Dawn | Betrayal Weekly

Summary

Betrayal: Weekly - Episode 23: "Dawn" Summary

Introduction

In Episode 23 of Betrayal: Weekly, host Andrea Gunning delves into the harrowing true story of Dawn Harris, a woman whose life was upended by deceit, infidelity, and financial fraud. This episode unravels Dawn's journey from discovering her husband's hidden life to rebuilding her existence amidst overwhelming betrayal. Through candid interviews and poignant narration, listeners gain insight into the complexities of trust, resilience, and personal transformation.

Dawn's Background and Initial Betrayal

Dawn Harris, a spirited woman from East Texas, begins her story by acknowledging her own role in the initial betrayal. In the early 2000s, married with two young daughters, Dawn describes her first husband as kind but unfulfilling. Seeking companionship, she met Wes, an oil man with a charismatic presence, at a bar. Their connection was immediate and intense.

Dawn [07:13]: "He told me, I have enough money to take care of you, so I want you to stay home."

Their relationship started as an emotional affair, with daily conversations and weekly meetings, despite Wes's false claims of being single with no children. Dawn's skepticism led Wes to eventually confess his existing marriage and daughter, precipitating Dawn's decision to leave her husband and pursue a life with Wes.

The Affair Turns Physical and Wedding Plans

As Dawn and Wes's relationship deepened, their emotional connection transitioned into a physical one, solidifying Dawn's resolve to dissolve her marriage. They became engaged and began planning a public life together, including a lavish Vegas wedding. However, their plans were soon marred by deceit.

During the wedding preparations, Dawn noticed inconsistencies regarding Wes's employment. Her attempts to contact him at his alleged workplace, Chaparral Steel, yielded no results, leading her to suspect that Wes was lying about his job. A pivotal moment occurred when Dawn contacted Wes's ex-wife, revealing that Wes had never separated from his first marriage despite his assurances.

Dawn [08:12]: "I called Chaparral Steel. I got to get hold of him. And I'm like, yeah, I need to speak to Wesley. And they're like, we don't have anyone who works here by that name. And I'm like, what? Are you sure?"

This revelation shattered Dawn's trust, uncovering that Wes was still entangled with his first family. The confrontation that followed confirmed Wes's continued marriage, leading to the dissolution of Dawn's relationship with him.

Legal and Financial Betrayal

Despite the betrayal, Dawn initially sympathized with Wes during his mental health crisis, believing they could reconcile. However, as Wes re-entered her life, he exploited her trust once more by concealing his true employment history. After securing a legitimate job in the oil and gas industry, Wes's career soared, further complicating Dawn's situation.

Wes's meteoric rise masked his fraudulent activities. An SEC investigation revealed that Wes had orchestrated a boiler room scheme, illegally raising $13 million under false pretenses. Dawn discovered that funds were diverted to fund their lavish lifestyle, leaving her unknowingly complicit in his crimes.

Dawn [29:42]: "Have a friend who works for the SEC, and so I called her one day and I said, I just need to vent about the stuff I'm finding out about his company."

As federal investigations intensified, Dawn found herself entangled in legal battles, facing potential asset seizures and financial ruin. Wes's manipulative tactics included filing restraining orders and attempting to control Dawn's legal standing, further exacerbating her plight.

Personal Trauma and Healing

The culmination of Wes's deceit led to a devastating personal and financial collapse for Dawn. Beyond betrayal, Dawn endured drugging and sexual assault, perpetrated by Wes during their tumultuous relationship. These traumas left Dawn feeling isolated, overwhelmed, and contemplating despair.

Dawn [36:17]: "There was times I pulled in my garage and shut the garage door and leaned the seat back because I knew that the government was about to come in and take my home and take all of my things."

Despite the immense challenges, Dawn found strength in her role as a mother and her determination to rebuild her life. She took accountability for her actions during the affair, seeking honesty and healing as pathways to recovery.

Rebuilding and Moving Forward

Over a decade after the end of her relationship with Wes, Dawn has transformed her life. She owns her own spa, fulfilling a long-held dream of becoming an esthetician, and has found love again with a partner who values honesty and treats her with respect.

Dawn [42:45]: "I always wanted to be an esthetician, so now I own my own spa."

Her commitment to honesty and personal growth has been pivotal in her healing process. Dawn emphasizes the importance of transparency and self-acceptance in overcoming past traumas and moving forward.

Dawn [41:25]: "What gets me the most is the betrayal to myself. Like, I don't know that woman, and thank God I don't know her anymore."

Notable Quotes

• Dawn [06:59]: "He told me, I have enough money to take care of you, so I want you to stay home."

• Dawn [08:12]: "I called Chaparral Steel. I got to get hold of him. And I'm like, yeah, I need to speak to Wesley."

• Dawn [29:42]: "Have a friend who works for the SEC, and so I called her one day and I said, I just need to vent about the stuff I'm finding out about his company."

• Dawn [36:17]: "There was times I pulled in my garage and shut the garage door and leaned the seat back because I knew that the government was about to come in and take my home and take all of my things."

• Dawn [41:25]: "What gets me the most is the betrayal to myself. Like, I don't know that woman, and thank God I don't know her anymore."

Conclusion and Reflections

Dawn Harris's story is a profound exploration of trust, manipulation, and resilience. Her experiences underscore the complexities of human relationships and the devastating impact of deceit. Through her journey, Dawn illustrates that healing is possible through honesty, accountability, and unwavering strength. Her transformation from a betrayed wife to a successful business owner and loving partner serves as an inspiring testament to the human spirit's capacity to overcome profound betrayal.

Final Thoughts

Andrea Gunning masterfully weaves Dawn's narrative, highlighting the multifaceted nature of betrayal and its long-term repercussions. This episode not only recounts a personal tragedy but also offers valuable lessons on rebuilding and finding inner strength amidst chaos.

Contact and Support

Listeners are encouraged to share their own betrayal stories or reach out to the Betrayal team via email at betrayalpodmail.com. Support the show by subscribing on Apple Podcasts and leaving a five-star review to help others discover these impactful stories.

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Betrayal: Weekly continues to provide gripping accounts of trust shattered and lives rebuilt, offering listeners both cautionary tales and inspiration for overcoming unimaginable challenges.

Transcript

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[Dawn]

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[Andrea Gunning]

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Through an incredibly detailed 17 minute story about his gout. A story likely more painful than the gout itself.

[Dawn]

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[Dawn]

One day I'm leaving a doctor appointment and I get a phone call from the FBI and they just say, hey, this is so and so with the Dallas FBI. Would you come in and talk to us about your husband? And I said, why? What about my husband?

[Andrea Gunning]

I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Betrayal, A show about the people we trust the most and the deceptions that change everything. As a listener note, this episode contains references to suicide and suicidal ideation. Please take care while listening About a year ago we heard from a fast talking Southern woman named Dawn.

[Dawn]

I'm from East Texas, born and raised.

[Andrea Gunning]

Dawn is a firecracker Speaking youg mind just runs in Dawn's family. She gets it from her mom.

[Dawn]

My mother's just a good little 4 foot 9 Pentecostal woman, but she also doesn't mince words.

[Andrea Gunning]

Dawn's story of betrayal is a little different. She's the first to say that her story starts when she committed a betrayal of her own.

[Dawn]

We did start as a betrayal. There was a lot of people hurt in this and I was not always the innocent person. I did a lot of hurting.

[Andrea Gunning]

In the early 2000s, dawn was married with two young daughters. She described her first husband as a nice guy. Maybe the first guy that had ever really been good to her. But she wasn't in love. One night, dawn decided to go out with her sister.

[Dawn]

I actually left church to meet my sister out on a Wednesday night at a bar. And there this man is. I saw him and there was an instant attraction.

[Andrea Gunning]

His name was Wes. Wes was an oil man, as they say in Texas, and he had a smooth talking Persona to match.

[Dawn]

When he walked into a room, he commanded the room. I'd never seen anything like it. He was just one of those people, and he was paying attention to me. And I was like, whoa. And I had a little shirt that came right to the top of my high waisted jeans, you know, And I moved and my belly showed. And he reached and kind of like touched my belly, and I was pulling my shirt down. And he's like, oh, don't pull your shirt down. That's sexy.

[Andrea Gunning]

That night, he focused intensely on her. Wes laughed hard at her jokes, and the way he looked at her made her feel beautiful.

[Dawn]

We talked all night. He just stood in the corner of the club, like, while people were dancing and drinking, just talking.

[Andrea Gunning]

Dawn told him about her husband and two daughters, but he didn't bat an eye. Honestly, she was surprised that he was single.

[Dawn]

He told me he was not married and that he didn't have any children. And I didn't believe that. I was like, that's bullshit. There's absolutely no way in hell that you're not married, don't have any kids.

[Andrea Gunning]

Against her better judgment, she. She gave him her phone number, and then they went their separate ways.

[Dawn]

From then, we just talked every day, and we would meet out once a week.

[Andrea Gunning]

That went on for about eight months. In the beginning, it was an emotional affair. There was nothing physical going on. And he stuck to his story about being single with no kids.

[Dawn]

I just kept telling him, like, I don't believe you. Like, you might as well just tell me, like, I'm married. I have a ring on.

[Andrea Gunning]

After a few months, Wes finally came clean. He did have a wife and a daughter, too.

[Dawn]

I was like, I knew it. Like, I knew it. Like, I don't know why you were lying to me. Thank you for being honest.

[Andrea Gunning]

He confessed that he'd had a few affairs before, but this time with Don, it was different. They'd been talking every day for months, seeing each other once a week. And even though nothing physical had happened between them, Wes was in deep. This is what he told her.

[Dawn]

I fell in love with you, and I just didn't know what to do with this situation. I didn't want to lose you, but I didn't want to disappoint my family.

[Andrea Gunning]

Wes was a preacher's son. No one in his family had ever been divorced, and Don understood that pressure. But after eight months, their emotional affair turned physical, and there was no going back after that.

[Dawn]

I knew what I was doing was wrong. I knew then that I had to start working towards dissolving my marriage.

[Andrea Gunning]

She was the first to take the leap to leave her marriage. She wanted to start over with Wes at her side. Not long after, Wes said he and his wife were also separating in order for him to be with Don. And a few months after that, we got engaged. They made their relationship public, spent time with each other's kids, and started building a new life together. Don started bringing Wes around her family and spending time with his young daughter. His larger family wasn't ready to accept Wes's recent separation. Regardless, he and dawn began envisioning a life together. Dawn had stayed home with her kids in the past and loved it. Wes said he could give that life to her again. He could afford it.

[Dawn]

He told me, I have enough money to take care of you, so I want you to stay home. And he bought me a brand new 2004 Expedition. It was a $45,000 vehicle. So I quit my job.

[Andrea Gunning]

Don agreed to move to a small town outside of Dallas where Wes lived. His whole family was there, too. He wanted to stay close to his daughter. Because he and Don weren't married yet, he decided to live separately. Wes lived with his mom while dawn and her daughters rented a small house in town.

[Dawn]

He moved me to this tiny little town of only a few hundred people with one grocery store There.

[Andrea Gunning]

Wes got a new job in the steel business, and dawn settled into her new life as a stay at home mom. The couple started making plans to get married.

[Dawn]

I wanted a Vegas wedding because it wasn't my first rodeo. I wanted Elvis to give me away. He wanted a minister.

[Andrea Gunning]

But in the middle of wedding planning, Dawn's cell phone got turned off. She assumed that Wes, as busy as he was, had forgotten to pay their bill. It was 2004, so she used her landline to call his office. He had been working at a place called Chaparral Steel.

[Dawn]

So I called Chaparral Steel. I got to get hold of him. And I'm like, yeah, I need to speak to Wesley. And they're like, we don't have anyone who works here by that name. And I'm like, what? Are you sure? And so Wes was his middle name. So I tell him like, sure you don't have a. You know, like, George Wesley Harris Jr. He's like, no. And I said, let me talk to hr. They put me on the phone. Like, they're like, we don't have anyone that works here by that name. And then everything in me just gets this pit, right? I'm like, oh, my God.

[Andrea Gunning]

He lied about where he worked, what was going on. Her gut instinct told her to call his ex wife.

[Dawn]

I looked at the phone, and you know, when you're about to do something, you know your whole life's about to go in a different direct. Like it's going to change the course of your life as you know it. It's kind of that moment. I called her and she's like, who is this? And I said, this is Dawn. This is Wes. Fiance.

[Andrea Gunning]

There was a long pause on the other end of the phone. Something wasn't right. Before she could get an answer about the job, the conversation took a different turn.

[Dawn]

And she said, don't ever haul this house again. And I said, wait, are y'all still married? And she goes, yes, we are, and we have been very much married for the last 10 years. Don't call this house again. She hangs up the phone. And I'm just standing there in shock because we're supposed to be getting married that month, and he's still married, living with her, telling me he's living with his mom. So then she calls me right back and says, well, I know where his heart is because he just left the house, and I'm quite certain he's probably on his way to your house. And she hangs up. Well, about five minutes later, he shows up at my door. She lived, like 10 minutes from me.

[Andrea Gunning]

Dawn had moved her whole life and her kids to this small town. She thought it was for her and Wes to start a new life together. Turns out it was so he could be closer to his wife, who he was still living with. He was never separated.

[Dawn]

He moves me to this tiny town with one grocery store. At any point in time, I could have run into his wife and daughter at the grocery store, and the daughter would have run up to me and been like, Dawn. She's a toddler.

[Andrea Gunning]

Within 10 minutes, both Wes and his wife were at Don's house, and they were fighting.

[Dawn]

I'm like, there's a cop episode up in my house right now.

[Andrea Gunning]

With hindsight, dawn can joke about it now, but in the moment, her relationship with Wes was over.

[Dawn]

He told me he was really living with his mom now. So that came to fruition he kept telling me like, no one's ever been divorced in my family. I didn't know how to end the marriage. I want to be with you, like we can be together. We could fix this. But I was done with him. We separated and then he had a nervous breakdown. Then he went into his first 72 hour hold in a mental institution for a breakdown.

[Andrea Gunning]

She had sympathy for him, especially as he was going through a mental health crisis.

[Dawn]

I just thought, he's just conflicted. He doesn't want to hurt his family. I can love him through that and it's going to be great once we get through this crap. And I just went to bat for him because I had given up so much.

[Andrea Gunning]

A few weeks after everything came to light, she took him back. We, Wes kept saying he was in the process of divorcing his wife.

[Dawn]

And finally it was his wife that called me one day and he was in my living room. And she said, is he with you? And I said, yes. And she said, he told me he hasn't seen you and hasn't been seeing you. I said, well, you know, we're still seeing each other. And she said, you can have him. I'm done.

[Andrea Gunning]

The whole situation was messy, destructive. But Don and Wes could finally be together for real this time. But of course, there was still that issue of his job, or the job he said he had. When she asked about it, Wes confessed that he'd been fired from a string of jobs and he was too ashamed to tell her. She pitied him. He put so much pressure on himself to appear perfect and it was taking a massive toll on him. So Don's strategy was to love him through this tumultuous time, to assure him that they would figure it out together. And pretty soon, he came to her with a new job prospect.

[Dawn]

He said, I have the opportunity to go back in the oil and gas business.

[Andrea Gunning]

He was working in the oil business when they met. She didn't want him to slide back into the toxic culture he'd left behind. But she knew she couldn't control him. Plus, it was a good job offer. So he took the job.

[Dawn]

And it was that job that ended up being his downfall.

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[Andrea Gunning]

Day Obsession.com dawn had forgiven her fiance, Wes, for a number of things. He told her he was separated from his wife, when in reality he was still very much with her. He told dawn he worked as a salesman at a steel company, which she found out was also a lie. Finally, with west coming clean, the couple could enter a new era, a sort of golden era. And it started with a wedding.

[Dawn]

We went to Little Chapel of the west, which is the historical beautiful chapel there in Vegas, and Elvis gave me away. He said, this is your Priscilla, and he kissed me and then he gave me away to Wes. And then we went and did tequila shots in my wedding dress at Caesar's Palace. It was awesome.

[Andrea Gunning]

The new job, Wes Gord, which this time was a real job, proved to be a natural fit for him. He was managing investor money at an oil and gas company and he was great at it.

[Dawn]

He quickly became their top producer, selling million dollars in investments a month and their number one salesman.

[Andrea Gunning]

They moved out of the small town where his ex wife and family lived and settled in a Fort Worth suburb to be near his job.

[Dawn]

But he's like, let's look at houses. And we were looking at houses, and I'm like, well, what's our budget? And he's like, well, no, we can put $100,000 down a house. And I'm like, oh, okay, that's nice. So we looked at this house on the golf course. It was beautiful. And we bought that.

[Andrea Gunning]

The cherry on top. They joined the country club.

[Dawn]

It was like, if you were anyone, you were at Walnut Creek Country Club.

[Andrea Gunning]

They were officially somebodies. And it was around this time when she entered this life of luxury that dawn made a new friend. We'll call her Sandy.

[Dawn]

Her and I became fast friends. And then we got our husbands together and they became very good friends. And they would golf together, we'd all travel together.

[Andrea Gunning]

As their personal life blossomed, so did Wes's career. The oil company was growing a lot, and Wes had made friends with the right people there, people who wanted to take him all the way to the top of the company. In fact, they gave him the opportunity to buy the company. He did, and he took over as CEO.

[Dawn]

All of a sudden, you know, Wes was the president and owner. And then all of a sudden, I'm the wife of a man who owns the company. And I just was like, okay, here we go. This is awesome.

[Andrea Gunning]

The sale of the company happened fast and under kind of weird circumstances, but Wes didn't seem concerned about it. And the money was good.

[Dawn]

I never really had to want for anything. Like if I wanted something, I would just say, hey, do you care if I get this? Or hey, I'm going to go to lunch today with some ladies.

[Andrea Gunning]

And the couple got to spend a lot of time doing something they both loved. Partying.

[Dawn]

We were drinking a lot, partying. You know, my kids were with their dad every other weekend, and we're at the country club five nights a week.

[Andrea Gunning]

It was a whirlwind, Great Gatsby style. But set in the 2006 Texas suburbs, Don and Wes were still in their 30s and they made it big. She knew her husband was a charmer, but there were two sides to that coin. On one side, he was a natural leader and salesman. But on the other side, Wes was still the same old ladies man. Early on, dawn found evidence that Wes might be cheating on her. Instead of confronting him, she decided to take a different approach.

[Dawn]

I decided that if he could do it in front of my face, at least I'd have control over it. So we started going to Swingers Clouds.

[Andrea Gunning]

I had to know a little more about the Dallas swinger scene.

[Dawn]

There are actual bars in Dallas and they have their own little language. So you can know if other people go to these places. You just slip in some little language that only other people know, and then you know who you're talking to.

[Andrea Gunning]

The couple would agree on their boundaries beforehand.

[Dawn]

We can at least just be free. We can dance with each other and make out and do whatever we want to do. We don't have to talk to other people. And I would go and be like, okay, I trust you.

[Andrea Gunning]

Dawn says she was, quote, in the lifestyle for about a year and a half until the party started feeling off to her. It stopped being fun, but Wes pressured her to keep going with him. Those nights would only always end in drunken blackouts, fights.

[Dawn]

I got to where I would wake up in the morning and be like, I can't do this. I'd be on my knees in prayer, you know, because we're like part of a church community too. We had this double life. And so I, I would be like, I can't do this.

[Andrea Gunning]

They stopped going to swingers clubs together, and for a while, everything seemed normal. That was until years later, when Wes began spending more and more time at work. Don was becoming suspicious about his work, travel and the long hours he was putting in. Plus, he became guarded with his phone whenever Don tried to confront him. They got into an argument. After one particularly bad fight, I lied.

[Dawn]

To Wes and told him that I went and got coffee and was just trying to cool off.

[Andrea Gunning]

In reality, she drove to a friend's house to vent about Wes.

[Dawn]

And the coffee place I did not know was not open at that hour. So Wes was like, you're lying to me. And everything just blew up.

[Andrea Gunning]

It was a lie that gave him a reason to leave her, and he took it immediately.

[Dawn]

When he came back home to pack a bag, he said, this is over. I want a divorce. And I remember begging him, like, please don't do this. We can figure this out. Like, don't do this.

[Andrea Gunning]

Dawn couldn't understand why he was so eager to walk out on her. So she turned to her friend Sandy. And Sandy had recently seen Wes.

[Dawn]

And she's like, he took his ring off. I just want you to know he was not wearing his ring.

[Andrea Gunning]

Don was devastated, and Sandy was there to comfort her.

[Dawn]

And I remember my head was in her lap and I'm crying and she's like, dawn, this relationship, it's just too much. It's like a bomb fuse. And it was bound to burn out.

[Andrea Gunning]

Soon after, Wes went on a work trip. Dawn got a weird feeling about it. Call it intuition. So she decided to do a little investigating.

[Dawn]

I found out where he was staying.

[Andrea Gunning]

She called the hotel front desk and she found out that there were two people staying in Wes's room. The other person was Sandy, Dawn's friend. She suddenly understood why Wes had been so quick to walk out of their marriage and why Sandy was feeding her information about Wes's infidelity, even advising her that the relationship was too much.

[Dawn]

She was supposed to be my brand, but she's screwing my husband.

[Andrea Gunning]

When Wes came back from that business trip, his affair with Sandy was outed.

[Dawn]

It was a big scandal. You know, we were all members of the country club. Her and I were on the committee at the country club together. So now that's outed. They're up there holding hands at the country club and everybody's talking, talking, talking.

[Andrea Gunning]

It was humiliating, infuriating. But it was nothing compared to, to what came next.

[Dawn]

He comes and tells me that he filed for divorce and he put a restraining order on me to keep me out of his company.

[Andrea Gunning]

A restraining order? She didn't have anything to do with his company.

[Dawn]

I think I walked in the doors of his company maybe three, four times. Like I could count it on one hand. I didn't have anything to do with it. So telling me to stay out of the company like that pissed me off.

[Andrea Gunning]

So Wes offered to make her a deal to buy her off.

[Dawn]

He said, I will give you enough money that you can buy a house, cash. I'll give you enough money for that. And I said, you were nothing when I met you. You were borrowing money from your mother, living in my rent house. If you think you're going to replace me and my two girls with her and her two boys, and you're going to give me money for a house and you're operating a multiple multi million dollar company, you can go yourself. I go. That's not happening.

[Andrea Gunning]

When she didn't take the first deal he offered, Wes tried another one.

[Dawn]

He tried to start Calming me down. He's like, we can work this out together. We'll use my attorney. He's like, I will sit down with my accountant. I will let you look at all the books. He goes, if you just calm down. He goes, you don't even have to come to the hearing. I'll take care of it. The restraining order will go away.

[Andrea Gunning]

She took that deal and she believed him. She didn't even know what day the divorce hearing was set for until I.

[Dawn]

Was at my second graders field day and one of the country club members, a man, came up to me and said, I need you to know Wes is going around telling everybody that he got everything and that you're going to be out on your ass in a couple of weeks. He's just going to put you out. And he has everything. Like, you didn't show up to a trial. What he did was he walked in there and told the judge, my wife is a raging alcoholic. She's violent and abusive. She did not even care to be here today. And the judge gave him everything. Everything. And I didn't know it.

[Andrea Gunning]

Now she was ready to burn it all down.

[Dawn]

I called him and I say, I'm getting an attorney. I don't trust you anymore.

[Andrea Gunning]

She didn't just hire any attorney. She hired the mayor of their town.

[Dawn]

I remember Wes going, you hired the mayor of Mansfield? I'm like, you're fucking right I did.

[Andrea Gunning]

And that's when Wes let something slip.

[Dawn]

He starts freaking out. And in his panic, he did say to me, dawn, don't get an attorney. Because right now, things are in the gray at work. I'm trying to pull it up out of the gray area. He goes, I could go to prison. I should have stopped on that and double tapped into that statement.

[Narrator]

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[Andrea Gunning]

Dawn discovered her husband Wes had been cheating on her with her close friend. And in the divorce that followed, he filed a restraining order to keep dawn out of his multimillion dollar business. He crossed her one too many times, and now she needed to know the extent of his wrongdoing.

[Dawn]

And then I'm starting to go on the Internet looking at stuff about his company, the things that people are saying about his company. I'm like, I cannot get over this. Like, this is crazy. They're saying it's a scam and there's no return.

[Andrea Gunning]

She saw posts from people who'd invested in Wes's oil company saying they'd been promised returns, but those returns never came. Dawn was also finding records of properties in her husband's name, properties she didn't know anything about. That all led back to West I.

[Dawn]

Have a friend who works for the sec, and so I called her one day and I said, I just need to vent about the stuff I'm finding out about his company. And she said, you're on my government issued phone, so anything you say. And I said, well, if your government oath trumps our friendship, so be it. But I think I need to tell you the stuff I'm finding out. What I didn't know is he was already under investigation. So when she said that to me, that was her little under the Table warning because there was really something going on.

[Andrea Gunning]

Her friend couldn't tell her about the investigation, but someone else was about to.

[Dawn]

I'd gone to a doctor appointment, and I was leaving the doctor's office, and I get a phone call. And it was, is this Dawn Harris? And I said, yes, it is. And they said, this is so and so with the Dallas FBI office. We'd like for you to come in. And I was like, excuse me. And they said, we have some questions for you. And I said, what kind of questions? What's this about? And they said, it's about your husband, Wes Harris. And I said, what about my husband? And they said, well, it's about his company. And I said, what about his company? Like, I don't know what I can tell you about his company. I don't have anything to do with this company.

[Andrea Gunning]

She might not be involved with the company, but she did know Wes was always up to something, and if she could help expose more of his lies, she was in.

[Dawn]

I called my attorney's office. The paralegal there answered the phone, and I told her, the FBI just called me. And she said, you're probably being tapped. Don't talk to anyone. Come straight here.

[Andrea Gunning]

But almost immediately, Wes started calling.

[Dawn]

My phone's blowing up. Where are you? Where are you? So he tells me he's going to come by the house. And later that evening, he came by the house, and he kept doing this really weird thing where he would talk to me and tell me he wanted to get back together. And then he'd drop his eyes and he'd get real close to me, and then he snap out of it and start talking again. And it was making me very nervous. And so we went from the kitchen into the living room, and we both sat down. And that's when he looked at me and goes, why did the FBI call you today? And I went, I don't know. And he said, what do they want? I said, I don't know. They said they wanted to talk about you. And he said, well, you're not going to talk to them? I said, no, I'm going in to talk to them. And he's wanted to send me with one of his attorneys. And I declined that. I said, absolutely not. I said, I'm not going with an attorney. I have nothing to hide. I don't need an attorney. I'm going to go in there and answer their questions. And he was trying to get me not to talk to them.

[Andrea Gunning]

But Don did talk with the feds.

[Dawn]

And she learned he had misappropriated $2 million.

[Andrea Gunning]

That $2 million was just the beginning. In total, Wes's company illegally raised 13 million through what's known as a boiler room scheme. Salespeople like Wes duped hundreds of everyday people to invest their savings in the company's oil drilling projects. But they were doing it using fake data, falsified information about the company's profits, and empty promises about their expected returns. And a lot of those investor funds weren't being used to expand the company's profits.

[Dawn]

He was ballsy. He had a stripper on the payroll. He paid monthly, which, I mean, you don't steal millions of dollars at, like, 35 years old without being super ballsy.

[Andrea Gunning]

And where did all that money go? Well, Wes used it to fund their family's lavish lifestyle.

[Dawn]

I would look at things and be like, that was bought with stolen money. You know, like, that's kind of hard to stomach. And your whole life is bought with stolen money.

[Andrea Gunning]

Money stolen from regular people who'd invested in Wes's oil and gas company, who were told they'd see massive returns.

[Dawn]

Investors were calling me saying, I know your daughter's names, where they go to school. I know where you live. I gave him three quarters of a million dollars, and he ruined my life, and I'm going to ruin his. And then I was so panicked, I'm like, he doesn't even live here. Like, we're separated. So now they know I'm alone.

[Andrea Gunning]

She was scared for her own safety. But more so, she was devastated when she heard from the victims of Wes's fraud.

[Dawn]

I had one woman who was really sweet. She called me and she goes, we're a mom and pop place in New Mexico. She goes, we gave him all of our life savings.

[Andrea Gunning]

Even though dawn wasn't responsible for Wes's crimes, she was still financially entangled with him.

[Dawn]

His LLC that he was laundering money through. He had put me as the president, so I was the president of that until we split up. I had written checks out of that account, but just because he would tell me, like, write a check, and then he took me off of it. Thank God.

[Andrea Gunning]

But of course, everything he'd bought for the couple, from their house to don shoes, could now be seized by the feds.

[Dawn]

I was told that federal marshals were going to show up at my house and I would be able to pack a bag for me and my children.

[Andrea Gunning]

Dawn's life was on pause as she waited for the financial and legal reckoning.

[Dawn]

We could not have our divorce trial until the SEC was done because what was left over was community property. What they left me, basically. So I had to fight for that. He made me fight for that.

[Andrea Gunning]

That's when dawn got another unexpected call from, of all people, a new woman Wes had started dating. She wanted to meet dawn in person.

[Dawn]

She ended up finding me and reaching out to me because she had suspicions about him. She told me he had taken her to this seedy little place, and there was, like, other couples that were, like, rubbing her back. And she goes. And then I'd blacked out, and I don't remember the rest of the night. She said, and Dawn, I don't drink, not that much. She goes, I maybe had two drinks. And she goes, I think you probably drugged me. And I burst into tears. And I said, you just described the last year and a half of my life, because that's what I would do. I wouldn't have that much to drink. But all of a sudden, I'm coming in and out of consciousness, and I'm sitting, seeing all this stuff around me, but you can't move.

[Andrea Gunning]

It wasn't until that moment, when someone else described her same experiences, that dawn realized what was really happening. The last few times she went to the Swingers club with Wes, those nights.

[Dawn]

She'D blacked out, when I was saying that I couldn't do it anymore, that's when he started drugging me.

[Andrea Gunning]

This was more than a betrayal. It was a crime. He drugged and sexually assaulted her. She was still processing this while in the middle of an SEC investigation where the government could be justified in seizing everything she had. It left her feeling overwhelmingly empty and alone.

[Dawn]

There was times I pulled in my garage and shut the garage door and leaned the seat back because I knew that the government was about to come in and take my home and take all of my things, and I was gonna have to tell everyone, and I was gonna have to uproot my daughters and scare the shit out of them, right? And so I just wanted to die. I'm like, if I could just go to sleep right now, I wouldn't have to deal with this. I can remember shutting the garage door and leaning that seat back and sitting there. But I would see my daughter's little faces. They were like 8 and 10. And I would turn the car off, I'd wipe my face. I'd go in the house and get it together.

[Andrea Gunning]

Every day felt excruciatingly long. Dawn says she got through it for her daughters. And Wes, well, he had already moved on, to say the least.

[Dawn]

He had met a girl in Sunday school And he had convinced all of his family that he was innocent. If I was guilty, I'd be in prison by now. I'm going to sue the government and the SEC and all of them for falsely accusing me. I was told his mom had, like, second mortgaged her house. I was told that he had gone through this poor woman's savings or whatever. These are things, of course I was told. But what I do know is that was starting to unravel.

[Andrea Gunning]

He might have been telling his family that he was innocent, but that's not what west told the government. He agreed to a plea deal with the FBI. Now he was awaiting sentencing. Finally, they could move forward with their divorce.

[Dawn]

Our divorce was a trial because he was trying to fight me for everything the government left me with. So I had to get up on stand and testify. And of course, he pleaded the fifth to everything.

[Andrea Gunning]

Dawn was relieved to keep the modest half of what the government left her. But Wes still wasn't done with her. Despite it all, he still kept reaching out to Don. She didn't reply until finally he called me one day.

[Dawn]

He was really confused and sounded just really out of it. I'm like, just go serve your sentence. Go do your time. And in one breath, he said, I'm not going to prison. What do you mean? I'm innocent. And in the next breath, if you'd say, you know what happens to men like me in prison, Dawn. What am I going to do when I come out?

[Andrea Gunning]

He couldn't wrap his mind around the reality that he was going to prison. Considering what he'd done, dawn was losing patience for him. She knew he was reaching out for sympathy, maybe for help processing or maybe because he just didn't have anyone else left.

[Dawn]

And then he texted me one more thing, which is what we used to say to each other, that men, I love you. We would always say one more thing. And he texted me one more thing. And I reached out to his first wife again, and she said, dawn, he keeps doing this. Go to bed. Turn your phone off. The next morning, he killed himself. He was supposed to turn himself in that next day. He had come to an agreement with the FBI, and he was only going to serve, like, I don't know, five to seven years. I mean, this was 2012. He'd have been way out of prison by now. I went to the funeral. His grandmother, who I loved and she loved me, she came up to me, and she asked me about the house and about me selling the house. I said, dino, you don't understand. The government took everything the government took that house. Like, I didn't sell any. Like, I have. I don't have anything. And she kind of looked at me confused.

[Andrea Gunning]

He'd been lying to everyone, including his family. He'd also been stealing from his grandmother.

[Dawn]

He stole the money out of her account to buy the gun to kill himself.

[Andrea Gunning]

It's been over a decade since the end of their relationship and since Wes.

[Dawn]

Passed away, I try to say I don't have any regrets. I got a couple. I got a couple hard lessons, for sure.

[Andrea Gunning]

Dawn endured so much in this relationship. We asked what the hardest part was for her.

[Dawn]

What gets me the most is the betrayal to myself. Like, I don't know that woman, and thank God I don't know her anymore. I look back and how in the world for 10 years of my life, this man was able to lie and manipulate, and I would lie and manipulate, you know, because, again, we started out as an affair. But the biggest thing thing is just how I let myself get so wrapped up in that and the things that my children had to go through. They were 18 months and four when I met him. That's probably the hardest thing.

[Andrea Gunning]

Part of Dawn's healing process is being honest, taking accountability for her actions, being.

[Dawn]

Able to talk to other people, and just being honest has been very healing. Like, I don't hold back the fact we were an affair. I don't hold back the people that I've hurt. You know, there was a lot of people hurt in this, and I was not always the innocent person. I did a lot of hurting.

[Andrea Gunning]

Dawn found happiness in starting a new career.

[Dawn]

I always wanted to be an esthetician, so now I own my own spa. That's what I'm sitting in, my little spa.

[Andrea Gunning]

She also found love again, this time with a man who was honest with her and treats her well. In fact, while we were on our call.

[Dawn]

Hi, honey. My husband's brought me flowers.

[Andrea Gunning]

Aww.

[Dawn]

So sweet. Thank you, babe.

[Andrea Gunning]

We end all of our episodes with the same question. Why did you want to tell your story?

[Dawn]

To reach other people and let them know that, you know, there's a whole network of people out here that have been hurt, but that you can go through these horrible things and it's not over and you can rebuild as many times as it takes. Just be honest with yourself. Like, I like who I am today, and I think it's because I didn't try to hide all of those mistakes.

[Andrea Gunning]

On the next episode of Betrayal.

[Dawn]

I just remember it was a profound moment. Who is this cruel? Who can pull this off? Whose family pulls it off? Whose friends pull it off? What in the world? How do you fabricate the details like that?

[Andrea Gunning]

If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal Team or want to tell us your Betrayal story, email [e-mail] that's betrayalpodmail.com we're grateful for your support. One way to show support is by subscribing to our show on Apple Podcasts. And don't forget to rate and review Betrayal. Five star reviews go a long way. A big thank you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Faison, hosted and produced by me, Andrea Gunning, written and produced by Monique Laborde also produced by Ben Federman. Associate producers are Kristen Melchuri and Kaitlin Golden. Our iHear team is ally Perry and Jessica Krynczyk. Audio editing and mixing by Matt D'Alvecchio additional editing support from Nico Aruka and Tanner Robbins betrayal's theme composed by Oliver Baines music library provided by My Music and for more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

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[Dawn]

Com.