the launch.
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: Which presents a massive, undeniable biological problem in a tropical climate.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: Exactly. We're talking about the blistering heat and humidity of
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: rural Venezuela. After five days without heavy refrigeration, a human
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: body begins to severely bloat and decompose.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: The smell alone would be catastrophic.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: Unbearable. The investigators point out that absolutely no one is
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: putting a decomposing body in the back of a truck
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: and driving it 250 miles through winding rural roads.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: Especially when they discovered there were dozens of fully functioning
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: crematoriums much closer to the lodge.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: The paper trail that looked passable in a manila folder
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: in Florida was completely crumbling on the ground in Venezuela
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: simply because it couldn't withstand the basic laws of physics
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: and biology.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: And the whole illusion shatters when the investigators start kicking
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: down doors and interviewing the locals who signed the paperwork.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: They confront the crematorium manager, right?
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: They do. They show up at that crematorium 250 miles
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: away and corner the manager. After a few days of
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: relentless pressure, laying out all the biological impossibilities and threatening
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: him with international fraud implications, the manager cracks.
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: He confesses.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: He confesses to the investigators that he never received a body.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: He never cremated an American named Jose Lantiga.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: Which begs a horrifying question for Daphne back in Florida.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: What exactly is in the urn she brought home?
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: The investigators asked the exact same thing. The crematorium manager
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: admitted that when he was paid off to provide the ashes,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: he literally just took a broom, swept up some random ashes, dirt,
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: and debris off the crematorium floor, dumped it into a box,
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: and handed it to the grieving widow.
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: Good grief. That is just vile.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: It's stomach-churning. And the fake documents unraveled just as fast.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: The investigators examined the official notary seal on the death certificate.
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: Let me guess. It's fake.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: They cross-reference it with the local government and find that
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: the notary number doesn't match any legitimate notary book in
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: the entire region. It was completely made up.
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: Sloppy.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: Very. Finally, they track down the actual physician whose signature
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: is on the death certificate. At first, the doctor is
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: furious and throws the investigators out of his clinic.
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: He's defensive.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah. But they are relentless. They keep coming back and
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: eventually the doctor breaks down and admits the truth. He
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: tells them he had never laid eyes on Jose Lantiga.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: Never even met him.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: Never treated him. He never pronounced him dead. The owner
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: of the local funeral home had asked him to sign
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: the blank certificate as a quote unquote personal favor.
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: And the doctor just lazily scrawled his name on it
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: without asking questions.
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: The entire multi-million dollar master plan was built on cheap
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: local bribes, geographical errors, and sheer laziness.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: So pause for a second and think about Daphne's reality
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: at this exact moment.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: It's awful to even imagine.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: Put yourself in her living room. She is sitting in
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: her house in Florida. Sitting on her mantle is a
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: heavy urn filled with literal dirt and floor sweepings from
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: a South American furnace.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: And she has to pretend they are her sacred remains.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Every time she leaves the house, she is looking
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: over her shoulder, terrified that a cartel hitman is watching.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: Because that's the reality she believes.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: And meanwhile, her lawyers are locked in a brutal federal
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: court battle with insurance conglomerates over $ 8 million. Money she
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: fully believes is just a fabricated cover story. orchestrated by
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: her CIA husband to keep them alive.
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: The sheer suffocating isolation of that reality is horrifying.
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: It is a state of absolute psychological imprisonment. She is
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: completely trapped inside the architecture of his lie.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: She can't tell anyone.
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: No, she can't confide in her sisters or her children.
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: Because she genuinely believes that sharing the truth will get
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: them assassinated.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: Right, she thinks she's protecting them.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: And she can't stop her lawyers from pursuing the fraudulent
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: insurance claims because she thinks the payout is tactically necessary
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: for their survival. She is entirely alone, bearing the crushing
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: weight of a massive conspiracy.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: But the conspiracy is about to get a lot closer
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: to home.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: Because he comes back.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: He does. While his lawyers are fighting for the cash,
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: Jose decides he is bored of hiding in the jungle.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: He wants back in.
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: Of course he does.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: So he sneaks back into the United States. He uses
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: his remaining illicit funds to pay a smuggler $ 5, 000 for
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: a private, off-the-books boat ride from Nassau in the Bahamas.
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: Risky.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: Very. They travel about 60 miles across the ocean, dodging
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: the Coast Guard, and he sneaks ashore in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: And then what?
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: From there, he hops on a commercial Greyhound bus, rides
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: up the I-95 corridor right back into Jacksonville, And checks
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: himself into an airport hotel.
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: Back to the scene of the crime.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: And the very next morning, Daphne drives over and picks
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: him up.
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: Which entirely annihilates the logic of his own narrative. I mean,
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: if you have convinced your wife that a South American
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: drug cartel is actively hunting your family in the Jacksonville area,
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: the absolute most dangerous thing you could possibly do is
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: sneak back into Jacksonville.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: Right. But that's the thing about Jose's Lies. The threat
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: level was always incredibly flexible, depending entirely on his personal comfort.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: That's classic narcissism.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: In fact, we found out that before he officially moved
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: back to the States, Daphne was regularly taking twice-weekly carnival
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: cruise ships out of the port of Jacksonville, sailing to
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: the Bahamas.
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: Twice a week?
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: Yes, she would pack thousands of dollars in cash to
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: hand off to him, just so they could have romantic
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: conjugal visits.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: Unbelievable.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: Why? Because the highly trained CIA operative hiding from assassins
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: told her he missed her.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: The audacity is just breathtaking. He deliberately plunges her into
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: a state of mortal terror, forces her to commit international felonies,
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: and then casually requests that she take a discount cruise
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: ship for a romantic weekend because he's feeling a little homesick.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: It's so selfish.
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: It shows a complete lack of empathy for the psychological
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: torture he is putting her through.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: So he's back in the U.S. Where does a dead
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: man go? He heads straight up to that mountain retreat
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: in North Carolina.
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: To the bunker.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: Right. He goes down into the basement, opens those 20-inch
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: thick steel doors, and locks himself in the panic room
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: he built on his honeymoon.
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: Like a mole.
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: He is literally living like a mole. And it creates
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: the most macabre family dynamic imaginable.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: How so?
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: Well, Daphne's extended family comes up to the mountain house
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas.
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: Oh, no. Yeah.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: They are upstairs carving a turkey, sharing memories, and mourning
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: the tragic premature death of their beloved patriarch, completely unaware
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: that the man they are crying over is sitting directly
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: beneath their feet, eating leftovers in a bunker.
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: It sounds like a dark comedy, but it is a
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: ticking clock.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: He can't stay down there forever.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: A man with Jose's psychological profile, someone used to being
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: a local celebrity, a millionaire who likes being recognized on television,
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: is not going to quietly live the rest of his
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: life in a windowless basement.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: His ego won't allow it.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Exactly. He's going to attempt to reclaim his freedom
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: and his lifestyle. And in modern society, reclaiming your life
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: requires a new identity and official paperwork.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: And this is exactly where the brilliant criminal mastermind devolves
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: into an absolute bumbling fool.
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: It's astonishing how bad he is at this.
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: Jose decides he needs identification so he can travel and
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: eventually access the millions he thinks are coming his way. First,
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: he manages to successfully apply for a North Carolina driver's
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: license using a stolen.
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: I.D., So he slips through the DMV.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: He does. He slips through the cracks of the DMV.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: But that success makes him cocky. He decides that driver's
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: license isn't enough. He wants to travel internationally. So he
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: applies for a United States passport.
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: Bad idea.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: He adopts a new fake identity, implying under the name
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: Ernest Wills, who, bizarrely enough, was an actual African-American postal
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: worker whose identity had been compromised.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: And this raises a profound question about the nature of
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: organized crime. I mean, how does a man successfully navigate
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: the corrupt, chaotic back channels of a destabilized South American
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: country to flawlessly foot a death certificate, but fail so
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: spectacularly at filling out basic domestic bureaucratic forms?
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: The mistakes he makes on this pass court application are
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: so incredibly stupid, you almost feel bad for him. Let's
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: count them down.
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: OK, let's hear them.
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: Fatal mistake number one. On this highly fraudulent application for
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: his super secret new identity, he needs to list a
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: home address.
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: Does he use a P.O. box, a mail drop? No.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: He writes down the exact actual address of the North
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: Carolina mountain house, his own house.
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: Which instantly tethers this brand new, supposedly untraceable identity directly
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: to his known, highly scrutinized real estate assets.
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: It gets worse. Fatal mistake number two. Yeah. He gets
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: to the section on the form that asks for an
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: emergency contact.
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: Let me guess.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: He writes down Daphne Simpson.
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: He lists the grieving widow of the man he is
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: actively pretending not to be.
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: Yes. He essentially built a million dollar nuclear bunker to
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: align from federal authorities. And then he left a literal
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: breadcrumb trail leading right to the front door.
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: He might as well put up a billboard.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: Right. But we haven't even reached fatal mistake number three,
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: which is the one that truly seals his fate.
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: The photo.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: The photo. The United States Department of State doesn't just
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: look at the names on a form. They utilize highly
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: sophisticated facial recognition software on all incoming passport photos.
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: And he thought he was in disguise.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: Now, Jose thought he was being incredibly clever with his disguise.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: He dyed his hair brown. He bought a cheap brown toupee.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: He grew out a goatee and dyed it so there
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: was no gray hair visible.
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: The cartoon disguise.
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: Basically. You had to look like a completely different person.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: But facial recognition algorithms do not care about your toupee.
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: Not at all. Facial recognition software isn't looking at hair
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: color or styling. It is measuring the immutable mathematical geometry
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: of the human skull. Right.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: It's just numbers to a computer.
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: Exactly. The algorithms plot specific nodal points on a face.
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: They measure the exact millimeter distance between the pupils. They
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: calculate the precise width of the nasal bridge, the depth
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: of the eye sockets, and the spatial angles between the
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: cheekbones and the jawline.
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: You can glue on all the fake hair and cheap
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: disguises you want, but unless you undergo radical reconstructive bone surgery,
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: you cannot alter the underlying biometric blueprint of your face.
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: And the State Department software flags his application almost instantly.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: The system analyzes the biometrics of this new applicant, Ernest Wills,
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: and alludes to the authorities that his skull geometry is
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: a 100% perfect match for a previous legitimate passport application
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: submitted years ago by a man named Jose Lantiga.
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: Game over.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: And if that wasn't embarrassing enough, the feds pulled both
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: physical applications. Both of them were filled out by hand,
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: and the handwriting down to the loops on the letters
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: was identical.
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: It all circles back to that core narcissism we talked about.
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: Thinking he's the smartest guy in the room.
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: Yes, he genuinely, truly believed he was smarter than the
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: United States federal government. He thought a bad disguise and
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: a stolen name were enough to outwit billion-dollar algorithms.
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: So delusional.
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: Narcissism frequently breeds this kind of incredible sloppiness because the
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: perpetrator completely lacks the self-awareness necessary to recognize their own
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: blind spots. He thought he was invincible.
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: So the federal government now knows unequivocally that Jose Lantiga
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: is alive. And thanks to his emergency contact form, they
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: know exactly where he is hiding.
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: They have his address.
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: But the feds are patient. They don't raid the mountain
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: house immediately. They set up secret surveillance on the property
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: and they watch him for a year and a half.
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: Building the case?
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: Meticulously building an absolutely airtight bulletproof case of massive fraud. Finally,
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: the hammer drops.
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: He arrests.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: Jose leaves the mountain house to take his Jeep to
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: a local auto repair shop in North Carolina. When he
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: pulls up to pick it up, federal agents swarm the lot.
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: Just like that.
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: They surround him, slap the handcuffs on him and arrest
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: him right there in the driveway. And for all this
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: tough guy, CIA assassin posturing. He crumbles instantly.
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: He doesn't even fight it.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: The second the cuffs click, he confesses. He tells the agents,
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: you got me. I'm Jose Lantiga.
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: Wow. But while he is surrendering, the tragedy is continuing
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: to escalate for Daphne.
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: It really is. The agents immediately separate the two of
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: them at the scene. A federal agent pulls Daphne aside
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: for questioning.
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: And this is where the brainwashing really shows.
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: Now, you have to put yourself in her mindset in
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: this exact second. She has no idea about the insurance fraud.
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: She still fully believes the South American cartel is actively
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: hunting them.
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: She thinks this is the CIA alias.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: Yes. She still believes that Jose's new Ernest Wills identity
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: was a deep cover alias provided directly by the CIA
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: to keep them hidden.
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: Though she lies.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: So when the federal agent points at her husband in
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: handcuffs and asks her, ma'am, who is that man? She
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: does exactly what she was trained to do to survive.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: She lies to a federal officer.
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: Which is a huge mistake.
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: She looks the agent in the eye and says, that's
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: my friend, Ernest. The agent gives her one chance to
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: save herself. He leans in and says, ma'am, I'm a
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: federal agent. You cannot lie to me. We know who
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: he is. Who is that man?
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: And she doubles down.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: She is absolutely terrified that blowing his cover will result
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: in her children being murdered by a cartel. So she
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: doubles down. She lies again. And the agents arrest her
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: on the spot for making false statements.
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: It is agonizing to analyze that interaction. I mean, she's
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: standing face to face with federal agents, the very authorities
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: who possess the actual power to protect her from any threat.
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: But her reality has been so profoundly distorted by his
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: psychological abuse that she views the real cops as the enemy.
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: She protects the lie.
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: She actively chooses to protect the phantom CIA narrative over
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: her own freedom.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: And that delusion held an iron grip on her mind,
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: even after the handcuffs were on. She was thrown into
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: a federal lockup and she sat in a jail cell
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: for months.
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: Still believing it?
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: Her family pooled their resources and hired a very good
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: defense lawyer. This lawyer sat down with her in the
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: visitation room for three hours, and he laid out the
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: entire case.
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: He shows her the proof.
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: He showed her the bank records, the fake policies, the
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: floor sweepings from the crematorium. He looked her right in
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: the eye and said, Daphne, it's all a lie. The
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: cartel isn't real. The CIA isn't real. You were completely duped.
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: And she refused to believe him.
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: She looked at her own lawyer, the man trying to
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: save her from prison, and said, no, it's the truth.
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: You'll see. The government is going to expose the real story.
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: And the CIA is going to swoop in and fix
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: all of this.
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: Oh, that is so sad.
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: She sat in a concrete cell, genuinely waiting every single
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: day for a spy agency to rappel through the ceiling
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: and break her out.
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: This is the ultimate, most devastating example of cognitive dissonance.
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: Her brain literally could not process the sheer magnitude of
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: the betrayal.
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: It was just too much to accept.
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: Exactly. To accept the lawyer's truth meant accepting that the
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: man she loved was a sociopathic monster. It meant accepting
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: that her entire marriage was a financial transaction, that her
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: family's trauma was artificially manufactured, and that she was now
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: facing years in federal prison for absolutely nothing.
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: Her world would shatter.
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: The human ego will go to extraordinary delusional lengths to
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: avoid processing that level of psychological destruction. It is physically
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: painful for the brain to hold two conflicting realities. So
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: she clung to the CIA fantasy because the alternative truth
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: was complete emotional annihilation.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: But the harsh reality of the legal system eventually broke
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: through the delusion. The mountain of evidence was undeniable, and
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: the truth of Jose's finances was finally exposed. It turned
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: out that one of the life insurance policies he claimed on,
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: which was supposedly worth $ 6 million, was entirely forged by
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: Jose himself.
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: It didn't even exist.
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: It didn't even exist. And despite his claims of being
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: a millionaire, when the forensic accountants dug into his remaining
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: bank accounts, Jose Lantiga only had about $ 38, 000 to his name.
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: So it was all a desperate illusion.
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: The grand international spy thriller was just a desperate, sloppy,
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: incredibly cruel cash grab by a failing furniture salesman.
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: The irony is sickening. I mean, when the dust finally
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: settles on this grand illusion, what are the actual consequences?
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: They both eventually realize they have no way out, and
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: they plead guilty. Jose Lantiga receives 14 years in federal
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: prison for conspiracy and bank fraud.
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: 14 years.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: And because he committed a federal crime, there is no
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: early parole. He will be in his 70s by the
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: time he sees the outside of his cell.
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: What about Daphne?
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: Daphne faced up to five years in federal prison for
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: her role. But the judge showed some leniency given the manipulation,
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: and she wound up serving 17 months behind bars.
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: Her punishment doesn't end when the cell door opens, does it?
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: Not even close. Her life post-release is a waking nightmare.
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: She was placed under strict house arrest, forced to wear
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: an ankle monitor, and only allowed to leave her home
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: to attend church services.
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: And she has to pay it back.
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: The financial ruin is absolute and permanent. The federal court
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: ordered her to be jointly responsible for paying back $ 871, 000
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: in restitution for the insurance money that Jose actually managed
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: to collect and spend before he was caught.
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: Nearly a million dollars.
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: And here is the truly heartbreaking part to me. Think
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: about who she was before she logged onto that dating site.
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: She was totally fine.
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: She was a successful, independent woman... She had a nice home.
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: She had vehicles. She had a career. She had a
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: robust savings account. She had her entire life together. Now,
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: she is a convicted felon, nearly a million dollars in debt,
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: desperately trying to find minimum wage work just to pay
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: off the restitution of a con artist who destroyed her life.
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: It's tragic.
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: She is finally filing for divorce, and we know that
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: when he sends her letters from his federal prison cell,
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: she writes garbage on the envelopes and returns them unopened.
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: He didn't just steal her freedom or her money. He
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: systematically dismantled her entire identity. He took a trusting, upstanding woman,
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: isolated her, broke her mind, and turned her into a felon.
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: Which leaves me wondering, and I struggle with this, do
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: we blame Daphne?
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: It's a tough question.
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: Because when you are looking at this from the outside,
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: sitting safely in your car or your living room, it
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: is so incredibly easy to sit in judgment and say,
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: how could you be so utterly naive? How do you
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: possibly believe a story about monkey brains and cartel assassins
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: and fake ashes?
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: Right, from the outside it looks crazy.
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: But if you are actually in the thick of it,
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: if you are actively being targeted by a master manipulator
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: who systematically isolates you, rewires your reality, and weaponizes your
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: deep love for your children against you, Are any of
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: us truly immune to being manipulated?
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: It is a very comforting lie we tell ourselves, you know,
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: to believe we are too smart or too logical to
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: be conned.
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: That we would see through it. Right.
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: But con artists don't target your IQ. They target your empathy,
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: your fear, and your love. If a predator manages to
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: map your emotional pressure points perfectly, logic becomes entirely secondary.
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: You're just reacting.
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: You aren't making decisions based on facts anymore. You are
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: making decisions based on survival and affections.
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: So we've untangled this incredible sprawling web today. We've seen
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: how a fairy tale romance with a five-carat diamond rapidly
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: mutated into a bizarre saga of prion diseases, floor sweepings
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: passed off as human remains, and a desperate broke man
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: hiding behind a 20-inch steel door.
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: It is a spectacular story of sheer hubris resulting in
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: a 14-year prison sentence.
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: But as we wrap up this deep dive, I want
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: to leave you with a thought that extends far beyond
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: Jose and Daphne. I want you to think about The
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: person you trust most in the world right now.
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: It could be your partner, your best friend, your parent,
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: your entire shared reality with them. Your fundamental sense of
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: safety is built entirely on the assumption that they are
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: telling you the truth about who they are.
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: That's a chilling thought.
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: But if the foundational truths of your life were actually
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: just a meticulously crafted long con, how long would it
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: take you to notice the cracks?
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: Would you even want to see them?
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Exactly. If the person you loved most in this
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: world handed you a sealed box of dirt and told
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: you it was the absolute truth, would you risk destroying
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: your entire reality to pry it open and look inside?
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: Or would you just quietly put it on the mantle
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: and try to survive? Thanks for joining us on this
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: deep dive. Take care of yourselves and we'll catch you
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: next time.