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Paradise Prison: Chapter 1 · Blood Trails

0:08
Speaker 1: When an American hunter got caught with forgotten ammunition in
0:11
Speaker 1: a Caribbean airport, authorities told him it was a simple
0:14
Speaker 1: matter of the law. He'd broken it and there would
0:17
Speaker 1: be consequences, no exceptions. But it wasn't simple, and it
0:22
Speaker 1: wasn't just the law. What he didn't know, what he
0:25
Speaker 1: couldn't have known, standing in that terminal with his wife
0:28
Speaker 1: and friends, was that he'd stumbled into something much bigger
0:31
Speaker 1: than a few forgotten cartridges. There was corruption on that island.
0:35
Speaker 1: There was a prison the Humanitarian Commission said shouldn't exist,
0:39
Speaker 1: and when he started talking, there were consequences that had
0:42
Speaker 1: nothing to do with any courtroom. Some of those consequences
0:46
Speaker 1: echoed around the world, but others, the assaults, the cruelty,
0:51
Speaker 1: the extortion, and the violence were hidden, forgotten, were ignored
0:57
Speaker 1: until now. This is Paradise Prison, a three part Blood
1:02
Speaker 1: Trails mini series that follows American hunters and gun owners
1:05
Speaker 1: who were trapped in Turks and Caicos in twenty twenty four.
1:09
Speaker 1: The story received international media attention. And you might think
1:12
Speaker 1: you know what happened, but trust me when I say
1:15
Speaker 1: you don't know the half of it. That's next on
1:19
Speaker 1: Blood trails. Even the most dedicated hunters need a tropical
1:31
Speaker 1: vacation every once in a while. In April of twenty
1:33
Speaker 1: twenty four, Ryan Watson was planning exactly that, a relaxing
1:38
Speaker 1: getaway in the Caribbean with his wife and a few
1:40
Speaker 1: close friends.
1:41
Speaker 2: I two fraternity brothers from college. We were all turning
1:45
Speaker 2: forty within a couple weeks of one another, and we
1:49
Speaker 2: had long talked about putting together a fortieth birthday trip
1:52
Speaker 2: for like a couple's trip for us and our wives.
1:55
Speaker 2: At some point, one of our buddies had been to
1:58
Speaker 2: Turks and Caicos in he was really lobbying for us
2:01
Speaker 2: to all go to Turks and Caicos, and we finally
2:03
Speaker 2: conceded just to make the trip happen.
2:06
Speaker 1: Ryan and his wife Valerie, packed their bags, left their
2:09
Speaker 1: two young children with grandparents, and boarded a plane for
2:12
Speaker 1: the picturesque Archipelago, six hundred miles southeast of Miami. When
2:16
Speaker 1: they arrived, everything went as smoothly as could be expected.
2:20
Speaker 1: Ryan even noticed that their bags had already been taken
2:22
Speaker 1: off the plane and were waiting for them on the carousel.
2:25
Speaker 2: I thought, Man, it's like a first country I've ever
2:28
Speaker 2: flown into where they don't inspect your bags or do
2:31
Speaker 2: anything like that. And my buddy Trey makes a passing
2:35
Speaker 2: comment and he said, hey man, it's the Caribbean, Watson.
2:37
Speaker 2: Everybody's carefree here, and those wards would continue to echo
2:41
Speaker 2: in my head.
2:42
Speaker 1: Airport officials didn't check those bags on the way in,
2:46
Speaker 1: but they did check them on the way out. After
2:49
Speaker 1: what Ryan says was a fun and yes, care free vacation,
2:53
Speaker 1: he Valerie, and their friends made their way to the
2:56
Speaker 1: airport to board their flight back to Oklahoma.
2:59
Speaker 2: When we pulled up to the airport, kind of panic
3:02
Speaker 2: sets in because the airport is a tiny airport and
3:05
Speaker 2: the airport is just in chaos. I mean, there had
3:09
Speaker 2: apparently been several flights before us that had been delayed,
3:12
Speaker 2: and it was everybody was pushing and shoving and screaming
3:16
Speaker 2: at one another.
3:17
Speaker 1: The panic Ryan describes wasn't anything more than what you'd
3:20
Speaker 1: expect at a hot, crowded airport on a tiny island nation.
3:24
Speaker 1: But that was about to change. Brian made it through
3:28
Speaker 1: the security line first, and as he turned to watch
3:30
Speaker 1: his wife and friends, he noticed that Valerie had been
3:33
Speaker 1: stopped by airport security. They were looking at one of
3:36
Speaker 1: their Duffel bags, a bag they'd packed at the last
3:38
Speaker 1: minute to keep another suitcase from going over the weight limit.
3:42
Speaker 2: So they go through tearing through this bag. They're looking
3:45
Speaker 2: for something. Clearly. They take all my wife's items out
3:48
Speaker 2: of the Duffel bag. They run all the items through
3:51
Speaker 2: the scanner individually. They're not satisfied, and we're all joking
3:57
Speaker 2: at this point. We think it's funny. I mean, you're
3:59
Speaker 2: with ends. Anytime TSA or the airport security is going
4:04
Speaker 2: through somebody's bag, everybody starts ribbing each other and oh,
4:06
Speaker 2: what are they going to find?
4:08
Speaker 1: Eventually they found something, but Ryan says they took it
4:12
Speaker 1: out of the bag so quickly it was hard to
4:14
Speaker 1: tell exactly what.
4:15
Speaker 2: And the lady just spun on a heel and walked
4:19
Speaker 2: right back over to the other security guards there and
4:22
Speaker 2: she's showing it to him and they're whispering, and my
4:26
Speaker 2: mom was like, did you see what they got? And
4:27
Speaker 2: I said, I didn't see it. The lady then walks
4:31
Speaker 2: over and holds it up and I recognize it immediately.
4:35
Speaker 2: It is a small package of six point five creedmore reloads.
4:41
Speaker 1: Ryan had purchased that ammunition from a local gun shop
4:44
Speaker 1: in Oklahoma City. It isn't uncommon for local shops to
4:47
Speaker 1: sell reloaded ammunition, and Ryan had been using it to
4:50
Speaker 1: hunt deer for several seasons. Loose AMMO in a small
4:53
Speaker 1: plastic bag isn't a great look for going through airport security,
4:57
Speaker 1: but Ryan expected to surrender it and get on his floor.
5:00
Speaker 1: If you're a hunter or a sports shooter, you've likely
5:02
Speaker 1: found yourself in the same position. You get a stern
5:05
Speaker 1: talking to and lose your ammo. But that's the extent
5:08
Speaker 1: of the penalty.
5:09
Speaker 2: So I'm negotiating, asking, Hey, you know, can we just
5:13
Speaker 2: throw it in the trash. I'm so sorry. I just
5:16
Speaker 2: a genuine, honest, freak accident. We had no idea what
5:21
Speaker 2: was in there.
5:22
Speaker 1: Ryan tried to play it cool, but Valerie had a
5:25
Speaker 1: sinking feeling. She couldn't quite explain.
5:28
Speaker 3: I look immediately looked at Ryan. I was like, what
5:31
Speaker 3: is that? I mean, it looked scary to me. They're
5:34
Speaker 3: big bullets, they're gold, and I am panicking. I mean,
5:38
Speaker 3: my heart sinked my stomach because I was like, I
5:43
Speaker 3: know you can't travel with ammunition. We know that, and
5:46
Speaker 3: I don't know how it got through multiple airports.
5:50
Speaker 1: Ryan says the airport officials weren't aggressive or accusatory, but
5:53
Speaker 1: they did say that Ryan and Valerie would have to
5:56
Speaker 1: talk to the police. And then they did something else.
6:00
Speaker 2: The first little like weird sign that something might be
6:05
Speaker 2: askew was she takes it over and the two other
6:09
Speaker 2: ladies that are watching the X ray screen, they all
6:13
Speaker 2: three take a selfie to hold it up and take
6:15
Speaker 2: a selfie with it. It was like a gripping grin.
6:17
Speaker 2: I was like, what is going on?
6:19
Speaker 1: Twenty minutes later, that uneasy feeling escalated to heart pounding concern.
6:25
Speaker 2: A guy walks up to me, no word spoken, nothing,
6:27
Speaker 2: He just rips the boarding pass out of my hand
6:29
Speaker 2: and he looks at it. He hands it back to
6:31
Speaker 2: him and he says, I just want you to know
6:32
Speaker 2: you're not going to make that fly.
6:34
Speaker 1: Ryan still expected to be on the next flight, so
6:37
Speaker 1: he told his friends to go ahead and get on
6:38
Speaker 1: the plane.
6:40
Speaker 2: My wife and I are escorted out of the airport,
6:43
Speaker 2: and about that time, a silver STV comes screeching up
6:48
Speaker 2: to the curve. I mean the bumpers hanging off of it,
6:52
Speaker 2: no markings, nothing on this car. And the man and
6:57
Speaker 2: a woman get out plane close, no badges, nothing right.
7:02
Speaker 2: They'd walk up to us and they start deterrogating us
7:05
Speaker 2: on the corner. Why do you have this? Are you licensed?
7:10
Speaker 2: I I was like, we don't have to have a
7:13
Speaker 2: license to possess ammunition back in the States. Like it
7:15
Speaker 2: was an accident. I'm a hunter. And next thing you know,
7:21
Speaker 2: they opened the door to the car and they shove
7:23
Speaker 2: us in and they say we're taking you with us,
7:25
Speaker 2: and then we're like where to and no badges have
7:29
Speaker 2: been shown. At this point, We're in the back of
7:32
Speaker 2: some beat up suv and I'm like, this doesn't seem Ryan.
7:37
Speaker 1: Thirty minutes earlier, Ryan and Valerie were expecting to beat
7:40
Speaker 1: in the air on the way back to their kids.
7:43
Speaker 1: Now they were stuck in the back of an unmarked
7:45
Speaker 1: suv being driven away from the airport in a foreign
7:48
Speaker 1: country by two people who, for all they knew, could
7:51
Speaker 1: be gang members, extortionists, or something worse. All Ryan could
7:56
Speaker 1: think about was whether he should take matters into his
7:59
Speaker 1: own hands. I'm looking for when do I start fighting?
8:03
Speaker 2: Do I start grabbing somebody or grabbing the wheel or
8:07
Speaker 2: hitting the emergency brake? And I'm talking to them, They're
8:11
Speaker 2: not responding to me. So Val starts to share our
8:14
Speaker 2: location with the Dyers, who are now boarding their plane,
8:19
Speaker 2: and they say, okay, we're tracking you. We're going to
8:22
Speaker 2: keep an eye on you. We're getting on the plane now.
8:24
Speaker 1: As the Dyers took off, the Watsons lost the only
8:27
Speaker 1: allies they had on Turks and Caicos. They didn't know
8:30
Speaker 1: where they were being taken, what would happen when they
8:32
Speaker 1: got there, or even if they'd been officially arrested. All
8:36
Speaker 1: they knew was from the moment that security guard pulled
8:38
Speaker 1: those four cartridges from their bag, their lives had been
8:41
Speaker 1: turned upside down.
8:43
Speaker 3: First thing I think of as our kids, because you know,
8:46
Speaker 3: our kids are expecting us home, and I'm sitting here
8:49
Speaker 3: thinking this cannot this can't be real. There's no way
8:53
Speaker 3: that our kids are going to have to grow up
8:54
Speaker 3: without both parents. This is not happening.
8:58
Speaker 1: But it was Happeningson's weren't the only ones. Turks and
9:02
Speaker 1: Kikos had recently passed new restrictions ostensibly aimed at curbing
9:06
Speaker 1: gun related crime on the crime ridden islands, but along
9:09
Speaker 1: with drug runners and gun traffickers, these laws had also
9:12
Speaker 1: been used to target tourists, sportsmen, gun owners, and Ryan
9:16
Speaker 1: and Valerie would later learn almost exclusively Americans.
9:21
Speaker 3: It was so innocent, and I think the airport security there,
9:25
Speaker 3: I think they probably knew that it was an innocent thing.
9:28
Speaker 3: But there was a lot revealed while we were there
9:32
Speaker 3: that made it seem like this was something that they
9:34
Speaker 3: were targeting. So we were caught in the bool of
9:36
Speaker 3: something much bigger.
9:40
Speaker 1: In this special Blood Trails miniseriies We're going on vacation,
9:43
Speaker 1: but not the fun kind. This is a tale of corruption, extortion,
9:50
Speaker 1: bomb threats, and assassination attempts just a few hundred miles
9:53
Speaker 1: from the American border. But it's also a story about perseverance, faith, sacrifice,
9:59
Speaker 1: and the kindness of strangers in a foreign land. At
10:03
Speaker 1: times it sounds like a movie or the most surreal
10:06
Speaker 1: nightmare you've ever had, But it's all true, and the
10:10
Speaker 1: truth is could have happened to any of us. None
10:13
Speaker 1: of these Americans were gun smugglers, none of them even
10:16
Speaker 1: had criminal records, and yet each of them faced decades
10:19
Speaker 1: behind bars in a prison that officials had deemed a
10:22
Speaker 1: human rights violation. How they got caught in that web
10:26
Speaker 1: of corruption and incompetence and how they tried to escape
10:30
Speaker 1: is what the next three episodes are all about. To
10:33
Speaker 1: find your passports and buckle your seat belts. Things only
10:37
Speaker 1: get crazier from here. I'm Jordan Siller's and this is
10:41
Speaker 1: Blood Trails Paradise Prison, Chapter one, Part one, Hunting m O.
10:57
Speaker 1: When I asked Ryan where those four cartridges came from,
11:00
Speaker 1: he didn't hesitate. He'd been using the rounds in that
11:02
Speaker 1: bag to hunt a ranch owned by the family of
11:05
Speaker 1: his friend Tanner Dyer. Over twenty years earlier. Tanner had
11:08
Speaker 1: reached out to Ryan and offered to bring him hunting
11:11
Speaker 1: during an especially dark period in Ryan's life.
11:14
Speaker 2: You know, my dad was unfortunately killed in a car
11:18
Speaker 2: accident when I was nineteen years old in the fall
11:22
Speaker 2: of that year, and he, you know, just being a
11:27
Speaker 2: good friend, he had reached out to me and said, hey, man,
11:30
Speaker 2: I want you to come to our family's ranch. We're
11:33
Speaker 2: gonna go hunt. I want you to get your mind
11:35
Speaker 2: off things. And so went out there. They have an
11:38
Speaker 2: incredible ranch out in West Texas, and then they just
11:43
Speaker 2: allowed me to go out there and sit with him,
11:45
Speaker 2: and I enjoyed that.
11:48
Speaker 1: That first bittersweet trip turned into an annual tradition, and
11:52
Speaker 1: over the last few years, Ryan has had the chance
11:54
Speaker 1: to take his son to the same ranch.
11:56
Speaker 2: So probably my best time ever in the field was
12:02
Speaker 2: a hunt probably two weeks before I was arrested.
12:06
Speaker 1: His son was nine years old at the time and
12:08
Speaker 1: he was excited to chase his first gobbler. Ryan took
12:11
Speaker 1: him to a creek he knew that was lined with
12:13
Speaker 1: cottonwood trees.
12:15
Speaker 2: I finally I let loose on an alcohol, and man,
12:21
Speaker 2: you can just hear those cottonwood shaken and they're vibrating
12:23
Speaker 2: because there's so many toms that are shot gobbling up
12:26
Speaker 2: in the trees. And I look over and my son
12:30
Speaker 2: was his eyeballs were about this big round. And to
12:33
Speaker 2: watch that morning come alive. Some of those sunrises in
12:38
Speaker 2: West Texas are the most vivid shades of like pink
12:44
Speaker 2: and orange. Watching that come up and watching those turkeys
12:49
Speaker 2: flat out of the roost and just put on a
12:51
Speaker 2: show and watch my son just in awe of it
12:56
Speaker 2: was hands down the coolest moment I've ever had in
12:59
Speaker 2: the field.
13:02
Speaker 1: Very few hunters have ever said this, but Ryan told
13:04
Speaker 1: me there were almost too many turkeys that morning, you know.
13:08
Speaker 2: Bless his heart. He couldn't look in one direction and
13:11
Speaker 2: her focus on one direction. I'd called a tom and
13:15
Speaker 2: there's probably two or three toms in, but one of
13:17
Speaker 2: them was dang near in his lap and I was like,
13:20
Speaker 2: all right, buddy, like are you gonna pull the trigger?
13:22
Speaker 2: And he's like, I don't know which one to aid,
13:26
Speaker 2: I don't know where to aim.
13:27
Speaker 4: I was like, buddy, if you pull a trigger right now,
13:28
Speaker 4: like we're harvesting something. I wrob that Ryan's son wasn't
13:34
Speaker 4: able to pull the trigger on those gobblers. But later
13:37
Speaker 4: that morning, Ryan called in two jakes that were strutting
13:40
Speaker 4: along a fence line. They were clearly on the alert,
13:43
Speaker 4: so Ryan decided to draw their attention in a different
13:45
Speaker 4: direction while he instructed his son to sneak up on them.
13:49
Speaker 2: I take off and I'm watching out over my shoulder
13:53
Speaker 2: the corner of my eye, and I hear his little
13:56
Speaker 2: four ten ring out and i'd turn around. He's nervous
14:03
Speaker 2: and shook in and I kind of go running over
14:06
Speaker 2: there and he's like, did I did I get Did
14:08
Speaker 2: I get one? And I was like, get one? I
14:10
Speaker 2: was like, you just smoked two jakes with one shot, buddy.
14:14
Speaker 1: For the Watsons, hunting has always been a family affair.
14:17
Speaker 1: Ryan's father trained duck dogs and pointers, and the younger
14:20
Speaker 1: Watson recalls walking the fields at an early age.
14:24
Speaker 2: I'd go out with them, walk fields, get to go
14:26
Speaker 2: on the annual pheasant hunt. I mean, as long as
14:29
Speaker 2: I could keep up, and then you know, by lunch,
14:32
Speaker 2: I was probably sleeping in the truck.
14:34
Speaker 1: Ryan started hunting deer when he was ten or eleven,
14:36
Speaker 1: and he's hunted every year since. He said there were
14:39
Speaker 1: twenty cartridges in that bag when he bought it from
14:41
Speaker 1: the local shop, which means he fired sixteen. At least
14:45
Speaker 1: a few of them were used on a crazy, non
14:47
Speaker 1: typical white tail that, in Ryan's words, had stories to tell.
14:52
Speaker 2: I'm I'm assuming this is the deer that I shot.
14:56
Speaker 2: Oh wow, when those rules got left? But the coolest
14:59
Speaker 2: brown times on a year that I'd ever seen, dude,
15:03
Speaker 2: that's crazy. Yeah, he had some he had some character.
15:07
Speaker 1: Yeah that is so cool man. I've never seen anything
15:10
Speaker 1: like that before.
15:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, I had neither. I knew he was. I could
15:15
Speaker 2: see a lot of stuff going on. Yeah, And when
15:21
Speaker 2: I got him on the ground, I got up to
15:23
Speaker 2: him and I was like, holy crap. I was like
15:25
Speaker 2: this this year has like some stories to tell.
15:34
Speaker 1: As it turned out, Ryan ended up with some stories
15:36
Speaker 1: of his own. But before we get to those, I
15:39
Speaker 1: know what you're thinking, how did those six or five
15:41
Speaker 1: creed More cartridges end up in Ryan's bag?
15:45
Speaker 2: That bag which my wife and I had had for
15:48
Speaker 2: over thirteen years. It was a wedding gift. It was
15:51
Speaker 2: a rolling duffel, so I had a hard bottom to
15:55
Speaker 2: the bag, But the lining of that bag, due to
15:59
Speaker 2: the where and hair over the years, had begun to separate.
16:02
Speaker 1: Brian told me that was the only bag they took
16:04
Speaker 1: to Turks and Caicos that had also been to the
16:07
Speaker 1: Dyer's ranch. He thinks the bag of cartridges fell through
16:10
Speaker 1: the lining and wedged itself between the cushion of the
16:12
Speaker 1: bag and the hard plastic bottom, so you could.
16:15
Speaker 2: Shake the bag all you wanted. It made no audible sounds,
16:20
Speaker 2: and so when they finally disassembled the bag and took
16:23
Speaker 2: the lining out and took the padding out, then they
16:26
Speaker 2: found the ammunition.
16:28
Speaker 1: Ran freely admits that he made a mistake and should
16:31
Speaker 1: have checked his bag more carefully. Still, it's hard to
16:34
Speaker 1: blame the guy for not noticing something. It took airport
16:37
Speaker 1: officials multiple attempts to find with the help of an
16:40
Speaker 1: X ray machine. The problem was the same circumstances that
16:44
Speaker 1: made Ryan's mistake more understandable also made it more suspicious.
16:49
Speaker 1: It looked like Ryan had hit in questionably packaged rifle
16:52
Speaker 1: cartridges in the lining of his bag. That didn't sit
16:55
Speaker 1: well with officials, which became terrifyingly obvious during the Watson's
16:59
Speaker 1: first interrogation Part two. Weekend bail, Ryan and Valerie didn't
17:09
Speaker 1: have to wait long to find out where they were
17:11
Speaker 1: being taken, but that knowledge was small comfort.
17:15
Speaker 2: I bet it was a ten minute car ride to
17:18
Speaker 2: where they took us. We pull up. It's an empty
17:21
Speaker 2: white building. It's a two story building. I'm like, I
17:24
Speaker 2: don't see a police station sign anywhere here.
17:28
Speaker 1: The Watsons weren't in handcuffs, but they still hadn't seen
17:31
Speaker 1: a badge, a crest, or any indication that they were
17:34
Speaker 1: being detained or kidnapped by legitimate authorities. Even the vehicle
17:39
Speaker 1: they were riding in didn't seem official. As they pulled
17:41
Speaker 1: up to the unmarked building, Ryan tried to let himself out.
17:45
Speaker 2: I go to reach for the handle and I grab
17:48
Speaker 2: a hold of the handle in the interior because I
17:50
Speaker 2: was gonna let myself out, and the officer, who's a
17:52
Speaker 2: bigger guy, he grabs a hold of the handle from
17:55
Speaker 2: the outside and jerks it open. When that happens, I
18:00
Speaker 2: snapped the handle from the inside of the car off,
18:04
Speaker 2: and so now this guy, who already doesn't want to
18:07
Speaker 2: be my friend, is like pissed. He grabs a handle,
18:10
Speaker 2: throws it in there, starts pushing me. The female officer
18:13
Speaker 2: gets val out and we get pushed upstairs opened the door.
18:18
Speaker 2: They opened the door to this office building and it's empty,
18:22
Speaker 2: like there's not a soul and there's not a poster
18:27
Speaker 2: on the wall. There's nothing. And I'm like, we're gonna
18:30
Speaker 2: get robbed here, like we're murdered, or they're going to
18:33
Speaker 2: do something to Valerie.
18:35
Speaker 1: The Americans were hustled into a small room and told
18:37
Speaker 1: to sit down. Ryan told me he was still carrying
18:40
Speaker 1: the luggage with the four cartridges inside, and both he
18:44
Speaker 1: and Valerie had their cell phones.
18:46
Speaker 2: About that time, the dyers start texting us and they
18:48
Speaker 2: were like, are you sure that these are police officers
18:51
Speaker 2: because we tracked your location to this random building in
18:55
Speaker 2: the middle of nowhere, and I was like, I'm not sure.
19:00
Speaker 2: This is sketchy at best.
19:04
Speaker 1: A few minutes later, the man and woman who had
19:06
Speaker 1: detained them walked into the room, but this time they
19:09
Speaker 1: were carrying badges. They introduced themselves as Sergeant Charles and
19:13
Speaker 1: Officer Markland. This helped ease Ryan's mind, but as it
19:17
Speaker 1: turned out, kidnappers may have been easier to deal with.
19:20
Speaker 2: And then the interrogation starts and they lay into us heavy,
19:24
Speaker 2: like what were we doing? What criminal activities were we
19:27
Speaker 2: up to? How long have we been on the island?
19:29
Speaker 2: Who had we dealt with the whole time. I'm like, guys,
19:33
Speaker 2: we were here to celebrate my fortieth birthday. They were
19:37
Speaker 2: convinced that we were drug runners or arms dealers of
19:41
Speaker 2: some sort. I'm like, guys, I'm a I'm a medical salesperson.
19:45
Speaker 2: My wife's a Christian school teacher. I'm a hunter. This
19:48
Speaker 2: is a just a terrible accident. I'm so sorry. They
19:53
Speaker 2: aren't They're not backing down for nothing. And the interrogation
19:59
Speaker 2: at this point has gone on for probably an hour
20:02
Speaker 2: and a half, and they're getting pretty heated and getting
20:05
Speaker 2: up and putting, you know, pushing fingers in my face.
20:09
Speaker 1: The absurdity of these accusations should have been obvious. The
20:12
Speaker 1: Watsons were clearly not gun smugglers, and more importantly, they
20:16
Speaker 1: hadn't been caught trying to take ammunition into the country.
20:19
Speaker 1: They'd been caught trying to take it out. If officials
20:22
Speaker 1: were so concerned about American tourists illegally importing ammunition, you'd
20:27
Speaker 1: think they'd check the bags on the way in. But
20:30
Speaker 1: when Ryan tried to argue this point to the officers
20:32
Speaker 1: across the table, it.
20:34
Speaker 2: Didn't even register to them. I mean, I might as
20:36
Speaker 2: well have been speaking Mandarin because they I mean, it
20:39
Speaker 2: did not have any impact or influence in our situation.
20:44
Speaker 1: Something else was going on here, something that went beyond
20:47
Speaker 1: regulating the possession of ammunition. These thoughts tickle the back
20:51
Speaker 1: of Ryan's brain, but in that moment, he had more
20:54
Speaker 1: pressing concerns.
20:56
Speaker 2: I say, hey, guys, you promised me that I could
20:59
Speaker 2: phone my mother whenever we got to this station. And
21:04
Speaker 2: they said, well, yes, but we're not going to allow
21:09
Speaker 2: you to call her yet. I said, well, I need
21:11
Speaker 2: to let her know, like she has my children at
21:15
Speaker 2: the house, she's watching our children at home, and she
21:19
Speaker 2: needs to know that we're delayed and we're gonna be
21:21
Speaker 2: late getting home. And that's whenever Officer Charles or Sergeant
21:26
Speaker 2: Charles leans back in his chair and just with the biggest,
21:30
Speaker 2: you know, shit eating grin ever starts laughing. He says,
21:34
Speaker 2: you two don't get it. You're both going to prison
21:36
Speaker 2: for twelve years, and it starts today.
21:40
Speaker 1: Brian guessed that this was an intimidation tactic, but the
21:43
Speaker 1: officers were clear that the couple was headed to jail
21:46
Speaker 1: to await their first hearing.
21:48
Speaker 3: When they told us that they were gonna take us
21:51
Speaker 3: to jail, that, I mean, I couldn't even fathom. I'm
21:56
Speaker 3: sitting here thinking, Okay, I'm in a foreign country and
22:00
Speaker 3: I am about to be arrested and put in a jail.
22:02
Speaker 3: I mean, I have no idea other than the tourist
22:04
Speaker 3: areas of this country, like what I'm getting into, and
22:08
Speaker 3: so I start crying. I'm very emotional. I'm thinking about
22:13
Speaker 3: our kids back home. I'm thinking about what in the
22:15
Speaker 3: world am I about to embark upon.
22:17
Speaker 2: Val is trying to collect yourself, and I'm trying my
22:21
Speaker 2: best to consoler. At some point, Valerie makes the statement,
22:29
Speaker 2: neither one of us have been in any type of
22:31
Speaker 2: trouble before is what I'm wearing. Okay to go to
22:37
Speaker 2: jail in will I be cold? And as a husband man,
22:44
Speaker 2: that like just ignited something in front of me, inside
22:48
Speaker 2: of me, and I was like, I am not, this
22:50
Speaker 2: is not going to happen. And I stood up and
22:53
Speaker 2: up until that point, i'd been very compliant, yes sir, no, ma'am,
22:58
Speaker 2: as I was answering questions, and I was like, this
23:01
Speaker 2: has to stop right now, Like my wife is not
23:03
Speaker 2: going to prison. I don't care what happens. I can
23:06
Speaker 2: promise you guys both one thing. It's not going to
23:08
Speaker 2: end with her being in a jail cell.
23:11
Speaker 1: The officers looked at each other and walked out of
23:13
Speaker 1: the room without saying anything. When they returned, they made
23:16
Speaker 1: the Watson's an offer that, if possible, made this situation
23:19
Speaker 1: even more surreal.
23:21
Speaker 2: About that time, the two officers walk back in the room.
23:24
Speaker 2: They say, hey, we've thought about it. We know you
23:28
Speaker 2: have kids at home. Real sad, real sad thing. So
23:32
Speaker 2: we're going to do our one good deed for the day.
23:35
Speaker 2: If you can find a local, like a local Turk
23:38
Speaker 2: Islander that is willing to put up an asset the
23:41
Speaker 2: equivalent of your bail, we'll let you out on what's
23:44
Speaker 2: called a week in bail. And I was like, I
23:47
Speaker 2: have to find a local willing to put up an asset,
23:50
Speaker 2: like I'm a tourist, been here for five days. And
23:53
Speaker 2: he said yep. He said, that's your one shot to
23:55
Speaker 2: be true. Affairs back at home in order, otherwise you
23:58
Speaker 2: guys are going to jail then on to prison.
24:02
Speaker 1: Throughout the interrogation, Ryan and Valerie had been texting with
24:04
Speaker 1: their friends back home trying to get help. They'd secured
24:08
Speaker 1: an attorney, but he hadn't arrived yet. When Ryan told
24:11
Speaker 1: his friend Trey about this latest development, Trey asks how
24:14
Speaker 1: valuable the asset had to be.
24:17
Speaker 2: I was like, I have no idea, Like they haven't
24:18
Speaker 2: told me anything. So I peek my head back out
24:22
Speaker 2: the interrogation room door and I'm like, hey, what's my bail?
24:25
Speaker 2: And guy like kind of clicks his tongue. Let's call
24:28
Speaker 2: it ten grand and clearly making this up.
24:30
Speaker 1: As he goes. Ryan had no idea how he'd find
24:33
Speaker 1: a local willing to risk an asset worth ten thousand
24:37
Speaker 1: American dollars. The only one he knew was a man
24:40
Speaker 1: named Ruben. The driver who'd been taxing them around during
24:43
Speaker 1: their five day vacation. Trey figured that was their best shot,
24:47
Speaker 1: so he sent Reuben a text explaining the situation.
24:50
Speaker 2: Ruben is just the sweetest man of all times. He
24:55
Speaker 2: sees this request from Trey coming in and drops his
24:59
Speaker 2: customers off at their location, spends his car around and
25:03
Speaker 2: drives directly to the police station and puts up the
25:06
Speaker 2: title to his car. Talk about just good heart man.
25:11
Speaker 2: That's the definition of doing it. I mean, he's we
25:17
Speaker 2: were passengers in his car at best right.
25:20
Speaker 1: Ryan and Valerie signed the bail paperwork and were forced
25:22
Speaker 1: to give up their passports. They were told they had
25:25
Speaker 1: to appear back at the police station on Monday, but
25:27
Speaker 1: thanks to Ruben, they had two days to find a hotel,
25:30
Speaker 1: get some sleep, and figure out what in the world
25:34
Speaker 1: was going on.
25:35
Speaker 2: I had to book a hotel in front of him.
25:38
Speaker 2: They had to know my room number, they had to
25:40
Speaker 2: know everything right then, right then and there. So I
25:44
Speaker 2: write that all down for him. Ruben takes us to
25:46
Speaker 2: the hotel, drops us off. We get in and I mean,
25:51
Speaker 2: you feel like a fugitive on the run. You know,
25:52
Speaker 2: we're checking blinds, we're checking we're double checking all the locks,
25:59
Speaker 2: and yeah, that's when we start phoning everybody we can
26:03
Speaker 2: back home, and it's just desperation, please for help, can
26:07
Speaker 2: you please please help us. We're in a situation.
26:11
Speaker 3: And that weekend was a weekend full of anxiety. I mean,
26:16
Speaker 3: we were both just sick at our stomachs, on edge alert.
26:20
Speaker 3: I mean, every time we'd hear helicopters, we felt like criminals,
26:23
Speaker 3: you know, we felt like people were watching us. We
26:25
Speaker 3: felt like people knew who we were, and not in
26:28
Speaker 3: a good way. You know. We felt like the locals
26:31
Speaker 3: were looking at us and may had been maybe tipped
26:34
Speaker 3: off or told, and we felt like we were being watched.
26:37
Speaker 3: We just, I mean, we didn't want to go anywhere.
26:39
Speaker 3: We couldn't eat.
26:42
Speaker 5: It was.
26:42
Speaker 3: It was a horrible, horrible feeling, not knowing our fate,
26:46
Speaker 3: not knowing if we would see our kids.
26:50
Speaker 1: As the Watsons ran through their address book looking for
26:53
Speaker 1: anyone who might be able to help, they soon discovered
26:55
Speaker 1: that they weren't as alone as they thought. Another American
26:59
Speaker 1: hunter had been attained for the same reason at the
27:01
Speaker 1: Turks and Caicos airport, but he didn't have good news.
27:06
Speaker 1: He'd already been on the island for two months, and
27:08
Speaker 1: he had no idea when or if he'd be allowed
27:12
Speaker 1: to leave. The hard truth was that there were larger
27:15
Speaker 1: forces at work on those small Caribbean islands, and it
27:18
Speaker 1: was anyone's guess whether those forces would release them or
27:22
Speaker 1: turn their lives upside down forever. That's next after the
27:28
Speaker 1: break part three.
27:41
Speaker 2: Brian, Yeah, I'll never forget it.
27:43
Speaker 6: It was February thirteenth, about one forty five in the afternoon. Yeah,
27:49
Speaker 6: that day came and it was essentially what I would
27:51
Speaker 6: call my doomsday.
27:53
Speaker 1: That's Brian Hagrich. Brian was thirty nine years old in
27:56
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four and he lived with his wife and
27:59
Speaker 1: two kids in western Pennsylvania.
28:01
Speaker 6: That was our fourth trip to Turks and Caicos. Beautiful island,
28:04
Speaker 6: beautiful water, great resort, you know, just the weather that
28:09
Speaker 6: time of year, just absolutely gorgeous, just the place that
28:13
Speaker 6: we felt pretty comfortable at.
28:15
Speaker 1: They'd been there five days and he told me they
28:18
Speaker 1: didn't want to leave, but the kids had to get
28:20
Speaker 1: back to school, so they packed their bags, made it
28:22
Speaker 1: through security at the airport and we're waiting for their
28:25
Speaker 1: departure time.
28:26
Speaker 6: It's probably forty five minutes before our flight departs, we're
28:30
Speaker 6: about ready to start boarding. It's a small, smaller airport,
28:33
Speaker 6: no air conditioning, so it's it's hot. People are crammed in.
28:36
Speaker 6: You don't have a seat to sit in. And I
28:40
Speaker 6: heard my wife's name called over the PA systems Ashley Hagritch,
28:43
Speaker 6: please come to check him, and that's odd, you know whatever.
28:49
Speaker 6: Then they called it again, so funny. You need to
28:51
Speaker 6: go see what they need, you know, it's something with
28:53
Speaker 6: the kids or whatever. So she walks over and they said, man,
28:59
Speaker 6: we want to check your bag and she said, okay,
29:01
Speaker 6: that's fine.
29:02
Speaker 1: The bag in question was a large Duffel they'd use
29:05
Speaker 1: to carry pool accessories. It was too big to carry
29:07
Speaker 1: on the plane, so they checked it prior to going
29:10
Speaker 1: through security.
29:11
Speaker 6: And they're searching through this bag for I don't know.
29:13
Speaker 6: It seemed like forever, but probably in reality it was
29:16
Speaker 6: ten minutes. And then all of a sudden, the security
29:20
Speaker 6: officer pulls out the box of sixty five PRC and
29:24
Speaker 6: I said, oh, yes, those are mine. I'm sorry, like
29:28
Speaker 6: those are there from the last hunting trip.
29:31
Speaker 1: Brian is a lifelong hunter. He lives in Western PA,
29:34
Speaker 1: so he enjoys whitetail hunting, especially during the state's traditional
29:38
Speaker 1: muzzleloader season, but he also travels out west to chase
29:41
Speaker 1: mule deer and elk with his bow. He'd taken that
29:44
Speaker 1: particular box of six five PRC cartridges as a backup.
29:48
Speaker 1: It was totally full in its original packaging and hadn't
29:51
Speaker 1: been opened. Like Ryan, Brian thought, airport security would confiscate
29:55
Speaker 1: the box and he'd be on his way. He had
29:58
Speaker 1: even more reason to believe that because in the US
30:00
Speaker 1: it's perfectly legal to transport package ammunition in a checked bag.
30:05
Speaker 1: But as the guard lifted that ammo from the Duffel,
30:08
Speaker 1: he knew right away he was in a world of trouble.
30:11
Speaker 6: The look on his face when he found that ammo
30:14
Speaker 6: was literally like he just hit the jackpot for fifty
30:17
Speaker 6: million dollars in the lottery, Just priceless. Like he held
30:21
Speaker 6: those up and was like waving them around to anybody
30:24
Speaker 6: that could see them in that area, and I'm thinking
30:27
Speaker 6: at that point, like what on earth that's going on here?
30:30
Speaker 6: And then all these people immediately just swarm in, and
30:34
Speaker 6: at that point I knew, all right, this this may
30:36
Speaker 6: not be as simple as hey just throw those in
30:38
Speaker 6: the trash and before I know it's multiple police and
30:42
Speaker 6: I said, you're going to jail. And I said, well,
30:44
Speaker 6: what do you mean I'm going to jail, Like, just
30:47
Speaker 6: throw them out. I don't have a firearm. There's nothing
30:49
Speaker 6: here that they can really do anything with this ammunition.
30:54
Speaker 6: And so they were very persistent that, you know, like
30:57
Speaker 6: you're going right here and right now. And I said, well,
30:58
Speaker 6: I have a wife and two kids, like I need
31:01
Speaker 6: to at least like talk to them, let them know, hey,
31:03
Speaker 6: like this is what's going on. And I had to
31:05
Speaker 6: literally plead with them for I don't know a few minutes,
31:10
Speaker 6: and finally they brought my wife to kids over. They
31:13
Speaker 6: wouldn't let the kids inside the room, and I told
31:16
Speaker 6: her what's going on. It was probably a thirty and
31:19
Speaker 6: a forty second conversation, and off I went.
31:26
Speaker 1: Brian's wife was, as you can imagine, extremely upset. His
31:30
Speaker 1: two kids were three and five, so all they knew
31:33
Speaker 1: was that they were getting on the plane and for
31:35
Speaker 1: some reason Dad wasn't there. Brian tried to reassure them
31:39
Speaker 1: that he'd be on the next flight, but as you've
31:41
Speaker 1: probably guessed, that didn't happen. He was taken to the
31:45
Speaker 1: same unmarked building as Ryan and Valerie, but for reasons
31:49
Speaker 1: that remain unclear, he wasn't given the option for weekend bail.
31:53
Speaker 1: After he was processed and surrendered his passport, he went
31:56
Speaker 1: straight to jail.
31:58
Speaker 6: I've never seen the inside of the cell, but this
32:01
Speaker 6: was not what I would expect, or not what you
32:03
Speaker 6: see in the movies. You're basically placed into one holding cell.
32:07
Speaker 6: It's nothing separating you, and I think I head up
32:10
Speaker 6: to seven other individuals in there at one time, people
32:14
Speaker 6: on drug charges, murder, you name it. You're right there.
32:18
Speaker 6: You're literally sleeping. I'll float away on a blanket in
32:23
Speaker 6: a dark area that you have no clue what's going on.
32:27
Speaker 1: The next morning, a guard handed a cell phone through
32:29
Speaker 1: the bars and said Brian's wife was on the line.
32:32
Speaker 6: It's just like completely elated, and you know, had probably
32:36
Speaker 6: a minute or two to talk, but she said, Hey,
32:38
Speaker 6: I've called every attorney on this island. This is the
32:41
Speaker 6: guy like you need him, Like he's going to come
32:44
Speaker 6: meet with you later on today.
32:46
Speaker 1: This attorney's name was Oliver Smith, and he plays a
32:49
Speaker 1: big role not only in Brian's story, but in Ryan's
32:52
Speaker 1: as well. He arrived later that day around four in
32:55
Speaker 1: the afternoon and delivered some troubling news.
33:00
Speaker 6: Yeah you're here, and he's a very I made a
33:04
Speaker 6: very few words, matter of fact, you know, you're gonna
33:09
Speaker 6: be here for a while, but we'll work through this.
33:13
Speaker 6: And that's not very encouraging when you've been well. At
33:17
Speaker 6: that point, it really was only a day, and I said, well,
33:20
Speaker 6: how long do you think I'll be here? It's like months,
33:23
Speaker 6: And when he said months, my heart just sank to
33:27
Speaker 6: the lowest of low places. You know, what I thought was,
33:31
Speaker 6: you know, maybe a day, a week, a month, and
33:34
Speaker 6: he says months. I know, it was very real.
33:38
Speaker 1: At that point, Brian was discouraged by Oliver's assessment, but
33:41
Speaker 1: he was still hopeful he wouldn't have to spend those
33:44
Speaker 1: months in jail. He did eventually get bail, but thanks
33:47
Speaker 1: to some ill timed holidays, he spent more time behind
33:50
Speaker 1: bars than he ever would have hoped.
33:53
Speaker 6: I was stuck in that jail cell for for eight nights.
33:56
Speaker 6: I mean, you have no concept of time. I mean
33:58
Speaker 6: the only concept of time I truly had was literally
34:03
Speaker 6: when the janitor would come in the morning, and I
34:05
Speaker 6: mean I slept. I don't even know if it was
34:08
Speaker 6: thirty minutes every night. I mean it was very very little,
34:11
Speaker 6: like sleep with one eye open, just people coming in,
34:15
Speaker 6: you know, people they're picking up off the streets. You
34:17
Speaker 6: don't know who this guy is, what he's going to do.
34:21
Speaker 6: I mean, I was terrified.
34:22
Speaker 1: None of the other inmates harassed or threatened him, and
34:25
Speaker 1: Brian even befriended one of the guards who helped him
34:28
Speaker 1: understand more about his situation.
34:30
Speaker 6: But the conditions were just horrific. The bathroom like you
34:34
Speaker 6: would go into an adjacent cell and they said, just
34:38
Speaker 6: pee in this floor drain and they'd dump some bleach
34:41
Speaker 6: on it or fabulous. So every day there was I
34:44
Speaker 6: caught like an old gymnastics mat that had probably been
34:48
Speaker 6: used for the last twenty years. Blankets that were never washed,
34:51
Speaker 6: had holes all through them, no pillows, bugs, roaches everywhere,
35:00
Speaker 6: just completely disgusting.
35:03
Speaker 1: Brian spent those eight days in night sitting by himself,
35:06
Speaker 1: wondering how in the world he ended up in a
35:08
Speaker 1: jail cell fourteen hundred miles from home. He was finally
35:12
Speaker 1: able to wire the money to pay his bail and
35:14
Speaker 1: get out, but the news that awaited him on the
35:17
Speaker 1: outside was worse than he could have ever imagined.
35:21
Speaker 6: And I quickly learned that you know, posess ammunition there
35:24
Speaker 6: that everybody's just said twelve years, twelve years, and that
35:27
Speaker 6: just got ingrained a your head over and over again and.
35:33
Speaker 2: Scarcely to death.
35:35
Speaker 1: The prison sentence Sergeant Charles mentioned to Ryan, the one
35:38
Speaker 1: he thought was just a bluff, was all too real.
35:42
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty two, the Turks and Caicos House of
35:45
Speaker 1: Assembly increased the mandatory minimum prison sentence to twelve years
35:49
Speaker 1: for possession of firearms and ammunition. They did so, they
35:53
Speaker 1: claimed to address a spike and gun related crime. Anyone
35:56
Speaker 1: found guilty of illegally possessing these prohibited items was in jeopardy,
36:01
Speaker 1: whether they were a hardened criminal or an American tourist.
36:05
Speaker 1: The law did allow judges to waive the mandatory minimum
36:08
Speaker 1: for what it described as exceptional circumstances. Brian's circumstances seemed
36:13
Speaker 1: to fit that description. He wasn't a criminal, and his
36:16
Speaker 1: cartridges posed no threat to the residence of Turks and Caicos.
36:20
Speaker 1: In fact, as he would later learn, officials weren't even
36:23
Speaker 1: able to find a gun on the island capable of
36:26
Speaker 1: test firing his six' five millimeters hunting. Rounds it was
36:30
Speaker 1: also true That americans had been caught with ammunition, before
36:34
Speaker 1: and many of these individuals had been given fines and
36:36
Speaker 1: allowed to return. Home this should have been, encouraging but
36:40
Speaker 1: according To, brian these more lenient sentences put him in
36:44
Speaker 1: a terrible.
36:45
Speaker 6: POSITION a lot of the locals felt that they were
36:48
Speaker 6: unfairly treated Because americans were what they called slap on the,
36:53
Speaker 6: risk given a, fine and they return home where these
36:56
Speaker 6: guys were going to jail for possessing a couple rounds of.
36:59
Speaker 6: Ammunition so there was a very large outcry among their
37:02
Speaker 6: local population that, hey you, Know americans should be in
37:05
Speaker 6: our jails for twelve years.
37:07
Speaker 1: Too around the same Time brian was, arrested A turks
37:10
Speaker 1: And caicos court of appeals was considering this. Issue brian's
37:14
Speaker 1: lawyer said they'd have to wait for that decision to
37:16
Speaker 1: come out before making their next, Move so the hunter
37:19
Speaker 1: spent his first three lonely weeks on the island dreading
37:23
Speaker 1: what that court would.
37:24
Speaker 2: Decide the ruling.
37:26
Speaker 6: Came, out which that essentially, said, hey, like you can't
37:30
Speaker 6: just get a, fine like they have to all be handled.
37:34
Speaker 6: Alike AND i never forget that day, either when that
37:37
Speaker 6: came out my heart is, saying because it's just it
37:42
Speaker 6: flat out said that there's jail.
37:44
Speaker 1: Time When ryan And valerie were arrested about a month,
37:47
Speaker 1: later THE Us embassy in The bahamas told them the same.
37:51
Speaker 2: Thing one of the embassy counsulors calls me. Back it, says,
37:56
Speaker 2: HEY i heard that you got caught in this. Situation
37:58
Speaker 2: we just learned of this about thirty minutes. Ago sorry
38:02
Speaker 2: for what you're going, through But i've got some bad
38:05
Speaker 2: news to tell.
38:05
Speaker 7: You.
38:06
Speaker 2: Ryan it is the law just recently changed in the
38:11
Speaker 2: last couple, months and they have truly implemented a twelve
38:16
Speaker 2: year minimum mandatory prison sentence for. This evense he, said,
38:21
Speaker 2: buddy you're going to prison for twelve.
38:22
Speaker 3: YEARS i felt LIKE i had just been punched in
38:25
Speaker 3: the Gut whenever they said, THAT i was, like there's
38:29
Speaker 3: no way our kids are going to grow up for
38:32
Speaker 3: twelve years without a mom and a dad because of
38:35
Speaker 3: four bullets that were lodged in the lining of a.
38:38
Speaker 6: BAG i forget my wife's comment on live air WITH
38:42
Speaker 6: abc that you, know my husband's a great. Person he
38:45
Speaker 6: made an honest. Mistake are we going to let an
38:48
Speaker 6: honest mistake that has not harmed anyone determined the next.
38:53
Speaker 2: Twelve years of his.
38:53
Speaker 6: Life my daughter at that point was ready to graduate.
38:57
Speaker 6: Kindergarten so when you here twelve, Years i'll watch your
39:01
Speaker 6: graduate high. School like that puts everything into perspective for a.
39:06
Speaker 1: Parent after the, break Another american gets trapped In turks
39:13
Speaker 1: And caicos and ends up in, Prison part Four. Marooned
39:23
Speaker 1: brian was arrested On february, thirteenth twenty twenty, four While
39:27
Speaker 1: ryan And valerie were taken in two months later On april.
39:30
Speaker 1: TWELFTH a week after, that their numbers grew.
39:35
Speaker 8: And mentally it was not. Easy one dad told me
39:38
Speaker 8: to get bail and we started going through that whole.
39:40
Speaker 8: Process that's when it started to get even harder because
39:44
Speaker 8: he had this hope of getting out of this miserable.
39:46
Speaker 8: Place AND i, THINK i don't know day like ten
39:51
Speaker 8: THAT i was in, THERE i was kind of a,
39:54
Speaker 8: wreck just ready to, leave like when is this going to?
39:57
Speaker 1: Happen That's Tyler wenrek speaking about his time inside the
40:01
Speaker 1: same prison the Other americans were afraid of being locked
40:05
Speaker 1: inside for the next twelve. Years How tyler ended up
40:08
Speaker 1: in that, hot, dirty mosquito infested concrete box will sound
40:13
Speaker 1: familiar but also bizarrely.
40:15
Speaker 8: Different one of our best friends wanted to do a
40:18
Speaker 8: bachelor party for his for his, wedding so and he
40:22
Speaker 8: wanted to do a cruise for.
40:23
Speaker 1: That so we're just stoked.
40:25
Speaker 8: About being able to go to this place that just
40:27
Speaker 8: looked super beautiful and it was supposed to be a
40:29
Speaker 8: lot of.
40:30
Speaker 1: Fun The Royal caribbean crews took them to several of
40:33
Speaker 1: the forty islands that make up the archipelago Of turks And.
40:36
Speaker 1: Caicos On, Saturday april, twentieth the ship was scheduled to
40:39
Speaker 1: make a stop at one of those, islands known As Grand.
40:42
Speaker 1: Turk Grand turk is the nation's, capital but despite its,
40:46
Speaker 1: name it's not the largest. Island that title goes To
40:49
Speaker 1: Providence yalis Or. Provo provo is home to all the touristy,
40:54
Speaker 1: resorts as well as the airport Where ryan And brian were.
40:58
Speaker 1: Arrested tyler and his friends disembarked the cruise ship to
41:01
Speaker 1: Explore Grand turk and hang out on the. Beach there
41:05
Speaker 1: was no security to get onto the, island but they
41:07
Speaker 1: had to put their bags through a scanner to get
41:10
Speaker 1: back on the, ship.
41:11
Speaker 8: And SO i put my backpack, through and one of
41:15
Speaker 8: the security guards flags me and stops, me and he
41:19
Speaker 8: asked if it's my, bag AND i told him it,
41:21
Speaker 8: was and he pulls he kind of digs through one
41:24
Speaker 8: of the really small half moon pockets on the top
41:28
Speaker 8: and he pulls out a nine millimeter, bullet and so
41:32
Speaker 8: at that POINT i kind of just kind of, froze
41:35
Speaker 8: and he puts it through the scanner again and digs
41:39
Speaker 8: through pulls out another.
41:40
Speaker 1: One it's important to note here that the security checkpoint
41:44
Speaker 1: was on the, ship not the, island and the guard
41:47
Speaker 1: was not a government. Official he worked for The Royal
41:50
Speaker 1: Caribbean Cruise. Line so he Told tyler that they'd have
41:52
Speaker 1: to search his room on the ship to make sure
41:54
Speaker 1: he didn't have any other prohibited, items.
41:57
Speaker 8: And they just kept saying the whole time that this is,
42:00
Speaker 8: routine we're trying to make sure everybody, safe and so
42:02
Speaker 8: we didn't really think it was super. Serious we still
42:06
Speaker 8: kind of felt, worried but it was just because we
42:10
Speaker 8: weren't sure what to.
42:11
Speaker 1: Expect security officials didn't find any other weapons or, ammunition
42:16
Speaker 1: but the guard said he was required to notify local.
42:18
Speaker 1: Police it's unclear whether this was actually. True The Royal
42:22
Speaker 1: Caribbean health And safety policy states that cruz personnel may
42:26
Speaker 1: contact local authorities if a guest conduct threatens the health
42:30
Speaker 1: and safety of other, passengers but it also says the
42:33
Speaker 1: items can simply be, confiscated which in the case of
42:36
Speaker 1: two nine millimeter, bullets seems like a more appropriate, response
42:40
Speaker 1: But tyler didn't have time to comb Through Royal caribbean.
42:43
Speaker 1: Policies when he got back down to the, pier he
42:46
Speaker 1: saw Four turks And caicos, officers two uniformed and two
42:49
Speaker 1: in plane. Clothes they asked him a few, questions Which
42:52
Speaker 1: tyler answered as best he, Could but as he glanced
42:55
Speaker 1: behind him towards the, ship he saw something that made
42:59
Speaker 1: his stomach.
43:00
Speaker 8: Drop there's two, rampsers one on the front and one
43:02
Speaker 8: in the, back AND i see the back ramp kind
43:04
Speaker 8: of go, up and so at that, Point i'm getting real,
43:07
Speaker 8: concerned and SO i asked the officer in front of
43:10
Speaker 8: me IF i was being, arrested and he didn't really
43:14
Speaker 8: say anything at, first and THEN i started to talk
43:17
Speaker 8: a little bit and told him about having a concealed
43:20
Speaker 8: carry permit back, home and one of the detectives in
43:22
Speaker 8: the back kind of perked up and kind of motioned
43:26
Speaker 8: to them that, that, like, yeah, okay let's take him.
43:29
Speaker 1: In rather than reassure the officers Of tyler's good character
43:33
Speaker 1: and proficiency with, firearms his concealed carry permit was instead
43:37
Speaker 1: further evidence of his. Guilt someone with a carry permit
43:40
Speaker 1: is more likely to own nine millimeter, bullets even though
43:43
Speaker 1: at that Point tyler wasn't sure how those cartridges ended
43:46
Speaker 1: up in his. Backpack but at.
43:48
Speaker 8: That, POINT i think the last ramp had gone up
43:51
Speaker 8: and the boat was starting to leave. Already so at that,
43:54
Speaker 8: Point i'm kind of freaking out in my head And
43:57
Speaker 8: i'm trying to figure out how to tell somebody because
43:59
Speaker 8: nobody knows what's going.
44:00
Speaker 1: On to add insult to, injury some of the other
44:04
Speaker 1: cruise passengers had caught wind of what was happening down
44:07
Speaker 1: on the.
44:07
Speaker 8: Pier all the crews people are on the deck of
44:12
Speaker 8: the cruise ship lined up kind of taunting and just
44:15
Speaker 8: they don't know what's going, on so they think it's you,
44:17
Speaker 8: know drug related or, whatever, like, oh this guy got in.
44:19
Speaker 1: Trouble tyler called one of his friends on the, ship
44:22
Speaker 1: but he didn't make it down before the boat sailed.
44:25
Speaker 8: Away he was trying to rush down to help, me
44:29
Speaker 8: but at that point the boat had already started to,
44:31
Speaker 8: leave and that's the last TIME i talked to him
44:33
Speaker 8: during the whole.
44:34
Speaker 1: Trip like the Other, Americans tyler had never been in
44:38
Speaker 1: trouble a day in his. Life he worked as a
44:40
Speaker 1: paramedic and had earned his commercial pilot's, license both of
44:43
Speaker 1: which require a pretty clean, record and now here he
44:47
Speaker 1: was alone in a foreign, country watching his ship sail
44:51
Speaker 1: away while he was hauled off to. Jail it, was
44:54
Speaker 1: in a very real, sense like being marooned on a deserted.
44:58
Speaker 1: Island the only silver line was, that Unlike Tom hanks And,
45:02
Speaker 1: Castaway tyler could still call for.
45:04
Speaker 5: HELP i got a text From tyler and it just simply, Said,
45:10
Speaker 5: Dad i've been arrested In Grand. Turk so that was you,
45:14
Speaker 5: know you sit back and you kind of, Wonder, okay
45:16
Speaker 5: is it our? Joke not a good, one but what's going?
45:20
Speaker 5: On so it was very nerve wracking right off the
45:25
Speaker 5: bat to try to figure out what's. Happening, tyler, luckily
45:31
Speaker 5: after he was brought off the, ship spoke with one
45:35
Speaker 5: of the officers who allowed him to use his phone
45:38
Speaker 5: to call, me and that was when we found out
45:43
Speaker 5: what was really going.
45:44
Speaker 1: On That's tyler's, Dad Michael. Wenrick tyler explained what was,
45:48
Speaker 1: happening and after learning more about the seriousness of his son's,
45:52
Speaker 1: Situation michael decided to fly. Down it wasn't an easy.
45:56
Speaker 1: Decision michael's, Wife tyler's, mother was experiencing health, problems And
46:01
Speaker 1: michael was afraid of leaving her at home by herself
46:04
Speaker 1: for who knows how. Long but The wenrix are a tight,
46:07
Speaker 1: family And Missus wenrix said her son would need somebody
46:10
Speaker 1: on the island to fight for. Him tyler also had
46:13
Speaker 1: a young wife and child who needed their husband and
46:16
Speaker 1: father to come. Home michael secured a lawyer On Grand
46:20
Speaker 1: turk and flew down On. Tuesday in the, Meantime tyler
46:23
Speaker 1: spent a difficult four days locked in a jail cell
46:26
Speaker 1: in the same kind of conditions you Heard brian. Describe
46:29
Speaker 1: When michael walked into the police station and saw his,
46:32
Speaker 1: son he, said both he And tyler broke.
46:34
Speaker 5: Down that was an emotional, time a tough, time senior,
46:40
Speaker 5: son you, know, imprisoned very, difficult very. Difficult if you Knew,
46:48
Speaker 5: tyler not just because he's my, son but he is
46:52
Speaker 5: the most, upright, honest by the books kind of guy
46:57
Speaker 5: you will ever meet him in that situation was super.
47:02
Speaker 1: Hard, unfortunately as their lawyer explained to them later that,
47:05
Speaker 1: day things weren't about to get any.
47:08
Speaker 8: Easier but she basically told, me there's Another american that's
47:12
Speaker 8: in trouble like, this and she's, like they just changed
47:15
Speaker 8: the law to where the judges don't have discretion. Anymore
47:18
Speaker 8: they have to at least give you a fine and
47:22
Speaker 8: time instead of just a fine or just. Time so
47:26
Speaker 8: she basically was, like you're going to go to. Prison
47:29
Speaker 8: it's just a matter of how much time you're going to.
47:31
Speaker 1: Go in none of these cases did The americans consider
47:35
Speaker 1: pleading not. Guilty they were unlikely to have, won first of,
47:38
Speaker 1: all considering the evidence against, them but they'd also be
47:41
Speaker 1: stuck on the island for years awaiting. Trial, instead As
47:45
Speaker 1: tyler's lawyer advised, him the best strategy was to plead
47:48
Speaker 1: guilty and hope for his lenient of a sentence as.
47:51
Speaker 1: Possible given the certainty of prison, Time tyler made another tough.
47:56
Speaker 1: Call if he went to prison right away instead of making,
47:59
Speaker 1: bail he'd get credit for time served when he was eventually.
48:02
Speaker 1: Sentenced his lawyer agreed that that would be a way
48:05
Speaker 1: to expedite his time on the.
48:06
Speaker 8: Island told, HER i don't know IF i can get
48:10
Speaker 8: out and then go back, in you, know that whole
48:13
Speaker 8: mental like back and. Forth SO i told, HER, I
48:17
Speaker 8: i'm just going to stay until we figure out what
48:21
Speaker 8: this is actually going to.
48:22
Speaker 1: MEAN i should clarify here, that like in THE, us
48:25
Speaker 1: The turks And caicos legal system distinguishes between jail and.
48:29
Speaker 1: Prison the jails are housed in local police stations and
48:33
Speaker 1: they serve as temporary holding sales until a suspect makes.
48:36
Speaker 1: Bail the, prison generally, speaking is for inmates who have
48:40
Speaker 1: been convicted and then sentenced to an extended stay behind.
48:43
Speaker 1: Bars turks And caicos has one prison located On Grand,
48:47
Speaker 1: turk and it's not a place you want to end.
48:50
Speaker 1: Up in, fact just a year Before tyler was, arrested
48:53
Speaker 1: The turks And Cakos Human Rights commission said that the
48:56
Speaker 1: prison should be. Condemned they said in a report that
49:00
Speaker 1: it's quote not fit for human. Habitation it's wide open
49:04
Speaker 1: to the. Elements rain gets in the cells and soaks the,
49:07
Speaker 1: mattresses and inmates are eaten by. Mosquitoes and. Sandflies the
49:11
Speaker 1: sanitation conditions are, atrocious with many of the cells not
49:14
Speaker 1: having working. Toilets they also noted high rates of, violence
49:18
Speaker 1: and specifically mentioned one inmate who'd been hospitalized after being.
49:22
Speaker 1: Stabbed they concluded that the prison breached many of THE
49:25
Speaker 1: un minimum standards for the treatment of, prisoners as well
49:29
Speaker 1: as the majority of the CORE Un human rights conventions
49:33
Speaker 1: unless something. Changed this is Where, Brian, Ryan, valerie And
49:37
Speaker 1: tyler were, headed and if their attorneys were, right they'd
49:41
Speaker 1: be there for over a. Decade tyler decided he might
49:44
Speaker 1: as well get a head start on his, sentence but
49:47
Speaker 1: once he got, there he realized he'd made a. Mistake
49:50
Speaker 1: whether he'd be able to get out was a question,
49:52
Speaker 1: that like everything else on the, island he didn't know
49:56
Speaker 1: how to. Answer part Five. Escape While tyler was making
50:05
Speaker 1: his way to The Grand Turk, prison The watsons were
50:07
Speaker 1: formulating a plan to Get valerie back home to their.
50:10
Speaker 1: Children she'd been charged, because While ryan admitted the rifle
50:14
Speaker 1: cartridges were, his they'd been found in the Bag valerie was.
50:17
Speaker 1: Carrying this seemed obviously unfair to, them but given the
50:21
Speaker 1: couple's experience With turks And, kikos law, enforcement they weren't
50:24
Speaker 1: willing to rely on the common sense of the legal.
50:27
Speaker 1: System the night after their, Arrest ryan, says they didn't
50:31
Speaker 1: sleep a.
50:31
Speaker 2: Wink my wife AND i stay up all, night and
50:36
Speaker 2: at which POINT i tell, HER i, Said, Babe i'm
50:38
Speaker 2: not gonna let you go to. PRISON i, said we've
50:40
Speaker 2: got to get our story. Straight and the story from
50:43
Speaker 2: here on out is THAT i was carrying the bag
50:45
Speaker 2: the whole. Time we craft this, story that we were
50:48
Speaker 2: trying to make room for two bottles of. Wine we
50:51
Speaker 2: moved my wife's stuff into the duffel, bag WHICH i
50:55
Speaker 2: was carrying the entire, time just to make room for
50:58
Speaker 2: the heavier wine. Bottles so we rehearsed the story all night,
51:04
Speaker 2: long and we knew we had to get good at,
51:06
Speaker 2: it AND i interrogated her for hours on. End my wife,
51:11
Speaker 2: says sweet as can. Be she's the most genuine soul
51:14
Speaker 2: on the, planet AND i knew that she couldn't lie,
51:16
Speaker 2: naturally and so we rehearsed it just to all hours
51:24
Speaker 2: of the.
51:24
Speaker 1: Night the next, day they met with their, Attorney Oliver,
51:27
Speaker 1: smith who agreed that the best way to Secure valerie's
51:30
Speaker 1: release was to shift all the blame Onto. Ryan when
51:33
Speaker 1: they were interrogated again.
51:35
Speaker 2: On, Monday he's, like demand to be interrogated. First i'm
51:41
Speaker 2: going to send the officer a message telling him to
51:44
Speaker 2: interrogate you. First he, Said so go, in get your interrogation.
51:48
Speaker 2: Done Then valerie's going to go in and just say
51:50
Speaker 2: not my, bag not my, bullets not my, bag not my.
51:52
Speaker 2: Bullets it was.
51:54
Speaker 3: Like they are going to try and get both of,
51:57
Speaker 3: you and if there's any slip up out, all and
52:00
Speaker 3: they think That valerie has something to do it that
52:02
Speaker 3: they could very easily charge her, Too and one of
52:06
Speaker 3: you needs to go home to your.
52:07
Speaker 1: Kids The watsons didn't know it at the, time but
52:10
Speaker 1: the stakes here were even higher than they. Realized about
52:13
Speaker 1: a month after they were, arrested An american woman Named
52:16
Speaker 1: Sharita greer was taken into custody for having pistol ammunition
52:20
Speaker 1: in her. PURSE A us congressman told me that Because
52:23
Speaker 1: turks And caicos didn't have a facility for, Women sharita
52:27
Speaker 1: was handcuffed to a chair in the police station for three.
52:30
Speaker 1: Days this incident became an important part of this, story
52:34
Speaker 1: And i'll explain why in a future, episode but it's
52:36
Speaker 1: safe to say that being detained In turks And caicos
52:39
Speaker 1: as a woman came with serious health and safety, risks
52:42
Speaker 1: so it was critical to Get valerie off the island
52:45
Speaker 1: as soon as. Possible When monday finally rolled, Around ryan
52:49
Speaker 1: was interviewed first and he stuck to his. Script then
52:52
Speaker 1: it Was valerie's.
52:53
Speaker 2: Turn they Take valerie back in the interrogation. Room oliver
52:58
Speaker 2: shows up just as they start to The valerie's interrogation
53:01
Speaker 2: and he. Goes he disappears into the room with. Him
53:04
Speaker 2: probably twenty minutes, Later valerie comes. Out she's With. Oliver
53:08
Speaker 2: oliver's got a real defeated look on his, face And i'm,
53:12
Speaker 2: like what's going? On and he, said, well they're not
53:15
Speaker 2: sure if they're going to release her. YET i was,
53:17
Speaker 2: like what are you talking. ABOUT i just went in
53:18
Speaker 2: there and, said my, bag my, bullets like they have
53:20
Speaker 2: me on. Video he, said, yeah but they're going to
53:24
Speaker 2: make a pass at trying to get charges to stick
53:26
Speaker 2: on both of.
53:27
Speaker 1: You The watsons had to re up their, bail so
53:32
Speaker 1: they Called, ruben who once again put up his car
53:34
Speaker 1: title as surety so the couple didn't have to go to.
53:37
Speaker 1: Jail ryan And valerie don't know exactly what transpired and
53:41
Speaker 1: government offices over the next. Week they don't know whether
53:44
Speaker 1: prosecutors were truly seeking to Send valerie to prison or
53:47
Speaker 1: we're just trying to make The american, sweat whatever the.
53:50
Speaker 1: Reason the Next, monday they received the first good news
53:53
Speaker 1: since being arrested at the, airport but it came with
53:56
Speaker 1: a different kind of.
53:58
Speaker 3: Heartbreak that Next, monday they dropped charge all charges against.
54:02
Speaker 3: Me they pulled me in, first, actually and it was pretty,
54:07
Speaker 3: quick AND i remember, FEELING i mean, AGAIN i hadn't
54:12
Speaker 3: probably eaten. ANYTHING i THINK i lost fourteen pounds in a,
54:15
Speaker 3: week And i've just been sick like, NonStop AND i,
54:20
Speaker 3: remember you, know THINKING i can't believe That i'm going.
54:25
Speaker 3: Home and then they told, me do not make eye,
54:28
Speaker 3: contact don't say anything To. Ryan you are not, allowed you,
54:31
Speaker 3: know you are not to say, Goodbye you're not to
54:33
Speaker 3: speak to. Him and, so, again being the rule follower
54:37
Speaker 3: THAT i, am and, terrified LIKE i don't want to
54:40
Speaker 3: make things worse on, him BECAUSE i know if they're
54:43
Speaker 3: letting me, go they're going to charge him with. Something
54:45
Speaker 3: and SO i do What i'm, told and you, know
54:48
Speaker 3: Later ryan AND i were able to talk about that,
54:50
Speaker 3: moment and he was, like what bothered me is that
54:54
Speaker 3: you didn't even look at. Me you didn't say. Anything
54:56
Speaker 3: and that just broke my heart BECAUSE I i love
55:00
Speaker 3: him AND i wanted to just hug him and not
55:03
Speaker 3: let him.
55:04
Speaker 1: Go we don't know why police officers added this layer
55:07
Speaker 1: of cruelty atop an already unbearable. Situation they Told ryan
55:11
Speaker 1: the same, thing but he figured since they were already
55:14
Speaker 1: threatening him with twelve years behind, bars he was willing
55:17
Speaker 1: to take the risk and say goodbye to his.
55:19
Speaker 2: Wife and so they, said, hey don't don't speak to,
55:23
Speaker 2: her don't don't look at, her don't do. Nothing we're
55:26
Speaker 2: gonna make it way worse on. You they're shoving me
55:28
Speaker 2: through the. LOBBY i, STOPPED i turned the valory AND
55:30
Speaker 2: i was, LIKE i love you like and next thing you,
55:34
Speaker 2: KNOW i get shoved from behind and they take me,
55:37
Speaker 2: off put me in a take me to a different.
55:39
Speaker 2: Location they put me in a. Cell i'm by, myself tiny,
55:44
Speaker 2: cell steel, door no, electricity there's no, lights there's no.
55:49
Speaker 2: Nothing his dar is pitch black in. There you, know
55:52
Speaker 2: at that point on it's Prisoner. Watson, this it's Prisoner.
55:55
Speaker 2: Watson That i'm Prisoner.
55:57
Speaker 1: Watson it took officials longer Than valerie would have liked
56:02
Speaker 1: to get her, passport but she soon found herself back
56:05
Speaker 1: in the same airport where this nightmare.
56:07
Speaker 3: BEGAN i, mean the amount of, anxiety AND i THOUGHT
56:12
Speaker 3: i was going to just be, sick like right there
56:14
Speaker 3: in the. AIRPORT i, MEAN i did not want to go.
56:17
Speaker 3: THROUGH i was terrified the entire time that they were
56:20
Speaker 3: going to find something or find another thing depend on
56:23
Speaker 3: me to keep me there. Longer and so the moment
56:28
Speaker 3: that we started driving taxing and then the MOMENT i
56:31
Speaker 3: could feel those wheels left, off was the biggest sigh of,
56:36
Speaker 3: relief but also the biggest like feeling of grief That
56:40
Speaker 3: i've ever, felt all at, once because Now i'm officially
56:45
Speaker 3: Leaving ryan, behind But i'm also on my way back
56:48
Speaker 3: to see my.
56:48
Speaker 1: Kids she couldn't wait to see her, kids but she
56:51
Speaker 1: also knew she'd be having some, difficult confusing.
56:54
Speaker 3: Conversations ryan's biggest thing during that entire time was please
56:59
Speaker 3: let the kids to know THAT i am not a bad.
57:01
Speaker 3: GUY i am not a bad. Person this was an innocent,
57:05
Speaker 3: mistake and it's because of my. Hobby you know that
57:09
Speaker 3: we're in this. Situation i'm but his biggest thing was
57:12
Speaker 3: just making sure THAT i conveyed that to the kids
57:14
Speaker 3: that he was a good guy and he's not a bad.
57:17
Speaker 1: Person ryan says getting home to his family is what
57:20
Speaker 1: kept him fighting through the misery that, followed but he
57:23
Speaker 1: also had to face the reality that he might not
57:26
Speaker 1: make it back To oklahoma for a long long. Time
57:30
Speaker 1: when he And brian spoke with Me eater Founder Steve
57:33
Speaker 1: vanella in twenty twenty, four the hunters had one simple.
57:36
Speaker 1: REQUEST i just.
57:37
Speaker 2: Want to get, home like with your, Kids LIKE i.
57:40
Speaker 2: Don't i'd give it all right, NOW i. PROMISE i
57:43
Speaker 2: don't know what's in there. MATTER i checked to whoever
57:45
Speaker 2: for it so that we all three can go.
57:47
Speaker 7: Home i'd like to see you guys come, Home LIKE i,
57:49
Speaker 7: said it just it, really, UH i, MEAN i got
57:52
Speaker 7: empathy for, you but also just an awareness of how
57:55
Speaker 7: something like this could happen to.
57:56
Speaker 1: Anyone we're all gonna be watching.
58:00
Speaker 2: Promise on. AIR i recorded this goes for both of.
58:04
Speaker 1: Us by the, Way, okay if we get locked up
58:07
Speaker 1: for twelve, years you have to take our boys.
58:09
Speaker 7: Hunting one hundred. Percent promise right. Now if it comes
58:14
Speaker 7: down to. That don't, Worry i'll, UH i will personally
58:17
Speaker 7: take them all out.
58:18
Speaker 1: Hunting let's hope it doesn't come to.
58:19
Speaker 2: That, yes, Sir, yeah appreciate the time you.
58:23
Speaker 1: Guys take care you.
58:24
Speaker 2: Too have thanks about the.
58:26
Speaker 1: Luck With valerie safely on her way, stateside the Remaining
58:30
Speaker 1: americans began the fight in, earnest but they quickly realized
58:33
Speaker 1: that The turks And kkos government was deadly. Serious their
58:37
Speaker 1: threats of prison time weren't a, bluff a scare tactic
58:40
Speaker 1: to make tourists check their luggage more, carefully because the
58:44
Speaker 1: terrifying truth was An american Named Michael grimm had already
58:48
Speaker 1: spent serious time behind bars In Grand Turk, prison and
58:52
Speaker 1: for exactly the same offense As, Brian ryan And. Tyler
58:57
Speaker 1: the judge at the time had said that he Sent
58:59
Speaker 1: michael to prison to make an example of, him to
59:02
Speaker 1: send a message to future. Offenders, well now those future
59:06
Speaker 1: offenders were, here and the legal system was dead set
59:09
Speaker 1: on sending another, message not just To american hunters and gun,
59:13
Speaker 1: owners but to the entire. World michael's harrowing account of
59:18
Speaker 1: his time In Grand Turk prison and how the Other
59:20
Speaker 1: americans sought help from The State department is next week
59:25
Speaker 1: on blood. Trails