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- [00:02]
Patia Eaton
This is exactly right.
- [00:07]
Solitaire Clash Advertiser
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- [00:37]
Heather Rivette
This is Karen from My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. No one brings out your inner monster like a bad neighbor. Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys find that out for themselves in the Beast in Me, a new eight episode drama from the team that brought you Homeland. Danes plays Aggie Wiggs, a grieving writer. Rhys plays Nile Jarvis, her new neighbor and possible murderer. But who's the monster and who's the bad neighbor? That's another story. It's a game of cat and mouse that sets them on a collision course with fatal consequences. The Beast in Me now playing only on Netflix. You will not want to miss this. Goodbye. Goodbye.
- [01:10]
Guardian Bikes Advertiser
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- [02:08]
Patia Eaton
That's guardianbikes.com this story contains adult content and language. Listener discretion is advised.
- [02:17]
Heather Rivette
One of my friends, she said, honey, it sounds like he's gaslighting you. I didn't know what that word was. She goes, look it up when we're off the phone. And I look it up and I'm like, oh. Like, oh, my gosh. Like, yes.
- [02:45]
Hannah Smith
Welcome to the Knife. I'm Hannah Smith.
- [02:47]
Patia Eaton
I'm Patia Eaton. Today we're speaking with a woman named Heather Rivette. In 2018, Heather met a man that swept her off her feet. Heather had had success in just about every area of her life, but was still looking for that true life partner. And. And Jace Peretti seemed to finally be that guy.
- [03:05]
Hannah Smith
Over the next three years, Heather and Jace built a life together. But one night in the summer of 2021, Heather learned Jace was lying to her. Like any modern day detective, she figured out his email password. And what she discovered in his inbox shocked and terrified her. Jace was not the man he claimed to be. As a note, Heather's story appears in the documentary who the F is Jason Porter? Which we refer to during the interview.
- [03:30]
Patia Eaton
Let's get into.
- [03:36]
Heather Rivette
Well, my name is Heather Rovette and I live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I am a real estate broker. I love Toronto. It's a pretty neat city. I have an older brother and a younger sister. I love dogs. I have my little rescue pup, Tommy, who came from Cairo, Egypt. My previous dog, Baxter, is in a lot of the documentary and sadly, I had to put him to sleep last summer. You know, I have to say, Baxter was a huge part in definitely the healing, but just also surviving. When you have a dog, it forces you to get up and walk the dog. And so even though there were some days where I honestly felt paralyzed, I was just experiencing so much anguish and I didn't know what to do. The one thing I knew that I had to do was walk Baxter. We were already so close to start with, but he was just my saving grace through that whole time. Dogs are incredible.
- [04:34]
Hannah Smith
So can you give us a little snapshot of what was going on in your life with you, personally, professionally, before you met the con artist in question?
- [04:42]
Heather Rivette
Before I met Jace, I had a life. I have a lot of friends. I have a career as a real estate broker. I was quite busy. I had recently renovated my condo and was so enjoying the process of furnishing it and picking out light fixtures and was really proud of the transformation I created. One thing that doesn't get talked about in the documentary, but before I met Jase, I was actually the victim of a financial con or a scam. I had invested $130,000 with a financial investors person. You know, he showed me every quarter we would meet and he would show me how my money was doing. But in the fall of 2017, I started to say, hey, I'M starting this renovation. I need my money or some of my investment back. It just turned into what most people who have been victims of financial fraud, you know, dodging my calls. And eventually he ended up disappearing and going on the run. And I filed a police report and I also was trying to sue him civilly, and it wouldn't be for probably about six months later. And I still hadn't met Jace at this point that he was actually caught and arrested. And there were a few victims.
- [06:03]
Patia Eaton
Heather was granted a restitution order of $127,000, but to this day has never seen a dime. In 2020, she even hired a firm to track down Mr. Simon Half Funn, aka Half Funn, aka Fallon Peterson, but they were unsuccessful. This was a big hit to her financially, but still, Heather figured out a way to move forward with the renovation. And so In May of 2018, she moved back into her beautiful, newly renovated condo.
- [06:33]
Heather Rivette
This was a fresh start, and I'm settling back in. And I started to notice that there was some certain things in the kitchen that weren't quite right. Like there was, you know, one of the cupboard doors didn't quite shut properly, and same with a drawer. So I had the people from the kitchen cabinet company come and look at everything and they were like, oh, okay, well, we have a new service guy. We'll get him to contact you and he'll come and fix everything. And I was like, great. I didn't think much about it. Couple weeks later, it's Monday, July 9th. I'll never forget the day. Monday, July 9th, 2018. And it's probably about seven in the morning and my phone pings that I have a text message. And I thought, oh, who's messaging me so early on a Monday? Because I'm not a super early morning person. He said something like, good morning, Heather. Sorry for the early, late note. I was hoping I could come by today and fix the things that need fixing. And I replied about half an hour later. And I was like, yeah, sure, come by. This is my address. And I rolled out of bed and took the dog for a walk and told my concierge that I'm expecting somebody from the kitchen cabinet company and she could just send them up, no need to call me. And by 9:30 in the morning, I heard a knock, knock, knock at the door. And Backsie gave a little woof. And I was very taken aback when I opened the front door and there was this pretty cute guy, very cute guy, I'll say, standing in front of me. He was tanned and he had a little scruff on his face with just like a little bit of a hint of salt, but more pepper. And he just had this cute grin. And I probably for a minute just got lost in taking in this nice looking guy. And so I let him in and he got to work. I showed him what needed to be done and I found myself hovering around him because I just was curious. And it, you know, when you live in a condo, there's only so much space. So I was just being nice and friendly. And in the back of my mind too, I kept thinking I should ask this guy when he's done to help me do a couple other things because I knew I had to hire a handyman to put up the towel racks and the hooks in the bathroom. So when he finished, I asked him very quietly if he wouldn't mind helping me, please. And he smiled and he said, sure, no problem. And I guess we got so lost in talking when he was doing the second one that by the time he left and he didn't quite finish it, he asked me if I'd be okay finishing it and I was like, oh yeah, how hard can it be? I realized after he left that the whole thing was on a slight angle. I think it was because we were so caught up in chatting and the whole time we were chatting, it wasn't a very big bathroom. He was sitting on the toilet, hanging the towel bar and I was leaning in. It was a walk in shower. I was leaning in the door jamb of the shower talking to him.
- [09:22]
Patia Eaton
Can I ask you, what did you guys talk about? Like, how much did you both share when he's there, you know, working on.
- [09:29]
Heather Rivette
In the shower? Yeah, in the shower, in the shower. Nothing too, too personal. I definitely, before he left, had learned that he really was, according to him, a software engineer, that he had gone to the University of Waterloo, which in Canada is the equivalent. It's like our mit, it's where you have to be very smart to go there, especially for engineering, computer sciences. I learned that he had a little son, but him and the mom had separated. And he made it seem like it was an amicable separation, but they were going through the family court just to figure out parenting time and custody and all that stuff. But at that moment I didn't know the gravity of the situation. He at some point said something like, blah, blah, blah. And he dropped what I would call a hun. He was like, okay, hun. And I must have given him a bit of a look and he said, oh, sorry, I just Spent the weekend at my family cottage with my aunt and my female cousins. Like a lot of estrogen, sorry about that. And I kind of giggled and was like, haha, no worries. So I learned that he had a family cottage and in Ontario in the summer, you know, especially if you live in a big city, it's so nice to get out of the city and go up and spend time on the lake. So I was like, oh, that's nice. Like him, like it's nice to have cottages. My family, we grew up going to a cottage, we had a cottage and when I was probably first year university, my parents sold the cottage and they ended up buying a more of a country property. We called it a farm.
- [11:03]
Patia Eaton
The charming and good looking handyman introduced himself to Heather as Jace Peretti. His story was unexpected and they had instant chemistry. Heather felt like the universe was balancing the scales after she'd endured this massive financial fraud. Jay spoke Italian, a nod to his heritage, and their banter felt both easy and electric. Time flew and soon he had to rush out. But they'd been so caught up in conversation that he'd actually left the towel rack slightly unfinished and managed to forget his tape measure. But in the moment when Heather realized she felt lucky, this was a door opening, a chance for her to reach out. Maybe she hadn't seen the last of Jace Peretti. So Heather sent him a text and let him know he'd forgotten his tape measure and asked if he might be able to help her with the towel rack.
- [11:52]
Heather Rivette
And he said, hey, I'm about 10 minutes away, why don't I come back and I'll fix it. I was like great, thank you, thank you again. Knock on the door, he comes in and within five minutes it's boom, boom, boom, all fixed, straight. It must have been about 1:30 in the afternoon at this point, going on 2 o'. Clock. And I asked him, I was like, so what are you doing for the rest of the day? And he said, well, I was thinking of getting some lunch. I was like, oh, I need to eat some lunch. I said, let me, as a thank you for doing this, can I take you out for lunch? There's a place just across the street. And he said sure. So we ended up going out for lunch that day. And over lunch I'm pretty sure, I'm very sure that I did tell him about the financial fraud and that it had made the renovation a lot more stressful than it had to be.
- [12:44]
Patia Eaton
So right there he's hearing that you have savings like that you are someone who has money in the bank.
- [12:52]
Heather Rivette
Well, and I think you can also tell just by the condo itself. Yeah, it's in a very nice part of the city. And the renovation I did, it was beautiful. Like, I really transformed the space with, like, really nice finishes and marble. And, you know, he worked at the cabinet company. He could see just how nice it was. He asked me about, you know, did you grow up in Toronto? Where'd you go to school? And I remember telling him, yes, you know, I went here. I had gone to an all girls private school here in Toronto. And he said, oh, my gosh, I went to the boys school. I was like, you did? And he goes, yes, but I only went to the junior school. Like, I was done by the time I was in grade seven. I was like, oh, so we would have totally missed each other.
- [13:32]
Patia Eaton
It's like such a whirlwind first day. Like, you meet someone, instant chemistry. He leaves his tape measure, you go to lunch. And so how quickly, you know, does it progress from that to let's go on, like a proper date?
- [13:50]
Heather Rivette
It probably took us about two weeks. But in between that first day we met and our first date, there was a lot of back and forth, back and forth, flirtatious text banter. And I had never in my 40 some odd years ever experienced that kind of banter with somebody, that kind of fun, light, flirty communication at all. Like, I'd never experienced that before. So I was really already getting swept in. And I think we had one quick phone conversation and then he had left me a couple messages too. And then we ended up going on our first date and he showed up on his motorcycle and I thought, that's really quite hot and sexy. And he came up so he could leave his motorcycle helmet and his backpack, and we went out for dinner to a really cute Italian place just around the corner. I was definitely rusty on first dates, but because I don't find it hard to talk to people, it was easy to keep the conversation going. There was never really a lull. And I felt over dinner, he shared some more big things with me, including he told me the story of his mom dying. And he alluded a little bit more to the situation, you know, with the family court. And I was very taken by the fact that I felt this guy was just being so vulnerable with me and so honest and so sincere. I remember asking him, you know, how do you deal with that kind of loss? You know, you lost your mom and you've gone through this now and that. And he said, I put everything in boxes so he said that's how he copes is he just puts things in boxes and when he needs to deal with it, he'll pull out the box and deal with it. I also thought that was pretty insightful that he had that self awareness.
- [15:50]
Patia Eaton
Not only did Heather feel this intense chemistry, but Jase's openness really drew her in. He shared with Heather that he had been a successful software engineer and in fact he owned his own software company which he'd only recently sold to his partner. He said he wanted to get away from that part of the world and have a change of lifestyle. He really liked working with his hands. So it was all making sense, even though it was a little unusual. But in hindsight, Heather can see the red flags that she missed. As Jonathan Walton notes in Anatomy of a Con Artist, revealing intimate details too soon is a classic manipulation tactic. It's an easy way to fast track trust. Most people instinctively respond to vulnerability, but the danger comes when those so called confessions are built on lies. On their very first date, Jace shared what sounded like raw vulnerability, the story of his own mother's death. He then went on to explain that his modest lifestyle, working as a repairman, living in this small apartment, it was all by design. He claimed he had to appear broke on paper because his vindictive ex was trying to bleed him dry. In the midst of a brutal custody.
- [17:02]
Heather Rivette
Battle, he had gone to a lawyer and the lawyer said, dumb yourself down, like literally get rid of your credit cards, go rent something that's not a lot of money, take a lesser job. And that's what he was doing. And the way he told the story, he told it in such a way that you're like, oh, that's like, you know, good for, you know, I never felt like he was trying to be a bad person or cheat the system or anything. I just felt like, yeah, you know, you're right. Like, or he would say things like he didn't think it was fair that he had to pay that much child support when his son was only also so little. It didn't make sense. He's like a three year old, doesn't cost that much money. Like, I don't feel I should have to pay that. Especially because she was fighting him for custody. He would have had to pay a lot more child support. He was saying. And as somebody who's never gone through the family court system and I never had kids, I just took him at his word. I have some girlfriends that have gone through some pretty high profile, intense divorces and I know they drag out and they drag out and they drag out. So I didn't really have any personal experience, so I just took him at his word.
- [18:12]
Patia Eaton
Heather and Jace start dating in 2018. And in 2019, he moves into her condo. Things were going really well. Heather's parents met Jace, and everyone got along. Her mom actually loved him. Heather's dad was a little less certain, but we could all chalk that up to most dads are. He felt like Jace told a lot of tall tales. Then in the fall of 2019, the first incident occurred that made Heather realize, looking back, this was all sinister at that point.
- [18:45]
Heather Rivette
My mom thought he was incredible. My dad in the first year or so still liked him. Like, he thought he was interesting. Jace had tall tales of living in China and living in Japan and his Italian grandfathers who both fought in World War II for the Allies. And he just had some crazy big stories. And he always seemed to want to, you know, engage my dad and try and be helpful in some way, shape, or form. So my parents come into the city, and my mom goes off to get her nails done, and she messages me and she said, have you seen my engagement ring, my diamond ring? And I was like, no, I haven't. She goes, it's interesting because when she goes away for a weekend, she'll just throw some of her jewelry in one of those little Tiffany blue sash bags. She goes, well, the bag's there, but there's no ring there. She goes, I just. I don't know. I don't know where it is. And they ended up going to the wedding. They left. And when they left, Jason and I literally, like, tore the condo apart. Like, looked under the sofa, looked under the bed looking for this ring. And I was like, God, I hope it didn't fall down the drain. Like, then it would be long gone. So my mom chopped up that missing ring to a loss, and she ended up going through her insurance and getting, you know, whatever, some insurance money. But nobody really thought twice about it.
- [20:00]
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- [20:27]
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- [21:33]
Becky Milligan
A young British family is attempting to sail around the world when disaster strikes. Their boat is hit by killer whales and it sinks in seconds. All they have left is a life raft and each other. This is the true story of the Robertson family and their fight to survive, hosted by me, Becky Milligan. Listen to Adrift, an Apple original podcast produced by Blanchard House. Follow and listen on Apple Podcasts.
- [22:09]
Patia Eaton
Jace confided in Heather about how distraught he was over this ongoing custody battle and how little he got to see his son. Heather watched him leave the house twice a week for supervised visitation with his son, who she was really eager to meet, but it just never seemed like the right time. Then In November of 2019, Jace had even more bad news. He said that he and his ex could not come to an agreement, and now their custody battle was headed to trial. Heather stepped in to help, and I.
- [22:41]
Heather Rivette
Was like, this is terrible. You need to lawyer up. Because he didn't have a lawyer at this point. He had fired the other one, allegedly. And I was like, you know what? I'm going to ask my friend. Knowing that his ex had a very prominent family lawyer who some of my girlfriends had used, and he's a shark, so I'm like, we have to get you a lawyer. So I arranged for him to meet with a family lawyer in January of 2020. And I went to that meeting and asked a whole bunch of questions. And Jace told her what was going on. We know now he was sitting there lying to everyone but the lawyer that day said, you've planted distrust in the other side. You know, you've got this big degree and you've got all this, like, corporate experience, and now you're working at a kitchen cabinet company. She's like, yeah, you need to, like, get back into the real world if you want to get this so it's going to be balanced. She goes, that's the first thing you need to do. She's like, you need to go find a real job. And he was like, oh, okay. And then I asked her about me meeting his son because I hadn't met his son yet. And she said, you know what, Jase? You have every right to introduce your son to Heather. The proper way to do it is to tell your son's mom that you're in a relationship. And if she wants to meet Heather, I would encourage that. But she did say, seeing as the trial is just a couple months away, maybe it's best we just keep it as is and not rock the boat. She goes, in my opinion, I have seen women who can go hysterical over these things, so let's just keep it as is. And once we have the decision, then, you know, Heather, if you're okay waiting, I would suggest you wait. And I was like, okay, yeah, it's cool. It's just a little couple months away. So then about a week later, I. I'm getting a blowout, and I get a text message from Jace while I'm getting my blowout that he quit his kitchen job. I was like, great. The lawyer's name happened to be Heather as well. I said, well, it's what Heather told you to do, so great. Start working. Start looking for a job. So, you know, it looked like he was working his connections and whatever, and he started apparently going for interviews, and probably by sometime in March, end of March maybe, he had gotten an offer and he was going to start working for Oracle.
- [24:53]
Patia Eaton
Jace landing this new job at Oracle made perfect sense. He had a prestigious education and a background as a software engineer. His new job felt like a win for both of them. And they started planning an international vacation.
- [25:06]
Heather Rivette
We were going on a trip to Dominican Republic. I had booked us a holiday. I'd used all my amex travel points, and I'd booked us this holiday. We were supposed to be leaving on a Saturday and Friday. I'm down. This is around Valentine's Day in February. So just a few weeks after the lawyer, I'm downtown showing condos, and he calls and I send him to voicemail, and he's like, call me as soon as you can. And so as soon as I was finished with my clients, I called him and he said, babe, you're never going to believe what happened. My passport hasn't arrived and it's not at the passport office. And I'm like, what? What are you saying? He's saying I don't have a passport. I ended up going on this all inclusive romantic getaway to an adults only resort by myself. I was so upset. It was awful.
- [25:55]
Patia Eaton
I do love that you still went.
- [25:57]
Heather Rivette
Yeah, well, I didn't read, you know, typical me, I didn't read the fine print and it was non transferable and non refundable. And half the time we were down there, he was apparently like trying to book another flight. And he sent me a picture of him waiting at the passport office, which for some reason, probably even just as early as like a year ago, I was like, I should put this through Google Image. And I put the passport picture office through Google Image in which, you know, it's a stock photo. So all of that was lies?
- [26:30]
Patia Eaton
Yes. Heather knows now that this was all lies. None of it was true. But at the time, she believed Jace's story about his passport just not showing up. It was hugely disappointing. But what could she do? So this was the spring of 2019. Heather was happy. She believed that Jace had this great job at Oracle and that eventually everything would be resolved with the custody of his son. She had visions of getting married and being a stepmom. But the custody situation just continued to drag on with no resolution in sight.
- [27:04]
Heather Rivette
For my birthday in 2019, which is in October, he gave me plane tickets for Italy. We were going to go to Italy in early March of 2020. I was so excited. I was like, oh, my God, I can't imagine a better person to go to Italy with than you. Like, this is going to be amazing. So life is really good as far as I'm concerned. I'm in love. I'm living my best life with him. Things are amazing. To back it up to March 2019, when the trial was supposed to happen for his family court stuff, something happened and it got pushed. And this would be the thing in our relationship that we really only thought about was the family court, because it just seemed like it was always getting delayed and pushed and delayed and pushed, or they'd have a date and something would happen and then they were going to meet again in two months. And I was like, this is like, crazy. And I, like I said, didn't have anything to compare it to because I've never gone through family court. So finally, it looks like we're heading towards the end of 2019, and he gets his next trial date, which is supposed to be in January of 2020. And then of course, something happens in January 2020 and it gets pushed again and he's waiting to get the new date in early February. He came home one day from his visit with his son and he was really upset and he said, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. Like, I just found out that the trial's been pushed to March 8, and I'm thinking we're supposed to be in Italy then, so how's that going to work? I was like, oh gosh, that sucks. But of course, at this point, I'm so invested in the family court, I'm like, don't worry about it. I'll cancel the hotel reservation I've made. We'll go to Italy another time. Like, it's far more important that you get this sorted out with family court. So he goes to family court early March and he comes home and he seems a little optimistic and he's like, I think things are good. We have to go back in two weeks and the judge is going to make her decision and I'll know like, exactly where things stand. I'm like, that's amazing. Well, in that two week window, Covid happened, and so the whole world got shut down. If Covid hadn't have happened, I think we probably would have perhaps broken up sooner because I don't know if I could have kept living that way because it was a real problem for me. Like, I felt on one hand awful for him that he wasn't getting to be the father that he claimed he wanted to be. But I just felt that while that was so unresolved, it was really hindering us from moving forward and living our best life. But Covid happened. Family court gets indefinitely delayed. We are living in this condo and the walls start to feel like they're closing in. And he's pretty much his entire time working for Oracle, worked a lot from home because apparently they didn't have room at Oracle for him and his team. And I believe that. And they were looking for exterior office space. I sold the condo in, I think May or June of 2020, and we decided we were going to rent and I agreed to try living outside of the city so he could be closer to his son. And so when this addition, adorable house came up for lease in Aurora, which is about 45 minutes north of Toronto, I was like, this is our house. I just knew it right away. This Was going to be our house because as a city girl, the idea of living in a subdivision where everybody's houses look the same, I was not going to do that. But I was okay living outside of the city if it was a bit more rural, ish, more country, like, more like the farm. And this house came up for lease, and it was on five acres of property, and it was just so private and special and affordable. And I was like, this is our house. This is the one.
- [30:56]
Patia Eaton
While Jace had been living with Heather in her condo, he'd been paying her $1,400 a month, which was only a small fraction of her mortgage. But Heather didn't necessarily need the money. She also knew that Jace was going through an expensive legal battle with his ex. So in the spring of 2020, they decided to move into this charming country home and put both their names on the lease. Jase told Heather at that point that he wanted an additional job just to get out of the house. So he got a job in construction, which he worked during the day and then did his work for oracle at night. Everything was fine until Heather got an alarming message from a trusted friend of hers.
- [31:40]
Heather Rivette
Around May 2020, when we're in lockdown and he's moonlighting, one day I get a phone call from a girlfriend, and she was like, heather, I have to tell you something. And I'm like, what? She goes, I just saw Jason Bumble. I saw his picture on bumble with a profile, but he's not using his name. He's using a different name. I was like, what? That's impossible. Like, he's with me all the time. Like, I'm the love of his life. Like, I'm so confident in my relationship. I said, send me the pictures. And she sent me the pictures. I'm like, well, yeah, that is him. But, like, as somebody who has been catfished, I was like, this is impossible. And so right away, I get off the phone with her and I send the screenshots to Jace, and I'm like, what the is this? And of course, it was probably the worst thing I could have done. I probably should have calmed down and, like, thought about it. But he right away calls me, and he's like, I'm coming home. I'm like, well, it's only, like, one in the afternoon. Don't bother. Like, it's not a big deal. Like, we'll talk about it tonight. He's like, no, no, no, I'm coming home. And he was like, it's not me. Like, you've got to know it's not me. He goes, I know who's doing this to me. I'm like, okay. And he claimed it was his ex's brother in law that was probably doing this to fuck up family court. And of course, you know, when I say it now, it sounds so trite and stupid, but I believed him at the time. But at the same time, that friend, I guess she did a reverse image search of Jace and she did find some stuff from way back. And she sent me this email and I opened one of the attachments she sent me and it was a family court document from his divorce with his first wife, which had a different name. It was Jason Porter. And so I asked, like, that was one of the things I'm like, I don't understand what, what this doc, this family court document is Jason. Like, first of all, it says you're Jason. And second of all, it says you have two kids. And he said, those aren't my kids. When I met her, she already had them and I adopted them as my own. That's what that's referring to. And he said, yes, my name legally is Jace Perotti, but it really is meant to be Peretti. When my parents came over from Italy, immigration messed up the spelling and that's why it's like that on my ID in their system. But I really am a pareti, not a parade. I was like, okay, but what about Porti said, when I was going through the corporate world, I just wanted a very Anglo name. Does that make sense to you? And I was like, I guess so. I mean, people change their names all the time. Look at Hollywood, right? Like, I was like, okay, again, it's 2020 and I'm just so into my life with him and my relationship. Of course, he's become my world and I'm being, unbeknownst to me, emotionally abused. So I just, I took him at his word.
- [34:24]
Patia Eaton
When do things really start going sideways?
- [34:29]
Heather Rivette
Things really started going sideways around July 2021. But there were a couple things that led up to that. Around April of 2021, my mom would call and ask me, you know, have you seen this bracelet? Have you seen this necklace? Did you borrow it? I'm like, no. She goes, oh, maybe I left it at the condo. My grandmother, my mom's mom died of dementia. And while my mom is a child psychologist, neuroscientist, and she's very smart and very alert, I was like, oh, gosh, I wonder if my mom's starting to get dementia because she seems really forgetful. Like, how can she be misplacing all her things.
- [35:09]
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- [36:43]
Becky Milligan
A young British family is attempting to sail around the world when disaster strikes. Their boat is hit by killer whales and it sinks in seconds. All they have left is a life raft and each other. This is the true story of the Robertson family and their fight to survive. Hosted by me, Becky Miller. Listen to Adrift, an Apple original podcast produced by Blanchard House. Follow and listen on Apple Podcasts.
- [37:19]
Patia Eaton
By the summer of 2021, the world was starting to open back up after the COVID 19 lockdowns and Heather said Jace was gone a lot. Mostly, he said he was in Toronto working, which was about a 45 minute drive away from their rural home in Auror. In July, it would be their three year anniversary. Heather said Jase came home from his construction job to celebrate but had to go right back to work afterwards. It wasn't exactly romantic and so we.
- [37:49]
Heather Rivette
Went out that afternoon. He came home a bit early. We went out. We took the car to get it washed. He got a haircut, you know, he came home, he took a bath, and I helped him pick out like a nice outfit to go meet these people. And off he goes. And he doesn't end up coming home till really, really late. I'm already asleep. And so then the next day we're having this conversation and I was trying to get him to commit to something. The following weekend, my cousins, whose dad actually lives in Aurora, they were having a pool barbecue and I was like, what time do you think you'll be finished with your son so I can let them know when we're going to come? And I just couldn't get a straight answer out of him. And he said, I don't know, I don't know. And I guess I just must have at this point, you know, the world's opening up. He's never home. When he is home, I feel like we're not doing anything. Like, I just was starting to feel very isolated, very alone, bored, you know. I was trying to get him to talk about rebooking Italy. The family court still hadn't been decided. And I just said something to the effect of, you know what, don't worry about it, Jace. You do your family, I'll do mine. And he used that comment essentially to provoke an even bigger fight with me, which led to us taking a little bit of space apart. I went down to the city for a week and then I came home. And then I went the next week to go visit a friend. But I will say this, that Friday night he came home from quoting the job. That was the last night we ever slept in the same bed. So August is here and he's barely around and barely communicating with me. He did agree to go to couples therapy and we went to a couple two hour therapy sessions that I paid for with this therapist. I think he is a good therapist. I think it's just impossible. He didn't even know the length of what was happening. Nobody did. And then I just. I remember talking to a couple of friends and one of my friends, when I was telling her what was going on, she said, honey, it sounds like he's gaslighting you. I didn't know what that word was. She goes, look it up when we're off the phone. And I look it up and I'm like, oh. Like, oh my gosh. Like, yes, this is how I feel. I feel like I'm kind of spinning my wheels and going crazy and that everything's my fault. And one day I Just decided to try and crack the code to his computer. We shared a computer. We had a big desktop Mac that I had bought for us, and he was the primary user. And I asked him what his password was because we shared everything. And he told me what it was, and it wouldn't work. Then I was on my computer and I went to a website and it said, do you want to save this password? I said, okay. And then this whole other sheet pops up, and I didn't really pay attention. I'm not super computer savvy, but I guess Chrome saves all your passwords. So I went in, and he was always using my computer, and so I found a theme in his password, so I typed it into the desktop Mac, and boom, I'm in. And I get in the computer, and I'm like, oh, my God, what am I seeing? Like, it was just so crazy. I In one of his several Gmail accounts, and it's like, you're a match. You're a match. You're a match. You're a match. I'm like, what?
- [41:04]
Patia Eaton
So you're logging on. You're now on the desktop that you guys share under his username?
- [41:09]
Heather Rivette
Yep.
- [41:09]
Patia Eaton
You're saying many Gmail accounts and many emails that you can tell are from online dating websites?
- [41:17]
Heather Rivette
Well, yeah. And I went. And I went right to the dating site. It takes you right there. And so I'm in his profile on this one. I think it was Badoo. B, A D O O. I don't know. I know the big ones. Even though you know, I know Tinder, Bumble Match.
- [41:31]
Patia Eaton
Yeah.
- [41:31]
Heather Rivette
I'm like, badoo. What's badu? And I'm in there, and it's not like he's talking to a handful of women. There's hundreds of women he's talking to. And I'm like, what? I had asked him, like, a couple weeks prior. I'm like, are you cheating on me? And he would say things like, how dare you say that to me? Like, you think in my state of mind right now, I could be with anyone? Like, I'm better off just being alone. Like, no. And then this one time, the first time I ever asked him, he actually said to me, and I say this in the documentary is like, do you want to smell my dick? And I was like, I don't want to smell your dick. Like, gross. He just made me so confused all the time, and he made me feel like it was all in my head and it was all my fault. But now I'm in the computer and I'm seeing he's on every dating platform there is. And it's not like this just started. It went back and it went back and it went back. And I was like, holy shit.
- [42:24]
Hannah Smith
And what kind of messages were you seeing? Were you seeing, like, chat boxes or, like, messages between him and other women?
- [42:32]
Patia Eaton
Yes.
- [42:33]
Heather Rivette
And some of them, they were exchanging photos, and some were like, here's my number. Here's my number. Let's take this offline. I remember there was ones from Valentine's Day where he was sending messages to some women just saying how he wishes he had somebody he could kiss. Meanwhile, he's so creepy. I'm sound asleep in the bed with, like, a silk eye mask and Baxter by my side. And he comes and he puts a single rose and my Valentine's Day card on the pillow beside me and takes a picture of it.
- [43:01]
Patia Eaton
Well, he's messaging all of these other women on all of these other apps.
- [43:05]
Heather Rivette
Yes. Or it's Christmas and he's saying to women how he just spent, you know, Christmas with his family at the family farm. I'm like, that's my family. That's my family farm. He even, like, sent messages to a woman in French, in Italian, and they were all filled with lies. They were all filled with lies, these messages. And I don't know, there was that portion of the emails, and then I just kept scrolling and scrolling through the emails, and then I started seeing things like, Tiffany necklace for sale. I'm like, oh, my God, that's my mom's necklace.
- [43:38]
Hannah Smith
Wow.
- [43:39]
Heather Rivette
When I first got into the computer, it's like my stomach came up to my throat, and then my throat went back to my stomach. And the, like. I think at that point the room was almost kind of spinning. And I'm sure that's like, the early stages of some sort of shock, because I just honestly really couldn't make sense of what I was dealing with. Like, what I was looking at. This was just crazy.
- [44:05]
Hannah Smith
I mean, that makes so much sense. It's so much information that you're trying to take in in a matter of moments that's very contradictory to all of the information that you've had over the past three years about who you thought he was and all of the ways that he reinforced that idea that he was this really nice guy, that in fact, he was going to take you to Italy someday. He was going to. You talk in the doc about you were going to get married. You weren't engaged, but you had talked about that you believed that this was your life partner. And obviously things had started to go downhill. But I think that's really strong and that there's so much time and so much evidence in your life that shows you that he is this good person. And even though that's eroding, it's still must be incredibly shocking to suddenly have all this evidence in front of your face that actually, oh, my gosh, he's been talking with all these other women the whole time. And not only that, but he's stolen your mother's jewelry, even though he helped you look for your mother's jewelry. And you guys had talked about that so many times. I mean, I don't know how a person takes in that information and is able to process it. What are some of the first things that you learn about Jace that come out right away as far as, like, who he is or what lies he's told to you?
- [45:22]
Heather Rivette
I'm in the computer and I go back and open that friend's email because I'm like, oh, shit, what did I miss? Like, what did I not look at? And then I googled Jason Porter. And if you google Jason Porter Toronto fraud, because they're the. It's pretty common name, right? Sad to say, there's actually a couple really bad Jason Porters out there in the world. But I googled Jason Porter Toronto. I didn't even Google fraud at that point. I just googled Jason Porter Toronto. And up comes all these. It's like Jace was all over the 6 o' clock news because there was a warrant out for his arrest in 2011 citing, you know, online Romeo at this point.
- [46:03]
Patia Eaton
Heather had known the name Jason Porter for about six, six months since her friend had tipped her off. But until this moment, she had trusted him. So she'd never googled his name. When she finally did, his face appeared in old news reports going all the way back to 2012. Jason Porter, dubbed the online Romeo, had been sentenced to 30 months in prison after pleading guilty to 15 different criminal charges. The stories, though, all sounded eerily familiar. Women who'd met him on dating sites, one off of Plenty of Fish in 2010, described how he'd move in under the pretense of finding his own place and then defraud them. Allegations including stolen credit cards and identity theft. It turns out Jason Porter had served his time and then gotten right back to his old tricks.
- [46:53]
Heather Rivette
He was doing things like taking out credit cards in their name. He would, like, go on a date with them and I guess steal their ID or take pictures of their id. So he was able to open these accounts One woman, he just all right out stole from her. He stole a car, he did some breaking. Like he had all these charges, but they were all little amounts. They were in Canada. It's like there's zero to 5,000 is one kind of level of crime, and then 5,000 and above is more serious. So there were all these charges for things under $5,000. So he, he was caught in late 2011. And there were a couple news articles and even like an interview with the woman who came forward, although she's blacked out. Like her face is all fogged out. And I'm just like, oh, my God. And he ended up doing a plea deal. So he gets out of federal prison in 2014 and starts all over again. And that's where he met this woman who ended up becoming the mother of his child. He met her on match.com.
- [47:52]
Hannah Smith
Wow. You're finding this out like he's not at home. You have logged in, you've figured out his password, and now there's just like a series of things that you're finding out. And then you Google him and you find out his criminal history as well.
- [48:05]
Heather Rivette
Yeah, yeah. I start looking through all this and I'm just like, oh, my God. But the crazy thing is when I first, first, first got in and I started seeing all these, you're a match. You're a match. And I'm taking screen, I'm taking hundreds of screenshots. The very first thing I did was I actually called him because I couldn't believe what I was seeing. And I was like, this is impossible. And I called him and he didn't answer. And hours went by and I just kept taking screenshot after screenshot after screenshot. I did manage to get a whole bunch off on a little thumb drive thing. But then my friend Kristen called me probably around 8 on Friday. And I don't even know how to begin explaining what is going on. And she's like, holy shit. And then we're talking. I'm like, oh, my God, it's him calling. Let me take, I'm going to take his call and I'll call you right back. There were so many things. Now if I could travel back in time and redo differently, I would have done things a lot differently. But anyhow, I end up talking to him and I must have, in my voice, I don't know, given something away. But I do remember two things from that conversation. I remember hearing crickets in the background. And he claimed he was in Toronto. He had just finished. You know, it's 9 o' clock on a Friday of a long weekend. He just finished his kitchen job, this renovation job. He'd just gotten back to the office. And I was like, that's weird. You know, I grew up in Toronto. Like, I don't ever recall hearing crickets in the city, but whatever. And then we talked a bit more about what we were going to do that weekend. And he said he would come by on Sunday and we could have a talk. And I was like, okay. And then I just probably said something like, you know, Jace, I just feel like I don't even know who you are anymore. And he goes, what do you mean? And he got defensive. And I said, well, you know, I went from spending every day, day in day, out of my life with you being told I'm the love of your life. And now it's like we haven't done anything together in, like, since July, like this. I just. I miss my life. And he said, oh, don't worry, it'll be over soon. I said, over soon? Like you're coming home or we're breaking up. And he said, no, no, I'll be home. Don't worry, I'll come by Sunday. Well, you know, we'll make dinner and we'll talk about stuff. I'm like, okay. And we hung up. And I kid you not, within minutes I'm still in the dating app site and all of a sudden it pops up on the window. We're sorry to see you go. Sorry to see you shut down your profile and I'm kicked out of all the Gmail. So he somehow, I don't know, maybe he was able with the dating app to see when he was last logged in or something. And that's how he figured out I was onto him. But all of a sudden I'm like, shut out of everything.
- [50:56]
Patia Eaton
It was almost like this digital game of cat and mouse. The more Heather discovered, the more quickly Jason was working to shut her out of everything. Heather's friend Kristin came to stay with her in Aurora. And Heather's sister had already planned to come visit her as well. So while they were all together, they collectively decided Jason's fraud needed to be reported to authorities.
- [51:19]
Heather Rivette
So we called 911 and the local police came and I proceeded to tell them basically almost exactly what I've told you. And I'm showing them these screenshots and the police look at me and go, what do you want us to do? I'm like, what? What do you mean, what do I want you to. I'm like, I Want a restraining order? I don't want this guy ever coming back here again. They're like, but ma', am, he hasn't hurt you or has he hurt you? And I said, do you mean physically? And they said, yes. And I was like, well, no, not on purpose at that point. I wasn't even thinking of any of those crazy tickling videos that are throughout the documentary, which he literally used to sit on me, right on my esophagus and torture tickle me. And he would always grab my phone and record it.
- [52:08]
Hannah Smith
Those are so disturbing to watch. Really.
- [52:11]
Heather Rivette
They're so disturbing.
- [52:13]
Hannah Smith
You can't breathe and like your face is turning red and he's laughing the whole time.
- [52:18]
Heather Rivette
Yeah, it's so crazy. But the truth is, even if I told the police, yeah, he was hurting me, look at these videos. I don't think that would constitute for abuse. So the cops come on Saturday, we tell them everything. They just look at me like I'm a crazy girlfriend. And I said, well, what about my mom? Like, she's missing all her jewelry and I can show you. This is her jewelry. And they said, well, she'll have to go to her own police station because that's how it works here. Like, you go to your local police station. I was like, okay, well, you know, he hasn't been here. He hasn't slept in this house in like over a month. I'm going to change all the locks. And they're like, ma', am, you really shouldn't do that. He is your co tenant. And I was like, is he though? Like, his name's not real and the name he signed on the lease isn't real. And they're like, we can't tell you what to do in that respect. Do what you want. So they left. A locksmith comes. I changed the lock. And there must have been at least 12 of them at that house. It was so big. I was like, well, what if he shows up? Like, what do I do? They're like, well, if he shows up and you feel scared or unsafe, just call 911 and we'll come over. So they leave. I'm just distraught. And I look at my sister and I'm like, jenny, you have to tell Mom. Like, I can't tell her. I can't tell her it's Jace that's stolen all her stuff. Like, oh, my God. My sister calls my mom. And my mom, who is so compassionate, she pops in her car and comes and drives. It's almost an hour drive from her house to my house. And I'm at that point, I think lying down in bed. Cause I just don't know what to do. And she crawls into bed and just holds me and I start bawling and it's just my whole family is kind of now in this chaos.
- [54:02]
Patia Eaton
The very next day, Heather's parents filed a police report for the missing jewelry with the Ontario Provincial Police. Jace had also been driving Heather's dad's car, a Mercedes suv, but Jace had never paid for it or bothered to transfer the title. No one knew exactly how Jace would react, but Heather's dad was advised to still go ahead and ask for the car to be returned.
- [54:27]
Heather Rivette
Send him a message and say, you want your car back by such and such a date and time and if you don't get it back, you're going to call the police. So my dad sends that note to Jace and right away Jace messages me. And keep in mind, he said he was supposed to be coming home Sunday night for a visit. It's now Sunday night and he hasn't called or anything. I get this text message from him saying like, what the hell's going on? I'll be home in 20 minutes.
- [54:51]
Patia Eaton
Heather and her friend Kristen are terrified. Jase has a lot to lose by being exposed. Heather and Kristen race through the house, locking every window, every door, and then they go and hide in the closet and call 91 1. The call is in the documentary. Heather's voice is frantic. She sounds genuinely afraid for her safety. The man with complete access to her life isn't who he said he was and he's angry that Heather knows it. The only thing bringing Heather any sense of safety in this moment is that she'd had the locks changed.
- [55:26]
Heather Rivette
At this point, I don't know what he's capable of. And we all know you hear those awful stories like you push somebody just one step too far and you don't know. And in the 911 call, she @ one point asks us like, does he have weapons? And we're like, how the fuck are we supposed to know? Like we are freaking out. And where I lived in Aurora, it was semi rural. My next door neighbors were another five acre piece of property, right? So if, if I were to stand on my front door and scream as loud as I could scream, no one's going to hear me. And I'm feeling okay because I know I've changed the locks. Like he can't get in. So we hear him pull up and, and he goes to the door closest to the garage that leads into the mud room. And I can hear him putting his key in and it's not working. I've also double bolted the locks. And then I hear him come to the front door and hear the key going in and he can't get in. And next thing I know, he's come in through a window. Somehow he managed to pry open one of those crank windows. The cranks from the inside. I don't know how he did it because everything was locked down. So he's coming in through the window and I'm not even on the phone. I think Kristen's in the closet still giving the play by play. And I go running out of the bedroom hysterical. Like I'm in full surging adrenaline terror. And you hear a little bit in the 911 call, like you can hear the screaming. And I'm basically, I think, screaming at him saying, I know everything. I know you're Jason Porter. I know what you've been doing. And he looks at me and is like, so. And goes and makes a coffee, and he makes himself a coffee. And I'm like, the cops are going to be here any minute. So the cops come. It's a male cop and a female cop. And the male cop takes Jace outside. And the female cop talks to me. And I'm hysteric, like I'm out of my mind. And I'm trying to like, just like, tell her what's going on. I'm like, you guys were here yesterday.
- [57:26]
Patia Eaton
Just read the report.
- [57:27]
Heather Rivette
Read the report. He's Jason Porter. And next thing I know, the two cops are talking. He's outside still. I'm inside. Kristen and I are both freaking out. And the female cop comes back in and she's like, we're just waiting for the sergeant. I'm like, oh, he was here yesterday. Great. He knows exactly what's going on. And she's like, well, no. Jace is now saying you assaulted him. That's why he hasn't been coming home. I'm like, what? I'm like, am I getting arrested like this? It was so crazy. So now, you know, Kristen's off 91 1, but she's on the phone with my parents. She's giving them a play by play. And they're like, what the f is this is crazy. So I don't know, within five minutes, somehow, I'm now talking to a criminal lawyer because thanks to my family being, you know, my dad was a lawyer, my cousin, we have lawyers in the family, we were able to get a criminal lawyer on the phone on a Sunday night of a Long weekend, and I'm talking to Laura, and, like, none of this is making sense. Like, the fact that the cops were even thinking of pressing charges against me. Apparently, he had some sort of evidence. But we all know that Jace is a master at photoshopping and editing, so who knows what he had concocted and probably had thought this through at some point in time and had this already ready to go.
- [58:48]
Patia Eaton
Heather and Jace both spoke to the cop separately. And ultimately the cop decided that because Jayce's name was on the lease, he was allowed to re enter the house. And Jace said as long as Heather gave him a key, he wouldn't press charges. Heather was afraid of him, and she had good reason to be. She'd found a document from his criminal past that had even shown he'd once been physically aggressive.
- [59:12]
Heather Rivette
When I said, I can't stay here, I don't feel safe, they said, ma', am, if you don't feel safe, we suggest you leave. And I'm like, but why should I leave? I'm the one who's been paying the rent. If not me, it's my company that's paying the rent. My business is downstairs, and there's about $300,000 worth of furniture down there that I'm trying to sell. Like, how am I supposed to, if I leave, feel safe, that he's not going to pull up with a u haul truck and just rob me blind? And the sergeant said, you can only take in and out of the house what is yours. I was like, what? Anyway, I had to give him a key to the house, and he said he'd be back the next day. But the cops leave. They don't even ask him about my dad's car. And then the cops leave. And within minutes of them leaving, Jace goes into the front room, which was an office again, Closes the two french doors, Takes a phone cord, wraps it around so I can't get in, and he proceeds to erase the computer. And I hadn't gotten all the screenshots off yet, so the computer's erased, the cops are gone. And then he just looks at me and he's like, I'll be back tomorrow early, and leaves. So that night, I stayed up all night and packed as much as I could into boxes and suitcases and, like, loaded it into my car and left. Like, I'm just in this state of shock. And a couple days later, I talked to the detective who was assigned to my case, and I said, I really want a restraining order. Like, this is crazy. Meanwhile, the opposite for my Mom's stuff, feels comfortable that there's enough stuff that he can arrest Jay. So within a week of all this, Jayce is arrested for stealing my mom's stuff. But because he erased all those screenshots, they'll say like 20 things were stolen from her, and we only had evidence for two. So they were able to press charges. But he wasn't kept on like he didn't have to post bail. He didn't have to do anything. But that would have been around September 13th of 2021, and that's when he would begin going through the criminal justice system.
- [61:16]
Patia Eaton
For my mom, the legal battle just to get Jace peretti, AKA Jason Porter, actually prosecuted for stealing Heather's mother's jewelry would be long, and it would be draining. Today, Heather believes that almost everything Jason Porter told her was a lie. She doesn't believe that he's Italian or that he speaks Italian or that he's ever even been to Italy. She doesn't believe he was ever an employee at Oracle. And she certainly doesn't believe that he has the prestigious educational pedigree that he claimed to. Throughout their three year relationship, Jace said he was in the midst of a custody battle. Heather had decorated a room for their home for Jayce's son. And after he was arrested, she went back to the house to clear it out. Under the bed that she had bought for his son, she found legal documents regarding this parental custody battle. And there was no trial. The custody arrangement had already been settled. He'd been lying to her for years. She'd also discovered why he kept delaying the Italy trip and failed to join her on their romantic getaway to the Dominican Republic.
- [62:26]
Heather Rivette
So hidden under the bed was a plastic bag filled with stuff and then a stack of all these family court documents. And one of the things inside the plastic bag was a letter from the family responsibility office, basically saying he's denied a passport. Because what I didn't know then, though, he was denied his passport because he was behind in child support. The fact that for over three years, I thought I was in a loving, committed relationship with Jace Peretti, but he really, in fact, was by birth, Jason Porter, who, when he got out of federal prison, changed his name and the name paratee. He literally took his mom's maiden name and added an I. Jace is short for jason. It was his first wife's nickname for him, Jace. So he wasn't even that creative. And I guess he had time in prison to come up with this whole Persona. He never stopped online dating. I think what he realized when he got out of prison is it's great to have a home base and a long term relationship which looks to the outside world and his son and his son's mom that you're a decent guy or that you've changed your ways but behind our backs. He never stopped online dating because he was posted in that one Facebook group a few times.
- [63:44]
Hannah Smith
Did you ever speak with the mother of his son?
- [63:47]
Heather Rivette
Yes.
- [63:48]
Hannah Smith
And what, you know, what did you learn?
- [63:51]
Heather Rivette
She actually knew he was Jason Porter and she had found stolen stuff all through their house. And I think she was in her own state of shock and survival and she had a child to care for. So I do remember it was a few weeks after the arrest. I messaged her on Facebook and I just said, you know, I don't know what you know about me or my relationship, but I told her a little bit and she's like, I'll call you in an hour. So she called me and we talked and she did say to me, we thought he changed with you. Which on one hand makes me think when he would show up for his kid visits, he was probably being a great dad because I would make sure he would go off with snacks and like, all the things that the lawyer told him to do, like be a good dad, and you show up with a backpack, with a change of clothes and snacks and da, da, da. So I can see where she might have thought he maybe had changed. But the truth is, people like him don't change, and he never will change, and he never did change. So when we spoke that fall of 2021, it was a little cathartic because I could tell her what I experienced and she would share with me what she went through. And she'd be like, you're just at the beginning, believe me, like, you're still going to learn more. And so we were able to kind of give each other a little, little comfort because the only people are going to understand what you truly went through are other people. But her story, except for the fact that they met on match and it wasn't an organic meetup, just there's a lot of similarities. And it's the same with, like, Leslie and even Tiffany. And it's like he has a playbook. I call it the Jace playbook. And he knows his moves and he knows his lines, and he knows who he can play, who it's going to work on. And those are like, nice, empathetic, caring women who just want love. And he uses that as a weapon. He's perfected it. He's done it over and over.
- [65:49]
Patia Eaton
The criminal proceedings against Jace took about two years, and he tried over and over again to delay them even further. But eventually, In April of 2025, he was sentenced to almost two years in prison, followed by three years probation after his release. Additionally, one of the things that happened is he tried to frame Heather, and he placed flyers on the cars belonging to the jurors. But it all came back to him, and he was just given an additional charge of jury tampering.
- [66:22]
Heather Rivette
He ended up getting arrested about, I don't know, five weeks after that for obstruction of justice, jury tampering, and some other charge, which I'm not exactly sure what it is, but the OPP detective, the same one who my parents went to that first day, said, compared to theft and crime, these are very serious charges. So I hope this is where I feel like I have a little window of opportunity to expose him for the coercion, for that fraudulent behavior. Because he lied to a superior court judge, a crown attorney. Like that has nothing to do with stealing my mom. Well, it results from stealing her jewelry, but that's pretty twisted criminal behavior.
- [67:09]
Patia Eaton
And it's like, we hear this a lot with victims of scams like this, where they have to go seeking the justice they want through these other sort of, you know, maybe more peripherally related wrongdoings or crimes. Because it's like you're saying, you know, you. You were in an intimate relationship with someone. Yeah, but they had lied about every aspect of themselves. So were you. No, not really. There needs to be more. More of a place for this in our justice system where we can really name it and call in what it is, because we're seeing it all the time.
- [67:45]
Heather Rivette
It's interesting you say that, because my mom, when all this first started happening, she was like. It's kind of, like, in vain. And I say this, and I hope it doesn't rub anyone the wrong way. But, like, when the me too light movement came to light and all these women started talking about their experiences since the documentary came out, I have received, I can't even tell you how many messages through Facebook and Instagram and personal emails from women and men around the world sharing stories with me about what they went through. So it's. You're right. It's happening. It's like, right now, intimate partner violence is very big in the news here, and they're passing acts to make it. They're calling it an epidemic. Like, it's awful. But we need to recognize the coercion and the. The emotional abuse of all this. And, you know, I remember so clearly one day in Aurora, you know, every time I had to go back to the house after I was forced out, I had to be escorted in by police. And that was traumatizing. But this one cop, he was so nice, actually, and he said, you know, it's just unfortunate, Heather, it's not against the law to lie and be an asshole. You're right. And that's essentially what he does, though. Right? Like, I guess there is a big difference. This is a whole other conversation, but there is a difference between, like, deception and fraud versus just lying. Right. And his is deception and fraud.
- [69:16]
Hannah Smith
So I first heard Heather's story because you recommended this documentary to me.
- [69:21]
Patia Eaton
I did, yeah. I actually came across it just by chance. I hadn't heard of it or I didn't read about it. I was just like, ooh, a romance scam documentary. Yes, I'll absolutely be watching that. And I did, and I was blown away. And, you know, like, documentaries, it's hard to do everything in a matter of two episodes to really fully cover a story. And I reached out to Heather because I just had a feeling like we could really dive in, and Heather was game to do that, and I just so enjoyed hearing it directly from her.
- [69:55]
Hannah Smith
Yeah. And she definitely was able to dive into some more details that they probably.
- [70:00]
Patia Eaton
Just had to cut out of the.
- [70:01]
Hannah Smith
Documentary for the sake of time, as well as there's more voices in the documentary. We don't really talk too much about that in this interview. But there are other women interviewed in the documentary who also were victims of Jace. Jason Porter. So definitely it's worth going and watching.
- [70:17]
Patia Eaton
Yeah, totally. I mean, one thing that I just kept thinking about learning about Jason Porter, Jace Perotti, whatever you prefer to call him, is, you know, this started for him back in. At least I was able to track it from, like, research back to 2009, where he was dating women and, you know, stealing from them. And I imagine, like, when the online dating landscape really took shape, it was like this. Oh, wow, this aha moment. Like, now I don't have to go on a dozen different coffee dates to, like, start these new relationships. I can just fire off messages. And, like, that had to just really ramp things up. Yes.
- [70:59]
Hannah Smith
Like, when Heather said she opened up his email, she said he was chatting with, like, hundreds of women at the same time. Obviously, that's so much easier to do digitally than back in, you know, 2009, when I imagine he was probably just meeting people in person. I don't know exactly how he was, but that would be my guess. But also probably easier to be caught nowadays than previously because there is a digital trail for everything. And it's probably easier for, like, Heather to one discover this is happening and also to connect with other victims than maybe it was in the past. So it's like both probably easier to perpetuate these crimes and also potentially easier to get caught.
- [71:46]
Patia Eaton
Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, he maybe got a little too big for his britches. Yeah.
- [71:52]
Hannah Smith
And such a bone chilling moment when she finally confronts him and he just says so and then goes and makes a coffee. That just says it all, you know, it's like, oh, wow, he was playing a part.
- [72:10]
Patia Eaton
Yeah. So confident, so brazen. And you're just like, oh, that's even scarier that, like, you don't care that I know you'll just move on to the next person.
- [72:19]
Heather Rivette
Yeah.
- [72:19]
Hannah Smith
And, you know, Heather obviously doesn't understand that yet. And so she is reacting like anyone would. If you think that you're in a relationship with someone who's like, reasonable and has been telling you the truth, like, there's that instinct to argue your case and be like, hey, no, no, this is really wrong. And he is just like, so, so wild.
- [72:40]
Heather Rivette
Yeah.
- [72:40]
Patia Eaton
He's just on another planet, like, unreachable emotionally. Yeah. So totally recommend this documentary. It's called who the F is Jason Porter? And it's available on Amazon prime, or at least that's where I watched it. So, yeah, great to hear from Heather and. And we'll see you guys next week. If you have a story for us, we would love to hear it. Our email is thenifexactlyrightmedia.com or you can follow us on Instagram Henife Podcast or Bluesky at the Knife Podcast.
- [73:14]
Hannah Smith
This has been an exactly right production. Hosted and produced by me, Hannah Smith.
- [73:18]
Patia Eaton
And me, Patia Eaton. Our producers are Tom Breyfogel and Alexis Amorosi.
- [73:23]
Hannah Smith
This episode was mixed by Tom Breifogel.
- [73:25]
Patia Eaton
Our associate producer is Christina Chamberlain.
- [73:28]
Hannah Smith
Our theme music is by Birds in the Airport.
- [73:30]
Patia Eaton
Artwork by Vanessa Lilac.
- [73:32]
Hannah Smith
Executive produced by Karen Kilgariff, Georgia Hardstark and Danielle Kramer.
- [73:44]
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- [74:14]
Heather Rivette
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Heather Rivette
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Heather Rivette
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