367: Nightmare Parents & Their Horrific Digital Footprint | DaddyOFive

Summary

Serialously with Annie Elise – Episode 367: Nightmare Parents & Their Horrific Digital Footprint | DaddyOFive

Release Date: February 16, 2026
Host: Annie Elise
Summary by Podcast Summarizer

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Episode Overview

In this emotionally charged episode, Annie Elise delves deep into the disturbing case of the DaddyOFive YouTube channel, dissecting how two parents, Mike and Heather Martin, built social media fame through shocking and exploitative content at their children's expense. Annie covers the timeline, psychological impact, social media backlash, and legal fallout—drawing parallels to cases like Ruby Franke and offering nuanced commentary on the perils of influencer culture where family vlogs descend into documented abuse. The episode is honest, thorough, and marked by Annie's trademark mix of shock, outrage, and empathy.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Viral “Invisible Ink Prank” – The Breaking Point

• Timestamp: 02:58–07:38
  Annie begins with an in-depth breakdown of the notorious "Invisible Ink Prank" video, where Mike and Heather frame their nine-year-old son Cody for an ink stain, berating him with profanities and psychological manipulation.

"Any viewer with a heart and conscience, in my opinion, would automatically be a little apprehensive about this. Well, this prank ended up being anything but harmless… what those kids experienced that day… was more like psychological warfare." — Annie Elise [03:36]

• The "prank" devolves into sustained, aggressive yelling, accusations, and emotional distress, all enabled by the parents' need for shocking content.
• The video galvanized viewers and became a tipping point where even loyal fans turned on the family, flooding the internet with commentary and concern.

2. Pattern of Abuse Masquerading as “Pranks”

• Timestamp: 07:38–16:27+
  Annie catalogs other egregious DaddyOFive videos, emphasizing a sustained pattern of humiliation and “pranks” that are anything but funny.

"None of these pranks were funny. I mean, honestly, not a single one of them. In my opinion, each one was always done at the expense of one of their kids. Though I will say little Cody seems to be the one who was picked on the most often." — Annie Elise [15:54]

Notable Examples:

• Cody Framed for Arson: Cody is falsely accused of bringing a lighter to school and lighting toilet paper—another incident used to humiliate him on camera [16:27–18:40].
• Clickbait Titles & Targeting Cody: Videos like "Cody Put Up for Adoption" and "Cody Holds Alex at Gunpoint" are dissected, revealing how Cody became the family scapegoat.

3. Escalation and Physical Pranks

• Timestamp: 23:13–28:17
  The podcast moves into even more disturbing content:
• Slapping "Pranks": The family encourages kids to slap each other as a "game consequence," trivializing violence.
• Real & Staged Violence: Mike pushes Cody into a bookcase on camera; a "prank" where Mike runs down the stairs with a gun during a home invasion scenario—blurring lines between staged content and real emotional trauma.

"To be 100% clear, it wasn't just emotional or psychological stuff that they had to go through. Some of it was physical. Again, all in the name of views." — Annie Elise [22:42]

4. The Martins’ Excuses & Non-Apologies

• Timestamp: 32:31–38:01 Following immense public backlash, the Martins appear on DramaAlert and go on an interview circuit.
• Their defense? The videos are “exaggerated” and “edited,” and the kids were supposedly in on the pranks:

"They're a little exaggerated too, and they are edited to make it look like it's a lot worse than it is… the videos, we're not fake, but some things are a little exaggerated." — Heather Martin [32:31] "We are now in family counseling because we need it… we're focused on making sure our kids don't have to deal with so much backlash from our bad decisions." — Mike Martin [36:05]

• Annie critiques these apologies as formulaic and insincere—only prompted because of lost revenue and legal trouble.

5. The Legal Fallout and Custody Battle

• Timestamp: 41:02–47:47
  Annie details the intervention of Cody and Emma's biological mother, Rose, who wins emergency custody after seeing the abuse unfold:

"It was very painful. I cried. I had an anxiety attack the same day." — Rose [41:34]

• The court sides with Rose, with law enforcement facilitating a swift and secure handover.
• Annie highlights how Mike and Heather respond by posting further content—even as the custody case plays out—demonstrating a lack of remorse or understanding.

6. Criminal Charges and Lax Consequences

• Timestamp: 48:26–53:15
  Mike and Heather are eventually charged with two counts of misdemeanor child neglect, accepting Alford pleas but avoiding prison. They receive probation (with requirements not to film or contact Cody and Emma without court approval), yet quickly violate terms by creating a new channel and reposting videos.

"With those charges, they could have faced up to five years in prison per count… but guess what? They were only given five years of supervised probation." — Annie Elise [48:26]

• Annie questions why the courts were so lenient and critiques the striking injustice of the punishment, especially given repeated violations.

7. Aftermath and Continuing Presence Online

• Timestamp: 54:25–55:16
  Years later, the family is seen together in a 2025 TikTok—including Emma, Cody, and Rose—delivering a bizarre message to viewers to "leave us alone," claiming they've healed and moved on.

"Like Cody said, off. Y’ all have turned our lives upside down for eight years, and it's time we take our power back. We've healed, we've grown, and we're ready to move on." — Heather Martin, TikTok caption reported by Annie Elise [54:25]

• Annie voices skepticism about "healing," noting that the Martins' history can't be washed away by social media proclamations or forced family videos.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Exploitation and Viewer Responsibility:

"We're in the era of social media and the era of family channels that truly do exploit their children for views at whatever cost… it's just constantly on the line, sometimes even daily with these people." — Annie Elise [09:45]

• On Pranking as Emotional Abuse:

"Making a child feel like they're in trouble and they've done something wrong, that isn't a prank. That is cruel." — Annie Elise [18:48]

• On Traumatizing Content for Clicks:

“If they are willing to publicize how bad these things were on camera, I can only imagine what was happening when the camera wasn't rolling, when the record button wasn't on.” — Annie Elise [55:16]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment Description | Timestamp | |--------------------------------------------------------|----------------| | Invisible Ink Prank & Initial Outrage | 02:58–07:38 | | Deep Dive into Family Backstory & Content Evolution | 09:45–16:27 | | Chronic Abuse: Cody-focused “Pranks” | 16:27–18:40 | | Examples of Physically Harmful "Pranks" | 23:13–28:17 | | The Martins’ Media Defense / “Edited” Excuse | 32:31–38:01 | | Apology Video Dissected | 35:17–38:01 | | Legal Fallout, Custody Battle with Rose | 41:02–47:47 | | Charges, Probation, & YouTube Bans | 48:26–53:15 | | 2025 Reunion TikTok & Discussion on Healing | 54:25–55:16 | | Annie’s Final Reflection on Exploitation & Vlogging | 55:16–End |

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Final Thoughts & Takeaways

• Annie underscores the dangers of unchecked influencer/family vlogging culture, drawing broader lessons about child exploitation online.
• The episode calls for ongoing scrutiny and intervention in cases where children are used as content, highlighting glaring gaps in both social and legal responses.
• Annie's closing advice:

  “Be nice, don't kill people. And keep your kids off your vlogs, you weirdos." — Annie Elise [End]

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For Listeners

Whether you followed DaddyOFive’s ugly arc in real time or are first hearing about it, Annie’s breakdown captures all the painful, infuriating details with a blend of careful research, empathy for the children, and biting commentary on parental responsibility in the age of content creation. This case stands as a warning against sacrificing ethics—and children’s well-being—for internet fame.

Transcript

[Podcast Host]

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[Mike Martin]

Of a family who may have taken.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

Their pursuit of social media fame and fortune too far. The parents behind the popular YouTube channel.

[Mike Martin]

Daddy05 say they thought they were playing.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

Innocent pranks on their children. But instead, they're sparking outrage and accusations of abuse.

[Heather Martin]

This is what people want. They want to hurt us.

You did it too.

We're being savagely attacked.

[Mike Martin]

I got a prank for Cody.

[Interviewer]

One person wrote this makes me shudder. Another called it mental abuse.

[Heather Martin]

I am personally concerned for these kids.

It's just a prank, bruh.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

Hey, true crime besties. Welcome back to an all new episode of Serial asleep. Hey everybody. Welcome back to an all new episode of Serial Lessly with me, Annie Elise here to break down another true crime case for you. And look, today's case is kind of a little bit different. It's like true crime vlogger world adjacent influencer Ruby Frankie. I don't know, kind of has a little mix of everything and it was a request from a lot of you guys. So when I started researching it and realizing how awful this was, I knew I wanted to jump on the mic and I wanted to talk with you guys about it. But I do want to give you a little bit of a heads up. Some of the media in today's episode may upset you, but it is important to shine a light on all of this and to give you the full picture. So we are going to just jump right in. The title of this video was Invisible Ink Prank Epic Freak out. So of course the most people Immediately clicked on it.

[Mike Martin]

Hey, guys, so I got a prank for Cody. I bought this here invisible ink, and I'm going to squirt it all over his carpet and start flipping out. Because you remember before, guys, you've seen our videos. You know, he got ink all over our carpet. We actually had to pay someone to come clean it. So we're gonna make him think that he did that, he did it again, and he's gonna pull back because he really didn't do it. So we're gonna see how this goes now already.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

Any viewer with a heart and conscience, in my opinion, would automatically be a little bit apprehensive about this. Well, this prank ended up being anything but harmless. Heather herself had warned that she was going to flip out on nine year old Cody. And that's exactly what she did. And this whole video, in my opinion, is painfully long.

[Cody Martin]

Get your fucking ass up here.

[Heather Martin]

What the fuck? What did you do? What?

[Rose (Biological Mother)]

What the.

[Cody Martin]

I didn't do that.

[Heather Martin]

What the hell is that? What the hell is that?

[Cody Martin]

What is this?

[Heather Martin]

Cody, I didn't do that.

[Mike Martin]

Tell me what you did.

[Cody Martin]

I swear to God, I didn't do that.

[Heather Martin]

I didn't call her carpet.

[Cody Martin]

I didn't do that. I don't have anything to color when you.

[Heather Martin]

Why did you do that?

[Cody Martin]

You ruined the carpet. Get out of here. Mind your business.

[Heather Martin]

I didn't do that.

[Cody Martin]

Mom and Dad. I did.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

Oh my God.

[Mike Martin]

Oh my God.

[Heather Martin]

Do you know how much that.

[Cody Martin]

I did do that. I swear, Cody, I did do it.

[Mike Martin]

You're taking it the fucking lion again, like seriously.

[Cody Martin]

I don't know.

[Heather Martin]

You obviously did. You've done this before. You've done this before.

[Cody Martin]

I don't have anything to do that with. I don't have anything.

[Heather Martin]

Cody, you did this.

[Cody Martin]

I know, but I don't have anything that has ego, whatever that is.

[Heather Martin]

Cody, you did this. I didn't. You did this. You know you did this.

[Cody Martin]

I didn't do this.

[Heather Martin]

You're writing. You're writing a thousand sentences.

[Mike Martin]

So you were fucking up here too.

[Heather Martin]

No, you did it too. You both did it. You both did this.

[Cody Martin]

No, stop.

[Heather Martin]

You both write a thousand sentences. Well, you're not. You are going to lose your allowance and everything.

[Cody Martin]

We didn't do this.

[Heather Martin]

Yes, you did. Yes, you did. Yes you did. Yes you did.

Yes, they did. They did it.

[Cody Martin]

We didn't do this.

[Heather Martin]

Make sure it doesn't stop recording.

You two did this. You care. Well, you.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

And it just keeps going. Both Heather and Mike Martin, the daddy behind daddy of five, continued screaming, yelling Profanities hitting walls. And keep in mind, this video was a little over six minutes long. The yelling started before we even got into minute one, and it didn't let up until almost the very end of the video. So what those kids experienced that day for this, you know, prank was more like psychological warfare. It started with Cody, but it ended in almost every kid just red in the face, crying, pleading for their parents to calm down and listen to them.

[Cody Martin]

Hold that fucking camera. Hold it.

[Mike Martin]

Hold that stupid camera.

[Cody Martin]

God, we want to put ink all over the fucking place. What is that?

[Mike Martin]

Invisible ink. It dries and comes out.

[Heather Martin]

It's already drying up. Hey, hey, hey. Baby can't be sitting down like that.

[Mike Martin]

Look, it's already coming up.

[Cody Martin]

I have to return those UNO guards.

[Heather Martin]

They don't come up. It's invisible, Hank. It goes away.

Look, it go away when it dries. See?

Look, look, look over here.

Going away.

[Mike Martin]

We got you both.

[Heather Martin]

They were.

[Mike Martin]

You were innocent bystander.

[Heather Martin]

Yeah.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

Now, to me, a prank is like, oh, got your nose. Or like, you know, here's a noogie or a wet willy or something like that. And the kid laughs about it. Maybe they're a little irritated, but they laugh. So if you're watching this episode on YouTube and you're seeing all these clips, I want you to think about it. No kid should be sitting on their bed with this blank expression, just disassociating from the events that have just taken place, all in the name of pranking and getting views. I mean, it's despicable. And I'm not alone in my feelings here, because once this video was uploaded, nobody could forget the faces of those kids in the room that day. It was the breaking point for all of the Daddy05 viewers, and it really was the moment that made their once loyal fans take a step back and really consider the content that they were viewing. And like I said, today's case is one that is all too similar to some of the very rough topics that we've talked about before. Think Ruby, Frankie 2.0. It's almost like, how far will some people go for views? And is there ever truly a time where, as a parent, you just stand back and say, look, enough is enough. The money isn't worth it. But sadly, we're in the era of social media and the era of family channels that truly do exploit their children for views at whatever cost. Their mental, physical health, their safety online, their privacy, and so much more. It's just constantly on the line, sometimes even daily with these people and the Family we're talking about today was once a very popular family channel called Daddy05. Daddy05 was a YouTube channel that was started by Mike Martin, the dad of the group. And like a lot of social media accounts that eventually go rogue, it started off as a channel that in theory really shouldn't have been too bad. But as the subscribers rose to nearly 750,000 that so did the need for the best most jaw dropping content. That's what took president over, you know, basic human decency. And the invisible ink prank video instantly went viral among people who had never even heard of the Daddyo5 channel before. Comments were just pouring in about the kids safety and well being. And by the very next day, tons of other YouTube channels were re uploading these videos. They were commenting on all of it on the family dynamics, the channel as a whole. And this of course led to even more people being concerned about Cody and the other kids in the Martin household. And people weren't just saying that this prank was mean or uncalled for. Almost every commentator and viewer was calling it something much more serious, understandably, and calling it outright torment against these children. So who were these people behind this channel and what was really going on behind the scenes here? Mike and Heather Martin were a blended family living in Iamsville, Maryland. Mike had two children from his previous relationship, Emma who was 11 years old during the 2017 controversy, and Kody who was just 9 years old. Heather had three kids from her previous relationship, Jake who was 14, Ryan who was 12 and Alex who was the same age as Cody, 9 years old. And Heather describes her story and meeting Mike as kind of going a little something like this. She got married to the father of her three boys when she was just 18 years old. Pretty young. She had the three kids with him when she was 18, 21 and then 24 years old. Then after 10 years of marriage, she filed for a divorce claiming that she was unhappy and that by staying with him she wasn't able to give her sons the life that she wanted them to have. So she filed for divorce in June of 2011. And then a few months later, she met Mike. Apparently they were just head over heels for each other and like, you know, you know how the saying goes, the rest was history. Then in 2015 they created their YouTube channel. And the about me section of that channel says we as a family decided to make this YouTube channel just for fun.

[Heather Martin]

Emma.

Happy birthday, Emma.

So we're going to Wild Wings for Emma's birthday. Are you excited? Are you super excited?

[Mike Martin]

Yes.

[Heather Martin]

Are you really excited? Are you really super excited? Are you sure?

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

Yes. So like I said before, it started as something that theoretically should have been harmless. It should have been just that for fun. But they very quickly realized that their typical family vlogs weren't cutting it for people. People wanted more. Whether it was going out to eat for one of the kids birthdays or going to the mall to pick out toys or do some Christmas shopping, the views just weren't as high on any of those calm, everyday type of vlogs that they were posting. The videos were too clean, too calm. They didn't have that shock and wow factor. Things that viewers kept wanting more and more of. And that's kind of a tricky issue on the Internet, right? We see so many things day to day, whether it's in the vlogging world, the true crime world, reality TV world, to where we become desensitized in a way. And it feels like people need to keep upping the ante. And not necessarily from a content creator perspective. I mean, I guess, yes, looking at this obviously, but even from a viewer it's like what maybe felt like it would jolt you a little bit one day, maybe not so much. And it's going to take more to, you know, strike a nerve. And that was the same for this family, this channel and these viewers. And that's when they first started deciding to introduce the prank videos. It's cold and floor season. So if you are under the weather or you're just trying to be proactive about immune support year round. Beekeepers Naturals is a health and wellness company that is reinventing conventional products. They're doing this with clean, effective alternatives. Their throat spray delivers antioxidants like flavonoids and all of these other amazing things to help defend against germs on the spot. They also have a vitamin C situation that offers high dose vitamin C for supercharged immune support and rapid nutrient delivery. They are just the best. I've been hearing about them for years and I personally was way late to the game in trying it. And they even have a nasal spray that cleanses and soothes nasal passages. They're like the number one goat in cold and flu season and I'm just finding out about it. So they happen to be a sponsor dayday too. And I'm telling you all about it because we all are like knee deep in cold and flu season right now. Am I right? And today Beekeepers Naturals is giving my listeners an exclusive offer. Go to beekeepers naturals.com seriously or enter code seriously to get 20% off your order. That's B e e k e e p e r s n a T u r a l s dot com. Seriously. Or enter code serial. You can also find Beekeepers naturals at Target, Whole Foods, Walmart, Amazon, CVS and Walgreens. If you're refreshing your wardrobe this season, Quinn is all about elevated essentials that feel effortless. Think 100 organic cotton sweaters, premium denim with stretch luxe cotton, cashmere blends, even 100 European linen if you're getting ready to, like, plan your vacay. Everything is designed for layering, mixing, and it's actually lasting season after season. But they don't have the traditional brand markup because Quince works directly with ethical factories and like, people who, you know, have good factories. I was in the fashion industry forever. There's very few people who do have good factories. Quince works with the ones that do. And then they cut out the middleman to say at pass that savings on to you. It's no secret I'm obsessed with Quince. If you've ever seen anything on my YouTube where I've shown you, like, behind the scenes in my house and my closet, my sheets are quints, my throw blankets are quince, my sweaters, my travel kit, like, everything is quints. I just love them so much. And I just, again, I worked in fashion forever. I know sleazy markups. I know what quality is, like, worth the price, what it really goes for, what the wholesale cost is. And, like, Quince nails it. So refresh your wardrobe with quinte. Go to quince.com ae for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's q-u I n c e.com ae to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com ae. Now. To be honest, I gotta say, I'm shocked that it took the invisible ink prank for people to really start talking about this family, because none of these pranks were funny. I mean, honestly, not a single one of them. In my opinion, each one was always done at the expense of one of their kids. Though I will say little Cody seems to be the one who was picked on the most often.

[Cody Martin]

Cody brought a lighter to school and let the toilet paper on fire. And I'm a little bit concerned about this.

[Heather Martin]

What?

[Cody Martin]

Please just call me back and let me know when we be all this stuff.

[Heather Martin]

Cody. Cody, get your ass in here right now. Yeah, get in here. Yeah, Your teacher just called.

Why is your shirt on?

[Cody Martin]

We need to have a meeting. Kobe brought a lighter to school and lit the toilet paper on fire, and I'm a little bit concerned about this.

[Mike Martin]

This is your teacher. You calling her a liar?

[Cody Martin]

I never took a lighter.

[Heather Martin]

Well, your teacher's saying you did.

[Cody Martin]

I don't even know.

[Heather Martin]

So now we gotta have a meeting at your school.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

Why is the camera on? It's not.

[Heather Martin]

You were bad today.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

What did I do?

[Heather Martin]

You were bad today.

[Cody Martin]

What did I do?

[Heather Martin]

You got expelled.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

For what?

[Heather Martin]

For being bad and difficult all the time. Get out. Get out now.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

What are you talking about all the time?

[Heather Martin]

You're fighting with the teachers too much. You're not listening. You're arguing all the time.

[Cody Martin]

I didn't get expelled.

[Heather Martin]

Yes, you did, Cody. Yes, you did.

[Cody Martin]

Are you being serious?

[Heather Martin]

Yes.

[Cody Martin]

There's no way.

[Heather Martin]

Cody. Yes, you did. I told you.

Get out.

I told you that you could not behave that way in this neighborhood. I told you you couldn't be acting all stupid and stuff in this school. I told you that.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

There's no way you're being serious.

[Heather Martin]

I am being dead damn serious. Now I gotta find you a damn home tutor or something, and I'm gonna have to put you in one of those schools for bad kids that live there. You remember I was telling you about that? The school said they can't deal. They cannot suit your needs.

[Cody Martin]

No way.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

No way. I've never got expelled before. No way.

[Heather Martin]

Well, you did now. And I told you. I told you to shape up. I told you to shape up.

[Cody Martin]

No way.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

I got.

[Heather Martin]

I told. Yes, you did. When mom gets home, she's going to ream your ass out.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

Essentially, every prank video was just making Cody or one of the other kids think that they were in trouble, which, again, that's not really a prank at all. And I think we can all agree on that. Especially any of us who are parents here. Like, making a child feel like they're in trouble and they've done something wrong, that isn't a prank. That is cruel. And they had videos that were titled Cody Bad in School, or Cody Ruined Family Night, or Cody Put up for Adoption Prank Using Cody for Target Practice. They even had a video titled Cody Holds Alex at Gunpoint. I mean, these are not prank videos. These are isolating your one child and making them not only feel a certain way, but actively, like, smearing them online and making them the punching bag. It's awful. And I know that that title of the last video that I mentioned, it's pretty insane, but I will say it was a clickbait title completely. It was created to make viewers think that this poor kid was actually holding their sibling at gunpoint. But that's not at all what happened. Again, not interesting or funny at all. Yet it still got the viewers in. It got people clicking in. So apparently they did have the audience for these things. And it was an almost 30 minute long video, just filming random stuff. Nothing like super concrete. Mike also explained a point system that they started using with the kids. And then toward the end of the video, Mike and a few of the kids went outside to shoot what looks to be paintball guns, maybe BB guns. And I honestly don't even know because I wasn't able to get through the entire thing. It made me sick to my stomach. But all that to say it certainly wasn't a real gun. It wasn't some sort of feud between the siblings. It was just this weird kid on kid clickbait. It was gross. And it's insane what that poor little kid Cody was put through.

[Heather Martin]

Cody.

[Cody Martin]

You want to care about me, you want to love me, you want to like me?

[Heather Martin]

So just go.

[Cody Martin]

Why are you still here?

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

Just go.

[Heather Martin]

I do like you.

I gotta get your help.

[Cody Martin]

I don't like you because you're bad. Exactly.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

But even though a lot of these videos were based around Cody, he wasn't the only one who dealt with these kinds of twisted pranks. None of these kids were safe from being, you know, the star of the show. It wasn't just Kody who got the prank treatment. There are other videos that were titled Emma Goes Psycho Mom Beats Jake with a Spoon. Alex was bad on the bus, and everything was just based on humiliation or psychologically upsetting these kids. Like the time when Mike ordered the kids burgers, picked his nose, put his disgusting ass boogers all over one of the burgers, and then gave them to the kids to eat and told them that he did all of that to the burgers too. I mean, it's just so disgusting. I also cannot unsee the part where he literally spit inside of the hamburger and then also rubbed it all over a public trash can.

[Heather Martin]

We're gonna order them all burgers. We're gonna get all the kids burgers, but we're gonna take one of the burgers and make it really, really nasty. I'm gonna put boogers in it and put all kinds of nasty stuff on it or whatever, and I'm gonna tell them that I did that to all the burgers. That's for Cody.

[Mike Martin]

Yeah, you're all picking your booger.

[Heather Martin]

For cody.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

Now. Very Few videos on the channel were what could be considered as normal. I mean, they would sometimes occasionally upload a vlog for Christmas or a video about receiving fan mail. I mean, things like that. But for the most part, I would say that 95% of these videos involved something with shock value. A stunt, a prank, something. And to be 100% clear, it wasn't just emotional or psychological stuff that they had to go through. Some of it was physical. Again, all in the name of views.

[Heather Martin]

Now you got to flip the bottle and land it. Now, if it lands, you're safe. Now, if it don't land, the other person gets to slap you in the face.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

Wait, what?

[Cody Martin]

It's true.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

It's true.

[Cody Martin]

Oh, God, the brain.

[Heather Martin]

What am I doing? I can't hear you.

All right, you. Sir.

Alex, no. Your turn.

[Cody Martin]

How is she?

[Heather Martin]

She don't count.

She's your sister. She's not a girl.

[Cody Martin]

She. She can slap me. Wait, she's a girl.

[Heather Martin]

You smack her. Be easy. Go ahead.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

Oh, I'm out. Oh, God.

[Heather Martin]

Go ahead. Don't hit her hard.

[Cody Martin]

You're arresting juvie. If you smack her, I'm gonna smack you. You flinched.

[Mike Martin]

You all right?

[Heather Martin]

Go get it, Ryan. Go get Ryan.

Come on.

Go get Ryan.

[Cody Martin]

I'm not hitting rhyme. Why do I have to do the older one?

[Heather Martin]

All right, well, come on, then.

Just give her a little tap.

Oh, my God. I didn't say like that. I said give her a little tap.

[Cody Martin]

You don't hate girls, you little wall breaker. Dinner. You're a wall.

[Heather Martin]

I said a little tap.

[Cody Martin]

You just show it.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

I can play.

[Cody Martin]

You just broke the wal.

[Heather Martin]

Oh, my God.

[Cody Martin]

Broke the law, you idiot. You hit a girl.

[Heather Martin]

No, I said give her a little tap.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

This is just so disgusting because not only are they promoting kid on kid aggression, but also saying, it's okay, she doesn't count. She's your sister. Like, what are you even talking about? There was even a video where Mike pushed Cody into a bookcase. And it's a. Still is uploaded. It is mind boggling. And some of their other, you know, prank. And I say that very loosely, prank videos could have gone incredibly wrong in just a heartbeat. For example, there was a video that was titled Daddy 05 pulls a gun on His Son. Prank Goes wrong. Which I can't even believe that that is an actual video title. And no less that people are curious enough to click into that video and see what happens if you. It's sick. And in the video, it kind of is just like the title says. Heather makes her son Dress up in this dark mask, then starts yelling and screaming like somebody broke into their home, which led Mike coming down the stairs with a gun in his hand. Now, was this video staged? 100%, I would imagine, yes. Mike, I'm sure, knew exactly what was going to happen. And it was all part of the routine. Coming down the stairs with a weapon, all to create this, like, prank gone wrong moment. But still, even if it was staged, it's not funny at all. And on the off chance that it wasn't staged, that could have been deadly. Imagine not only what could have gone wrong, but think about, like, the PTSD that their son would have from that moment. It is so sick and twisted.

[Mike Martin]

Hey, everybody. Daddy five sleeping, me, Jake, and Ryan, since you guys hit like on that last video, are going to show you what pranking daddy05 looks like. We're going to set the alarm off. And what are you going to do?

[Heather Martin]

Say hurry up and turn it off.

[Mike Martin]

Turn it off in a deep, crazy voice.

[Heather Martin]

Yeah.

[Rose (Biological Mother)]

Okay.

[Mike Martin]

What are you going to do?

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

I'm going to be waiting until it.

[Mike Martin]

Gets about, like, right here, and then.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

I'm going to control the cannon.

[Mike Martin]

You're going to go grab the other camera. All right, Are you all ready? Yeah.

[Heather Martin]

Hurry up. Turn it on.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

Turn it on.

[Heather Martin]

Turn it on.

[Cody Martin]

Babe.

[Heather Martin]

Babe, Someone's in the house.

[Cody Martin]

Babe.

[Heather Martin]

Who's in the house?

[Cody Martin]

Babe?

[Heather Martin]

Who the fuck is. I got a gun. Who the fuck is in the house? Babe, Babe.

Shut up.

Get the.

[Cody Martin]

Jake. It's Jake.

[Heather Martin]

It's Jake.

[Mike Martin]

It's Jake.

[Heather Martin]

What the fuck is wrong with you all? There's a guy across the fucking street looking in the window right now because.

[Cody Martin]

You got a gun.

[Heather Martin]

No shit.

[Cody Martin]

Put a gun away.

[Heather Martin]

This motherfucker is over there looking in.

[Mike Martin]

Our house because you got a gun.

[Cody Martin]

In there screaming like a fool.

[Heather Martin]

Somebody's about to call the gun.

Stop doing this shit. There seriously is.

[Mike Martin]

And he's got a ski mask on.

[Heather Martin]

It's not fucking funny.

Put the fucking hands out.

[Mike Martin]

I think it was hilarious.

[Heather Martin]

But stop it.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

So these pranks really have never been harmless. They were dangerous from day one, causing chaos and a lot of tears most of the time. At least one kid was always crying in the videos. And Daddy05, the account, they posted around 300 different videos in the span of just a few years, which, to be honest, there are so many different videos that we could talk about, but those are just some of the more serious ones that I wanted to lay out for you as examples. So all of that to say the problems hadn't just started the day they pranked Cody with this invisible ink. It had been going on for years. At that point, Getting kids to take their vitamins should not feel like some sugar loaded negotiation. And Haya was created as a cleaner option in a market that is full of gummies that are packed with sugar and artificial ingredients. Their chewable vitamin is designed with pediatricians and nutrition experts packed with essential vitamins and minerals to support immune health, energy, brain function and so much more. Without all that like zero, you know, without the gummy junk in it too. And here's something too that every parent needs to hear. If getting your kids to also eat vegetables feels like an impossible daily battle, Haya's new kids daily greens plus superfoods is a total game changer. It's basically chocolate milk, but it's stuffed with veggies. It's a green powder that is packed with over 55 whole food sourced ingredients. Just mix one scoop with milk or with any non dairy beverage and watch them actually enjoy something that is secretly fueling their growing bodies. I give this to Emmy and she literally calls it her chocolate milkshake. So I love that she thinks it's a treat but like really? I'm like little do you know. And we've worked out a special deal with Haya for their best selling children's vitamin receive 50% off your first order. To claim this deal you must go to hyahealth.comae the deal is not available on their regular website. So go to H I y a H e a l t h.com ae and get your kids the full body nourishment that they need to grow into healthy adults. Are you one of those people that hits that afternoon crash just kind of like reaching for another coffee but it's like 3pm you know you're going to regret it. You're not going to sleep well. In enters Nero gum and mint. Now Neuro's energy and focus gum and mints gives you clean focused energy but without the crash, without the sugar or the sketchy ingredients. Neuro also ran a pilot study on their energy and focus mints. And in one cognitive task participants reached a high attention state of 21.4% faster. So it's time to make the switch to good energy and faster focus. It's also powered by natural green tea, caffeine, L theanine for calm focus and B vitamins but with no sugar and no aspartame. So it's wellness that you can like literally chew, chew and go. And I have seen this all over my social media for years. I was so, so, so excited to try it. I've been like very curious and I don't know why I didn't try it sooner, but it's amazing. Neuro also offers caffeine free options for all day wellness support. Nero's memory and Focus gum are made with American ginseg to support mental clarity minus the jitters. Nero's sleep and rechargements offer melatonin and chamomile to help you unwind and rest without pills or sugary gummies. So again, this isn't candy, it's functional, designed for everyday focus. You've probably seen it on your feed too, on TikTok, on Instagram. It's your time. This is your sign. You need to try it. You can find neuro@cvs, Amazon [e-mail] and for a limited time you can get 20% off your first [e-mail] by using code AE, that's neurogum.com and use code AE to try it for 20% off. Now, in the early stages of this case in particular, Mike and Heather didn't really seem to have much remorse at all. Instead they essentially went on this press tour just giving excuse after excuse. And one of their more notorious interviews was on the YouTube channel Drama Alert, which by the way has millions of subscribers. But take a listen, they are a.

[Heather Martin]

Little exaggerated to, and they are edited to make it look like it's a lot worse than it is. We're also a family but I mean we're also trying to make a YouTube channel, right? The videos, we're not fake, but some things are a little exaggerated. And you know, and the kids all.

[Mike Martin]

I mean this was their idea to start with. So when the camera comes on, they go with it and sometimes they'll tell us afterwards. We really didn't buy that. We knew all along and, and then other times they're, they're really pranked. I mean it just, we never know what we're going to get.

[Heather Martin]

And it definitely appears that way that I didn't turn the camera off. But there's, there's many incidents where the camera definitely was turned off. There is a lot that there's a lot of privacy. It doesn't really appear that way, but there is a lot of privacy. There's a lot of things that we keep to ourselves. When, when a certain child has a boundary cross and they do not want something posted, we don't post it.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

So they basically chalked everything up to Editing. And look, I know they do that in reality tv. They say, oh, it was the producers, it was the edit, it was this, it was that. I got the villain edit. But they said that the videos had all been edited to exaggerate things, to make things look worse than they really were. And since they had been criticized for filming when their kids had clearly asked them not to, they said it just looked like the kids had no privacy, that they were only pretending not to follow their kids wishes to be off camera. Which I have to say, to me, that is a very interesting take, because most people will edit things on social media to make themselves look better, not worse. But it appears that this was like their whole shtick. And I'm not really sure if they believed that people would believe these excuses and just kind of take them and be fine with it. But once they realized that people all over the country, even all over the world, were calling for CPS to get involved, that's when they started doing some major damage control. And that is also when they released their public apology. And it's not funny. Don't get me wrong, it's not funny at all. This is a very serious topic. But they kind of followed the very typical influencer apology video, just the whole setup to a T. They both dressed in, you know, their Sunday best, their perfect outfits, probably the best I've ever seen either one of them. Look, they were calm, collected, their voices were very low, very calming, very even, which was a pretty crazy juxtaposition to how they usually acted in their other videos. I mean, even their background of this video was set up to look professional.

[Mike Martin]

This is going to be a bit of a different video than we usually do. This has been the absolute worst week of our life. And we realize that we have made some terrible parenting decisions, and we just want to make things right.

[Heather Martin]

During this week, we've had a lot of time to stand back, to jump out of character and to see what we've done and to see how we've come across. And. And I understand how everyone feels. I acknowledge and I respect how everyone feels about this. And I do agree that we put things on the Internet that should not be there. We did things that we should not do.

[Mike Martin]

And as a mother, over the last week, looking back at the videos and just thinking about things, if I didn't know the people and I saw some of those things, I would be thinking the same thing. I would be like, oh, my God, those poor children. Once people started watching us and, you know, the kids got excited about it, and they would try to see how many views they could get. And we feel like we went from something that wasn't so bad, and then we just kept go in more and more for the shock factor versus reality and to see what could get more views. And they kind of feel like some of it's their fault, and it's not their fault. It's. It's not. It's. We're the parents, and we should have made better decisions. We could give them a whole lot more than we could give them before, and we just felt like we were doing the best thing that we could for them. We are now in family counseling because we need it not only to get through the, you know, media stuff, but we need it to come back together and have everybody, even the kids, to understand what we did wrong in all this. We just want to give our kids back some type of normalcy. We just want them to be able to go back to school and just live their lives.

[Heather Martin]

I just wanted to take care of everybody. I just wanted to be happy.

[Mike Martin]

We just wanted. You guys. We wanted them to be happy. We just wanted our kids to be happy. And we went about it the wrong way. We're focused on making sure that our kids don't have to deal with so much backlash from our bad decisions. And we realize now what kind of a situation we put them in, and we're just really sorry to them now.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

This video was posted within a week of the Invisible Ink prank going live on their channel. So when I said that that video went viral, I truly meant it. It was like an overnight thing, and the backlash was huge. But this apology video, it wasn't landing for anybody. It wasn't doing anything for anyone. Most people just felt like Mike and Heather were only sorry because they got caught up in the scandal of it all and because they were losing subscribers and, of course, income because of it. And thankfully, this apology, if you can even call it that, it did not sway investigators and CPS from getting involved. And sure enough, on April 28, 2017, Mike and Heather went on Good Morning America to continue their apology press tour. And in this segment, they also announced that the police had, in fact, gotten involved and launched an investigation.

[Mike Martin]

We love our kids. They're the most important thing in the world to us. And we made poor, merry food choices by portraying ourselves this way. But we are not bad people.

[Heather Martin]

I am ashamed. This just. It started out as family fun. It started with me and my kids.

[Interviewer]

We were just.

[Heather Martin]

For them, it was just about making a video.

[Mike Martin]

They would get excited when they would get a lot of views and you know, it was more for shock value. The characters that you see on our YouTube channel is not a reflection of.

[Rose (Biological Mother)]

Who we are are.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

It's not.

[Mike Martin]

It's a character. It was a show, a bad show, but it was a show.

[Interviewer]

Is that a show that children should not be involved in?

[Heather Martin]

They shouldn't.

[Interviewer]

You say characters, what are we to believe was real and wasn't real in those videos?

[Mike Martin]

We did do pranks, but most of the time the kids knew about them. They were planned. Some stuff is real, some stuff was acted out, scripted.

[Interviewer]

You're not suggesting that your kids and the crying and the sobbing and that emotion we see was not real, are.

[Mike Martin]

You not every single time. Some of it was acted, some of it was.

[Heather Martin]

Can you stop?

[Interviewer]

The Martins claim some of their kids emotions are exaggerated. All for the sake of making more dramatic videos and getting more views.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

Reporters actually went to their house and even talked with some of the kids who really stood up for their parents, claiming that these pranks and the constant creation of new videos, that it was all rooted in their ideas, that they wanted it, it wasn't their parents, which maybe that's true. But also based on my coverage of cases and situations, I know that kids, especially young kids, more times than not, will defend and cover for their parents because they feel the love and loyalty for them. So listen and let me know what you think we'd be like.

[Heather Martin]

Dad, when are we making the next video? You know, when are we gonna make the next video? It was just something that I really look forward to.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

Now keep in mind, like I mentioned earlier, Mike and Heather's family was a blended family. So imagine Mike's ex and Heather's ex seeing these videos online of their children, their children going through this and being shown off and exploited in this way. And they had both come out and spoken out on this and they are not happy. Emma and Kody's biological mother Rose stepped in after seeing that bookcase video and she immediately began fighting for custody of her two kids. Temporary custody at first and then hopefully permanent.

[Rose (Biological Mother)]

I'm glad I was not in the same room as Mike and Heather at the time. They did that to my children. It was very painful. I cried. I had an anxiety attack the same day.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

Rose was very concerned for her kids. Well, being like any loving parent would be. However, once she got involved, unfortunately things got even messier. It got to the point where Mike and Heather posted a public video of Kody and Emma both in tears, having a full on meltdown, stating that they didn't want to be with Rose. It also included Mike and Heather basically reiterating that their videos, they were all meant for fun. They were staged. They were. Certain things had just been exaggerated. It wasn't anything overly serious. So in reality, it was everybody else's fault for creating the problems.

[Mike Martin]

I told you a hundred times that you all did not really know us.

[Heather Martin]

And I said a million times that all this is doing more harm than good. All this doing more harm than good. I mean, the videos look like they're dramatic and look crazy and stuff like that.

They're edited videos.

[Mike Martin]

Exactly. They are editing.

[Heather Martin]

They're edited videos.

I mean, Damn it, it's YouTube. And now people are trying to destroy my family. I don't fucking care about YouTube anymore. I don't fucking care if people hate me or judge me.

I don't fucking care. Care about the YouTube revenue and all that. I don't care. I don't care. Our videos are not fake. Some things are exaggerated.

[Mike Martin]

You all look real. Here's real. We put YouTube. We put videos on YouTube for fun. Videos we do with our kids. We taught him to believe in himself, that he could be anything he wants to be. He's creative, clearly. And all because people think they know what they're talking about, they gotta cause all this extra drama. Well, we will fight. We will. We will fight. Because they will not go back where they were from now.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

On top of all of that, they also made some really intense claims about what life for Kody and Emma had been like when they were in Rose's custody. Now, I want to give a very huge disclaimer here. Everything that they said was alleged. As far as I can tell, none of it was ever proven. But I also can't sit here today and say that no mistreatment occurred when they were with Rose because I wasn't there. I don't know. However, despite that argument, the courts felt that Rose was the safer place for them and she was granted emergency custody. Rose went on to say in an interview with NBC News that Cody later confided in her that the reason he didn't want to go with her was because Mike and Heather had told him that Rose threw him and Emma away like they were garbage. Also that Rose didn't love them anymore, which you have to remember. Cody was 9. Emma was 11. They were both incredibly young, super impressionable, probably believing that these two parents were telling them the truth. They thought of their parents as their protectors. They took their word for it. So for these two kids, 9 and 11 years old to hear, oh, yeah, your mom, she didn't want you. She threw you away like garbage. She didn't even love you. She doesn't even love you now anymore. That is so evil. And honestly, who really knows what was said in that house or what they had experienced in the past with Rose. We don't know. But all we do know is the court did their due diligence and they felt like it was a safer place for Rose to be with the kids than Heather and Mike.

[Interviewer]

Rose, just interrupt me anytime you want. Okay? I think the update is Emma and.

[Rose (Biological Mother)]

Cody are with me. I have emergency custody. They're doing good. They're getting back to their playful selves.

[Interviewer]

And I think on Friday, about the same time that Mike and Heather were on USA Today with whatever spin on the issue at the moment, we were before the court and obtained emergency custody of the kids.

[Rose (Biological Mother)]

Yes, sir.

[Interviewer]

So that they'd be safe.

[Rose (Biological Mother)]

Yes.

[Interviewer]

And I think that the Frederick county sheriff's department, who deserve a kudos, assisted you in retrieving them, right?

[Rose (Biological Mother)]

Yes, they did a great job. They helped my kids and got them back safely to me.

[Interviewer]

And the Frederick county circuit court passed an emergency order.

[Rose (Biological Mother)]

Yes, it did.

[Interviewer]

I think the kids are sort of in a deprogramming sort of mode at the moment. Is that right?

[Rose (Biological Mother)]

Yes, sir.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

Now get this. Instead of putting the freaking camera down for a second and actually trying to better themselves and like be decent humans and good parents like they claimed that they were doing on a multitude of different media interviews, Heather and Mike just kept making videos. Business as usual. Over on this podcast, we talk a lot about energy, digestion and just like feeling off. But your liver is doing over 500 functions a day, filtering, processing and keeping everything running smoothly. Dose for your liver is a clinically backed liquid supplement that is designed to cleanse the liver of unwanted stressors and to promote daily liver function. It's taken in a daily 2 ounce shot. It tastes like fresh squeezed orange juice and it has zero sugar, zero junk, zero calories. I get this too. Two double blind placebo controlled studies show positive impact on liver enzyme levels. Real results, not hype. So if you're ready to solve the mystery of why you've been feeling off, check out dosedaily co AE or or enter AE to get 35% off your first subscription. Your body does so much for you, so let's do something for it that's D o s e D a I l y.co ae for 35% off your first month subscription. So After Mike and Heather lost custody of Mike's two children, Emma and Cody, they made a video of the two of them telling Heather's oldest son about it. Weird. What's wrong? Where.

[Heather Martin]

Police came and they took Emma and Cook. Where are they taking them To Rose. They can't do that. They doing it again.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

Nobody told them to pick up a camera. Nobody told them to prank their kids in cruel ways. And the fact that they just continued posting very vulnerable moments of their kids lives even after they were clearly in trouble for it, it's just baffling to me. It's like there are no boundaries at all. There is no North Star in any of this to where they even have a clue of how to go the right way and proceed. And as far as Heather's reaction in that video goes, I mean, she knew that the camera was on. She and Mike had already admitted that everything in their videos was exaggerated, staged, even everyone's emotions. So I guess with that and with that past admission, I'm having a really difficult time believing that these tears are anything but crocodile tears. So after losing custody and continuing to post these ridiculous videos, Mike and Heather finally gave up on clearing their names. It seemed like they were just literally hanging on to their fame and their notoriety by a thread, hoping that maybe one day everybody would just forget about what they had done and what had happened and things would just go back to normal. That was their hope. But they likely knew that things were going south through views, exposure, income, all the different ways you could, you know, measure that. So they finally made the decision to delete all of their videos. However, as I know, you know, many of us know the Internet is forever. And you can still find a number of their videos re uploaded online. So deleting these videos, it isn't going to save Mike and Heather. Now as for the other three kids, the ones that Heather shared with her. Exactly. It appears that they stayed in Mike and Heather's custody. I did see one source tossing around online rumors that they were possibly removed from the home too, but I couldn't find anything credible to back that up. And finally, after a few months of investigating, Mike and Heather were each charged with two misdemeanor counts of child neglect against Emma and Cody. And investigators said that they believed that they had enough evidence to show that Mike and Heather had caused mental injury to them. Which instead of fighting in court, Mike and Heather both entered Alford pleas, which essentially meant that they weren't pleading guilty or admitting to anything, but they were accepting that there was in fact enough evidence against them for a conviction. Now with those charges, they could have faced up to five years in prison per count, so 10 years in total. But guess what? They were only given five years of supervised probation. And during that probation period, they had to follow a few different specific rules. The main ones being that they weren't allowed to have any contact with Cody or Emma unless it was court approved. They also weren't allowed to film any videos or post them online, which it's important to mention. They didn't even follow those rules. Rose and her attorney had to reach out to the courts because Mike and Heather had created an alternate YouTube account called Mommy05 this time. How original. And they had posted old archived videos of Emma and Cody on that account, which you've got to be really freaking dumb to do that. You clearly took an Alford plea because you knew that there was enough evidence to, you know, convict you of those charges. But now you're going to have the balls to re upload those videos and like you're not reading the room and realizing those videos were bad. It's awful. But what's even more awful is shockingly, after not even following their probation, they still managed to get their sentence reduced to something called probation before judgment, which basically some first time offenders can get this instead of getting a more formal conviction as long as they follow a probation like set of rules. So when I looked this up, it said that it was usually given to first time offenders of quote, minor crimes, which I personally wouldn't think that what they did was a minor crime. That's just me I guess though. But the other thing with all of this is that they didn't follow their probation before this. So now giving them essentially more probation makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. But again, I'm not in the court system. That's just me. They still weren't allowed to have contact with the kids if it wasn't court approved. But they were allowed to request that their neglect charges be expunged after three years, which is just such an injustice in my opinion. And it also has to make you wonder why were Emma and Cody the primary targets? They did this against all of their kids. But was it because they were Heather's kids? And we've seen that in other cases, right, where unfortunately a child ends up being killed by one of the spouses or. But like if it's a blended family, we've seen that where sometimes it's the. It's one parent's set of children who are isolated and targeted more than the Others. So is that what was happening here? And she was rolling along with it because Mike didn't want to do, like, the harsher stuff to his kids. I don't know. But what I do know is that now, all these years later, Mike and Heather are still posting online, more specifically on TikTok. Now, they don't have anywhere near the following that they once had. And some of their TikToks are just random things, and some are attempts to clear their names, but they still are posting. And I tried to find the Mommy05 YouTube, but I couldn't find it. So I'm assuming that maybe YouTube eventually took that account down along with the Daddy051. I don't know. But in May of 2025, Heather posted a TikTok with the entire family in it. Emma, Cody, even Rose. And she put the caption. So, yeah, like Cody said, off. Y' all have turned our lives upside down for eight years, and it's time we take our power back. We've healed, we've grown, and we're ready to move on. When the Internet thinks they know more about your life than you do.

[Heather Martin]

What's up, everybody?

[Mike Martin]

So come here, boys.

[Heather Martin]

Get in here.

[Mike Martin]

Get in here, get in here.

[Heather Martin]

Oh, you know what?

[Interviewer]

Come here.

[Heather Martin]

Come on.

[Mike Martin]

Cody and Emma.

[Heather Martin]

Come here.

Rose, come on.

[Mike Martin]

Come on, Come on. Come on.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

Get in here.

[Mike Martin]

Come on down here. Mom's in the front.

[Heather Martin]

We just want you all to know.

[Mike Martin]

Cody's got something to say.

[Heather Martin]

Leave us alone. It's all done. It's washed.

[Mike Martin]

Everybody's good.

[Heather Martin]

There might be kids watching. Just tell her how you feel.

[Cody Martin]

Off.

[Heather Martin]

Sound like that it's all done.

[Mike Martin]

Like he just said, off, please.

[Heather Martin]

There you go.

[Mike Martin]

There you go.

[Narrator/True Crime Commentator]

So, I don't know. I guess that seems to be the ending of their story from their perspective. I guess everyone is just back together and, I don't know, functioning as one big family unit. But it still doesn't change what happened. Mike and Heather were still charged with child neglect. They still faced a ton of backlash for the horrific things that they did online against their own children. And it makes you ask the question, what about all of these kids who grow up with a camera shoved in their face? They aren't old enough yet to realize the magnitude of what happened to them and the childhood that was stripped away from them. All they see at that age is, oh, yeah, you want a brand new car? Let me shove this camera in your face. That's how we're gonna get it, honey. You want a brand new dollhouse? Here's how we're gonna get it. And of course, as a child, you're not thinking of the harm that it's doing. You're like, yeah, I want my dollhouse. Yeah, I want a new car, this and that. And it's like, it's your job as the parent to be the responsible adult and be able to decipher right from wrong. And to me, they just look like a bunch of sleazy, skeezy opportunists. Truly. And unfortunately, cases like this one, and even more well known ones like Ruby Frankie, they're not going to be the last time that we hear about all of the disturbing things that are being done off camera. I mean, if they are willing to publicize how bad these things were on camera, I can only imagine what was happening when the camera wasn't rolling, when the record record button wasn't on. So I don't know, it's just. It's wild to think about. And honestly, the only silver lining in all of this is that it allowed people to step in sooner. So I don't know. Did you see all this as it was going down? I can't believe this wasn't on my radar sooner, but it definitely is given Ruby Frankie vibes. So I hope that these kids, even though it seems like they're all a big happy family now, I'm sure as they get older and realize things, they'll look back and I would imagine they will harbor some resentment. I think it would be hard not to, but I'm just hoping that they heal from this because no kid should ever have to go through any of this and be, you know, served up on a silver platter online in such a disparaging way. I mean, let me go back and read you again some of these titles here. And like, which is just so sick. But we have Cody bad in school. Cody ruined family night. Cody put up for adoption, and it's like Cody was 9 years old. How sick are you? I could go on and on. It just makes me freaking enraged. So I know this one was a little bit different than some of the cases we traditionally cover, but equally important, especially given, you know, the influencer culture that's out there, blogging culture, and just how dangerous it really can become and what a slippery slope it is when people get greedy. So thank you guys so much for tuning in and I will be back with you again with another case soon. Until the next one, be nice, don't kill people. And keep your kids off your vlogs, you weirdos. All right, bye.