Heather | Betrayal Weekly

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This November, Yellow Jackets returns for the final season. The Wiskaia Kai Yellow Jackets have been found after 19 months in the wilderness. The girls may have been rescued, but homecoming is savage. No, no, no! We have to stay in control of the story. You went behind my back. We weren't supposed to leave. Stream the final season of Yellow Jackets November 20th on Paramount+. We're gonna be so, totally so. This is Iris Palmer from Against All Odds with Iris Palmer. You know it's the holidays when somebody in the family starts cooking before the sun comes up. The pupusas are grilling in the pan, everybody's sneaking bites, and somehow there's always room for one more person at the table. And nothing goes better with that first holiday plate than a delicious Coca-Cola. That crisp, refreshing taste makes everything that much better. Because the best holiday traditions aren't just about what we're eating. They're about who we're sharing those moments with. So check that shopping list twice. Stock up on Coca-Cola for all your family fiestas y disfruta Coca-Cola. It's not like he was cheating on me, because I don't think you can call it cheating when what you do is prey on women, when you are a hunter trying to find more victims. I'm Andrea Gunning, and this is Betrayal, a show about the people we trust the most, and the deceptions that change everything. Heather Rovett is the middle child in a tight-knit family. I have an older brother and a younger sister. We were all very close in age. She loved growing up in Toronto, Canada. Her childhood was filled with all the best things. Joy and fun and love and adventure and kindness. Her parents had a great marriage. My parents met in high school and were high school sweethearts, and he would look at my mom with such adoration. They also taught her the value of building a meaningful career. My mom, was a child psychologist, neuroscientist. She's very, very smart, and my father was a lawyer who specialized primarily in labor law. Through high school and university, Heather dated and fell in love a few times. I've always been able to flirt with guys, and there's been interest, but it wasn't my main focus. I've always been able to flirt with girls, and I've always been able to flirt with boys. I've always been able to flirt with boys. I've always been able to flirt with girls. The career came easily to Heather. I can see how you can transform a space or how you can make it your home. I just had this tenacity and energy. Over the next 10 years, Heather gained recognition in Toronto's real estate scene. By her late 30s, she had built a career she loved. I loved working. And it paid off. And then it allowed me to do cool things, too, like go on trips. She also made a good amount of money. She decided to renovate her condo in Toronto. and she invested some of her funds with a financial advisor. I would meet with him quarterly and he would show me paperwork of how my money was doing and I thought it was great. And when push came to shove and I wanted to sell and get my money back, he basically disappeared. She'd been scammed. He got arrested and there was about five other people he did this to. The sad thing is, Even though he was found guilty and ordered to pay restitution, I never saw a penny. She lost $127,000. The scam was damaging not only financially, but also to her sense of trust in other people. But with time, Heather accepted the loss and was able to rebuild. She was in her mid-40s and single. She managed to pull together the funds to finish renovating her condo. And I transformed that condo into a beautiful space. And then one day, I noticed, you know, there were just some things that weren't quite right. Heather noticed an issue with the cabinets, so she called the company who had installed them. They agreed to send someone out to take a look. He was like, no problem. We have a new service guy. He's great. I'm going to give him your contact info and he'll be in touch. And probably a week later, on a Monday morning in July, I woke up to a text message. This is Jace, and I was hoping I could come by today to fix the outstanding work. An hour later, there was a knock at my door, and I was greeted by this very ruggedly cute guy. I was a little befuddled. I found myself a little tongue-tied and was like, oh wow sure come on in jace got to work fixing the cabinets in her kitchen and afterwards i asked him if he could help me hang a couple towel bars up in the bathrooms and he happily obliged we were about three quarters of the way through hanging the second one and his phone was ringing and he was like oh my gosh i'm so behind schedule i gotta go he goes do you have this i'm like i got it don't worry. But she didn't have it. And I kind of made more of a mess of it. It was on an angle and I noticed on my kitchen island was his measuring tape. So I called him and said, you left your measuring tape here. And by the way, I've made a mess of this towel bar. And he laughed and he said, you know what? I'm literally 10 minutes away. Why don't I swing back over and we'll fix it. And he comes in and within two minutes it's fixed. Heather offered to treat Jace to lunch to thank him for going out of his way, and he agreed. Over lunch, we started talking, and I did share with him about, you know, the stress of the renovation and the guy who stole my money. Jace was sympathetic. He was also going through his own legal battle. I learned a little bit more about him. He had a child and he was going through family court and he had his own software engineering business, but he was winding that down because of the divorce. I was like, this is so great. This guy just is so easy to talk to. Jace used to be a software engineer, but after a difficult separation, he decided to take a break from office work. He wanted a job working with his hands, which is how he got into carpentry. At the end of their lunch, Jace insisted on paying. I walked him back to his truck, and he said, you know, if you need any more help around the condo, I know we didn't get everything done. Message me, call me anytime. I'm like, okay. On her walk home, she couldn't stop smiling. Oh my gosh, was I just flirting? Like, that guy was really cute. Later that evening, she decided to try and tackle some other projects herself. I went to look for my, what I like to call my single girl toolbox, which is the hammer, a leveler, and the one screwdriver. And I couldn't find my screwdriver anywhere. So she texted Jace. I just said, hey, you didn't happen to see a green screwdriver? And he wrote back, he's like, well, what can I say? I found myself later in the day in possession of your screwdriver and I didn't know what to do with it. if I should be honest, or just return it. He told her that he was holding her screwdriver hostage. She thought it was cute, funny even. That led to about two weeks of really flirtatious banter over text. And I thought it was really fun. Every time I got a text from him, it was like a bing, like an endorphin hit. They started texting every day. Jace wasn't shy about his attraction to her. - I remember he sent this one message and he said, "Just please tell me you know how sexy you are, Heather." I'm like, "What?" and I jokingly said well you should see me when I'm really cleaned up I mean you met me I was like just rolled out of bed lol and he said no it's not that he goes like it's your mind like do you know how freaking sexy that is to me and I was like wow this is so refreshing like this guy isn't just about how I look he likes my mind like this is awesome so there was this tension that was definitely building and this flirtation finally after two weeks of flirting Jace asked her out on a proper date he showed up on a motorcycle which I thought was really sexy we walked to a cute little Italian restaurant around the corner from my house it was a great date and Heather learned more about him he shared with me how his mom had died when he was a teenager and he talked a bit more about the custody battle and I asked him I'm like that's pretty heavy stuff like how do you deal with that much loss and that much pain and he said I put it all in boxes he was being really vulnerable with her and she was impressed with how he was able to deal with everything he had gone through she found it really attractive the date ended and we walked back to my place and we're both sort of shuffling in the doorway and I'm like oh my god I'm so happy to be back in the doorway and I'm like in my mind going is he gonna kiss me and I was like fuck it I'm just gonna go for it so I leaned in to kiss him I was like hey thanks bye that was really fun and next thing I know he's pushed me up against the wall and we start making out and this kiss was like a kiss I've never experienced before it was passionate and intense Jace left her in the doorway stunned I went to sleep that night with the biggest smile on my face when I woke up the next morning there was already a text message from him saying good morning Heather it's a beautiful day and I hope you're smiling like something cheesy but lovely and I was like wow the next night Jace came over to her place and he brought a bottle of wine in my mind I'm thinking this is like really your second date with this guy you don't know him you know should you do the whole like three date rule or is it a three date rule three week rule or a three month rule or I don't know and all of a sudden whatever self-imposed rules I had were just out the window they couldn't wait to see each other again it was the start of a summer romance couple weeks later he took me out and bought me a motorcycle helmet and we that summer went everywhere on the motorcycle it was so fun we had such a good time I loved every minute of it I don't think I slept a whole night for at least three months because I just was so excited having this gorgeous human being lying beside me I was like oh my god am I dreaming this is crazy and soon enough we were saying I love you he said it first Heather introduced Jace to her family in September he met my mom and she really liked him my birthday which is in October he met my sister and her boyfriend and then a couple weeks later he met my dad it was harder for her to meet Jace's family because a lot of them still lived in Italy he was born in Italy and both his Italian grandfathers fought in World War II for the Allies he came from a fascinating background when my friends started meeting him they all thought he was pretty great and I was just so happy life was pretty electric even like the the simple activities like going grocery shopping became fun because I wasn't doing it alone anymore and I felt that my future was limitless and we were just gonna live the best life ever the holidays are coming which means we'll all be spending more time away from home whether you're visiting family or doing something actually fun you want to know your home is protected while you're away that's why now is a good time to think about home security with simply safe unlike traditional security systems that alert you after a break-in starts simply safe is a good time to think about home security with simply safe is 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additional details one thing i've learned from producing true crime these past few years is that life can change in an instant most people never expect to find themselves in a dangerous situation they're heading home from work walking the dog meeting a friend traveling alone and they assume it's just another ordinary day until it isn't that's why i want you to know about saber smart pepper spray yes it's designed to help protect you but what makes it different is the connected app if you're ever forced to use it in an emergency it can alert your emergency contacts and share your location so when every second matters you can use it in an emergency and share your location so in every second matters the people who care about you most aren't left wondering where you are they're not left searching they're not left guessing they know where to start we can't always predict the unexpected but we can be prepared for it learn more at saber red.com slash betrayal that's saber red.com slash betrayal heather rovette had a meet cute with a man who fixed her kitchen cabinets his name was jace peretti heather and jace fell hard and fast heather rovette had a meet cute with a man who fixed her kitchen cabinets his name was jace peretti and a whirlwind summer romance turned into a solid relationship my second birthday with him he said check your email and i said okay and i looked at my email and there were air canada tickets from toronto to rome and i looked at him i was like we're going to italy and he said we're going to italy and i was like wow i can't believe we're going to go during this time jace was dealing with a lot of stress he wanted more time with his young son but he and his ex were constantly in and out of family court it was really hard for him he had been the primary parent because he was working from home so he went from spending all this time with his kid to now only seeing him two times a week for supervised visits when heather asked jace about the custody arrangement he explained because he had both a canadian and an italian passport her lawyer put the idea into her mind and the court that jace had the capability of kidnapping their son and taking him to Italy. She felt for Jace. He wasn't that guy. He loved his son. He would go to the town she was living in and he would take him out for dinner and then he would take him home and tuck him in and say goodnight to him and read him stories. Heather and Jace had been together for two years. They were living together in Toronto, but she had never met his son. With this custody arrangement, it put their relationship in a holding pattern. Honestly, not meeting his son in the family court was the albatross around our relationship's neck. It was the only thing we would fight about. I just couldn't understand that the family court was taking so long. I was like, this is so unfair. Heather was trying to help Jace regain some agency in the situation. She tried to help him in any way she could. I was like, you need a lawyer. So I had arranged a meeting for him with another very well-known Toronto family lawyer. And she said, the trial's just around the corner and things will get settled. Let's hold off on introducing Heather for now. It was frustrating, but Heather didn't want to do anything that would compromise Jace's custody of his son. She agreed it was best to wait until everything was settled to bring his son into the family court. In the meantime, she wanted to set up their home. So when the time came, they would be prepared to welcome him. I turned the guest room into a little boy's room. And I had toys for him and books for him and games for him. And I spent two weeks online trying to find like the perfect duvet cover for his bedroom because I was so obsessed with making everything amazing for him. And I couldn't wait for him to come and start having sleepovers at our house. But every time she got her hopes up, something would happen. And it just kept being pushed back. And then I remember in early February, he came home and he was a little upset. And he said, you're never going to believe it, Heather, but the trial's been set. And it's when we're in Italy. Jace had to be at the trial. There was no way around it. I said, wow. Okay. Well, obviously, we're not going to be able to do anything. We're not going to be able to do anything. We're not going to Italy. Like, we've been waiting for this now for two and a half years. Like, we'll just postpone the trip. I'll cancel the hotels and whatnot. They canceled their trip to Italy when the day of the trial came. He came home and he said, yeah, things are good. We have a two-week adjournment and then we're going back. And she has to provide me with a full repayment schedule for the house and the line of credit that she shut me out of. And most importantly, I'm going to be able to go back to Italy. And most importantly, instead of having two supervised visits a week, they were going to start phasing into unsupervised and then one night sleepover on the weekend. And I was like, this is so great. I was like, yes, thank you. Like, finally, finally, finally. It was good news, but terrible timing. And then in that two-week window, COVID happened and the whole world got locked down, which meant no family court. It was March 2020. And Toronto went into lockdown. Soon, Heather and Jace began looking at houses to rent outside the city. I wanted space and solitude. I found this house for rent and it was perfect. And it was on five acres of property. It had this beautiful family room with a vaulted ceiling and a wood-burning fireplace. They signed the lease together and moved to Aurora, Ontario. It was exactly the refuge they hoped it would be. That winter, we had fires almost every day. I loved that house. I remember one day, a couple weeks after we moved in, we were standing on the back deck and there's wild turkeys and often you'd see deer and bunnies. And he said, this would be the best place to have a backyard wedding. And I was like, yes, it would. They started daydreaming about throwing a big celebration at the house once COVID restrictions lifted. During the lockdown, Heather and Jace had to find new ways to connect with friends and family. Heather called her mom often. My mom, probably back in April, called and she was like, have you seen my bracelet? Or have you seen this necklace? And I'm like, no. And I'd get off the phone and I'd look at Jace. And I'm like, I think my mom's starting to like forget things. You know, she seems to be misplacing all her stuff. It was just like, one thing after the other with her. Like, my grandmother died of dementia. Dementia ran in Heather's family, but there wasn't much they could do from afar. Plus, the pandemic had destabilized both Heather and Jace financially. He had just started a new remote job back in software development. He had gotten this job for Oracle. But even when we moved to Aurora and we had to pay the first and last month's rent and a security deposit, I am not going to be able to do that. I ended up paying for all of it because he didn't have anything saved. How can this be? Like, you're getting Oracle paychecks. When push came to shove, he just never seemed to have money. Between his custody battle and COVID, Jace had depleted his savings. But what was in his bank account didn't matter to Heather. She could support the both of them. The bigger issue for her was that she still hadn't met Jace's son. I had set up the room for his son in the house and he still kept, going two times a week on his supervised visits to see his son. I'm starting to really resent this situation. At the end of 2020, Heather bought a furniture and decor business and moved the inventory into their home. And when we moved to Aurora, Jace started getting really into building furniture. I was like, well, that's a no-brainer. I can sell all that inventory and make my investment back tenfold. And we can sell all this furniture. Jace was working more and more at Oracle. He was coming home late. And when he was home, he was exhausted from working long hours. He never seemed to have energy for Heather or for their new furniture business. The couple started getting in fights more often. By June of 2021, I was getting frustrated with my life with him because I felt like the world's opening up. And here we are, and he seems to always be working and he never wants to do anything. And I just felt very isolated. She wasn't happy. So I was like, fuck it. And I said something like, you know, if you're not into this relationship, just tell me. And then that turned into a pretty escalated, heated argument. And he left. And I felt really bad. And said, you know, I think I'm going to go down to the city for a couple of days just to give us a bit of space. Heather wanted to actually talk with him. Something was going on, but he wasn't giving her anything. After a few days apart, Heather headed back to their house. And I call him and he said, oh, hey, I'm just about to go tee off. I'm like, what? You're going golfing? And he goes, I'm not quite ready to forgive you yet. Forgive her for what? She hadn't done anything. But Jace hung up the phone. He finally gets home from golfing and he goes, by the way, I washed the sheets. The duvet cover is still in the dryer. I was just crying. Like, I don't understand what's going on. The more I cried, the more he was actually getting kind of angry and frustrated. I started going, this just doesn't seem normal. But I just kept saying, you know what? We'll get through it. We love each other. And we'll get through this. But August 2021 was such a brutal month because he just stopped coming home. He was claiming he was sleeping in the car or sleeping at the office and he would randomly stop by the house to like pick something up. Heather had uprooted her life to be with Jace. She'd supported him financially for years. She decorated a bedroom for his son to stay in. But all of a sudden, a switch had flipped. Jace had discarded her. Heather didn't know what to do. I've gone through the whole month of August alone, living in this big house by myself and just hurting so badly. Every effort I made to mend us, he just spat venom back at me. And it was a really scary time. Then one afternoon, Heather was doing work on her laptop. When signing into one of her accounts, a screen popped up with all of her saved passwords, including the login for Jace's email. Heather wondered if his email account might hold some of the answers she couldn't get from Jace himself. So she typed in his password. All of a sudden, I'm in his email. She started scrolling through his inbox, expecting to find work emails and messages from friends. But instead, it's Bumble match. Badoo. Zoot. Like, he's on every dating app. I'm like, what? The email is right there. revealed dozens of relationships Jace was having with other women. Heather couldn't believe what she was seeing. She kept scrolling. That began me going down hours of rabbit holes and emails and screenshots. Then I got further and I started seeing Kijiji ads. Kijiji is like the Canadian version of Craigslist. People post items for sale. Heather saw emails confirming sales Jace made through the site. It was a Kijiji ad for Tiffany bracelet, Tiffany ring, and I'd click on it. I'm like, oh my God, what the fuck? That's my mom's stuff. The holidays are coming, which means we'll all be spending more time away from home. Whether you're visiting family or doing something actually fun, you want to know your home is protected while you're away. That's why now is a good time to think about home security with SimpliSafe. Unlike traditional security systems that alert you after you leave the home, you break-in starts, SimpliSafe is designed to help stop intruders before they get inside. These days, you're worried about your house, you're out of town, and then something comes up and you get to look on your phone and SimpliSafe is going to show you not only the video of like, it's a raccoon at your front door, but also that they have staff that's sitting there. They already know. And if it was something different or worse, they would have already been on it. Yeah. I really think that's invaluable peace of mind that just like relying on your neighbors, paying attention is not going to give you much. It's not going to give you much. It's not going to give you. We've partnered with SimpliSafe to offer our listeners their biggest savings of the year, 70% off your new system with professional monitoring. When you visit SimpliSafe.com slash MFM. That's SimpliSafe.com slash MFM. And when you order, write in MFM at checkout and it tells them we sent you and it really helps the show. SimpliSafe, ahead of crime in real time. Goodbye. If anxiety, depression, or ADHD feels like more than just a rough patch, you may need more than talk therapy alone. Talk Iron Tree connects you, with real psychiatric care from the comfort of home. Talk Iron Tree is a 100% online psychiatric practice offering comprehensive evaluations, diagnoses, and ongoing medication management for conditions like anxiety, depression, ADHD, and more. Licensed psychiatrists can create a personalized treatment plan and prescribe medication when appropriate. Plus, Talk Iron Tree accepts major insurers, so you can use your existing insurance for care. Getting started takes just a few minutes. Talk Iron Tree is a 100% online psychiatric practice offering comprehensive assessments. Complete a short online assessment, get matched with an in-network psychiatrist, and schedule your first visit in days, not months. Head to TalkIronTree.com slash betrayal to complete the short assessment and get matched with an in-network psychiatrist in just a few minutes. That's T-A-L-K-I-A-T-R-Y dot com slash betrayal to get matched in minutes. TalkIronTree.com slash betrayal. What if you could save up for that new car or vacation just by buying the stuff you need? Well, you can. You can get it at TalkIronTree.com slash betrayal. With the OnePay banking app, you earn 3% cash back on up to $150 in monthly spending in categories you choose, so it's easy to save. For me, I'd love to save up for a really nice vacation and maybe put some money aside for a new car. It's always nice having something to look forward to, and knowing you're actually making progress towards those bigger goals feels really good. So what are you saving for? Download the OnePay app or visit OnePay.com for banking that gives you more for what matters. OnePay is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by Coastal Community Bank or Lead Bank, members FDIC. Cash back is earned as points. Go to OnePay.com forward slash rewards dash terms for redemption options and additional details. One thing I've learned from producing true crime these past few years is that life can change in an instant. Most people never expect to find themselves in a dangerous situation. They're traveling alone, and they assume it's just another ordinary day, until it isn't. That's why I want you to know about Sabre Smart Pepper Spray. Yes, it's designed to help protect you, but what makes it different is the connected app. If you're ever forced to use it in an emergency, it can alert your emergency contacts and share your location. So when every second matters, the people who care about you most aren't left wondering where you are. They're not left searching. They're not left guessing. They know where to start. We can't always predict the unexpected, but we can be prepared for it. Learn more at SabreRed.com slash betrayal. That's SabreRed.com slash betrayal. For months, Jace was growing more and more distant. Everything Heather did to try and reconnect only pushed him further away. One day, Heather accidentally logged into Jace's email and discovered he was using multiple dating apps. Heather was horrified. The man who she'd built a life with for the last three years had dozens of other relationships. As she scrolled through his inbox, she saw something else that made her stomach drop. Jace was selling jewelry online, and Heather recognized the pieces. The first one I opened was for this Tiffany necklace. It was a white gold circle with diamonds, and a simple chain. I'm like, I'm pretty sure that's my mom's necklace, you know? I have pictures of her wearing it. Looking through the rest of Jace's jewelry sales only confirmed what she feared. He had been stealing her mom's jewelry for years and selling it online. I was just horrified that he could do that. And horrified by how long he'd been doing it for. It wasn't like he just did it all out. One foul swoop. It wasn't like a break and enter where you're just like throwing everything in a bag and getting out of there. The dates of the jewelry sales told an eerie story. Jace had been stealing it piece by piece. He would steal a necklace when they went over to her parents' house for dinner, and then the next time, it would be earrings. Because he did this so slowly and insidiously, it took Heather's mom months to even notice. And it wouldn't be until she eventually like opened the entire safe box, that she saw it was all empty. All the bags and boxes were there. Heather sat in front of her laptop, seething. She wanted an explanation. I called him. He didn't answer. She knew he would twist this, try to explain his way out of it. She would need proof of everything she was seeing. So she got to work. I just took screenshot after screenshot, and I just sat there for hours. As she took screenshots of everything, the full extent of his deception became clear. Jace had another life. Since the beginning. And when I went back and went through the email, I'm seeing email after email of like, you're a match, you're a match, going back our entire relationship. Then she came across an email that changed everything. It was about his family court proceedings. Heather clicked on the attachment, her eyes locked on a line at the top of the page, name of respondent, Jason Porter. It was a completely different name. The document made no mention of Jace Peretti. My stomach went up in my throat and my throat went in my stomach and I felt cold and hot at the same time. So she Googled Jason Porter. I was just shocked. At the very end of 2011, there was a warrant out for his arrest and all the news outlets were picking it up here in Ontario and they dubbed him the online Romeo because he had been meeting women and stealing from them. This cannot be my Jace. This is not my life. This is not the man I love. Like, how is, how did I not see this? Back in 2012, Jace pled guilty to multiple fraud charges and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison. He was released in 2014. After getting out of prison, he changed his legal name from Jason Porter to Jace Peretti. By the time he met Heather a few years later, he was going by a variation of that name, Jace Peretti. Heather was sick. This was so much darker than she imagined. Jace wasn't just lying to cover up the fact that he was cheating. He was lying about who he was. It's not like he was cheating on me because I don't think you can call it cheating when what you do is prey on women. When you are a hunter on these dating apps trying to find more victims. It was getting dark out. Then the phone rang. I was like, holy shit, it's him. It was probably going on like 8.30, 9 o'clock at this point on a Friday night of a lot. It was Labor Day weekend here in Canada. She picked up. I'm trying to be calm, cool, and like, I do not want to let go. let him know that I'm on to him. And I just remember this so well. I could hear crickets in the background. Jace told her that he was in the city for the night. He's like, oh, I just got back to the offices. We just finished up. I'm like, oh, wow, that's really late. That's so weird, though, because, you know, I grew up in Toronto. I've never heard crickets. Never heard crickets. Heather tried to hide her suspicion, but it was hard. And I said, I feel like I don't even know who you are anymore, Jace. And he was like, what do you mean? I was like, I've gone from spending every weekend with you to now, like, the past month. It's 9 o'clock on a Friday night, and I have no idea what you're doing this weekend. Like, we're supposed to be working on our relationship, and I just feel like I don't even know who you are anymore. He recommended that they talk over dinner on Sunday, and Heather agreed. And within minutes of getting off the phone, I refreshed, and I was logged in. I was logged out of all the different accounts that I had been in, and I was like, uh-oh. Jace must have heard the suspicion in Heather's voice. He knew he'd been caught. Heather called her friend Kristen, who rushed out to Aurora to help her figure out what to do. She's now sitting on the couch, reading through all the screenshots, and she's like, this is his job. I think he's getting women to send him money. Heather's friend was right. He had never been a software engineer for Oracle. His full-time job was being a con artist, a romance scammer. In the course of just a few hours, Heather's understanding of the man she loved had been completely rearranged. She saw that everything about him was a carefully constructed character. The Jace she cared so deeply for did not exist anymore. And now, she was faced with Jason Porter, a stranger. the next day heather's sister and brother-in-law encouraged her to call the police they sent two police officers to the house and i start telling the cops what i've discovered and the cops asked me if he had hurt me and i said physically and they said yes and i was like well no but i am scared and i said to the cops can i get a restraining order and they basically laughed at me they're like no we can't give you one and I was like oh okay well it's okay I want to call a locksmith and change all the locks and they said I wouldn't advise you to do that ma'am he is your co-tenant and he has rights according to the lease and that's when I looked at them I was like how can our lease even be real like the name on the lease is Jace Peretti he's not Jace Peretti they just dismissed me and then you know their parting words were basically but if he does come back to the house and you feel scared, call 911 and we'll come back. The police couldn't really do anything. It left Heather in shock. I'm in disbelief, like just nauseatingly sick. The reality, I guess, is slowly sinking in that my life is all a fucking lie. But Heather's parents had a plan. Jace had been borrowing her dad's car. That whole summer, Jace had been driving around in my dad's Mercedes SUV because my dad had stopped driving. There had been no payment and he was just freely driving around. Maybe they could have him arrested for car theft. Heather's dad went to the police to explain the situation. The advice that the officer had given him was send him a text message and just say that you 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 and report it stolen. That's what they did. Heather's dad texted Jace. As soon as my dad sent that, my phone's ringing and it's him. And then I'm getting text messages saying, what the hell's going on? I'll be home in 20 minutes. Jace was on his way to the house. At that point, he must have known the jig was up. Heather began to panic. She was grateful that she wasn't alone and that her friend Kristen was there. Kristen is the one who called 911. We're terrified. It was a pretty big house and there was a lot of doors and I'm running around just like double checking. Everything is locked. We're turning off all the lights. They debated whether it was safer to leave or stay locked in the house. Kristen's like, I think we should leave. I think we should leave. I'm like, but where are we going to go? I'm like, we're safe because, you know, like, he can't get in. The night before, despite the police's advice, Heather had changed the locks, so she felt safe enough to stay. And the 911 lady's like, don't leave. The police are on their way. The next thing you know, we hear him coming down the driveway, and he's in my dad's car. Kristen's on the phone with 911. She's saying, like, he's here, he's here. Like, he's at the back, and she's like, just stay calm, just stay calm. The police have been dispatched. They're on their way. She's like, where the fuck are they? I can hear my heart thumping. It came down the driveway and beside the garage is a side door. And then you're in the mudroom. So I hear him like put his key in there. Then I hear him come to the front door. Same thing, put his key in. Didn't work. She was relieved. And then the next thing I know, he's come in through the dining room window. He had broken into the house. Heather felt a surge of adrenaline and she made a snap decision. And I, like, bolt out of the bedroom, screaming. I said, I know who you are. I know you're Jason Porter. I know you've been online dating. I know you've been in prison. I know everything. But Jace was unfazed. He's in the kitchen, going to the coffee machine to make himself an espresso. And he literally looks at me and shrugs and he's like, so? minutes later the cops arrived i'm like freaking out he's so calm and cool and collected one of the cops took jace aside to talk with him one-on-one and i was like what's going on like why why aren't you arresting him and they're like he's claiming you assaulted him heather i couldn't even believe what i was hearing i guess that night we had the fight five weeks prior. Now he's claiming I assaulted him and apparently there's some sort of proof. Heather told them that never happened. I said you know this guy is a master photoshopper and he can edit videos like whatever the evidence is it's not real. And they said Jace is not going to press charges tonight however he is reinstating himself in the house and you have to give him one of the new keys. Heather was incredulous. She couldn't believe the police's response. They said to me, if you don't feel safe, you should leave. The police left and they left us in the house together. As soon as the police left, Jace jumped into action. Jace goes into the office, which also had two French doors, And he took an iPhone cord and wrapped it around so I couldn't come in. And he sat there and he erased the computer. And then he comes out and he was like, I'll be back tomorrow early. Heather wanted to be gone by the time he came back. I loaded up the car with as much as I could. And Kristen brilliantly walked through the entire house and the entire downstairs where the showroom was and made recordings saying, this is Heather's, this is Heather's, this is Heather's, this is the business. That's Jace's. About a week later, Heather returned to the house for the first time. There were already things missing. He had taken my Dyson. He took the Google speakers. He took my GoPro camera. Like, he took all the stuff. During this time, Heather found out Jace had a new girlfriend. He was taking things that were mine and giving them to her. So the whole month, I thought he was living at the office or sleeping in his car. He had, in fact, moved in with this other woman. She later learned that when she'd gone to the city for a few days and Jace mentioned washing the sheets, it was because his new girlfriend had been at the house and had slept in her bed. Heather's parents decided to press charges for the stolen jewelry. Jace agreed to turn himself in, but before he did, he showed up at the Aurora house and asked Heather to let him in to talk one last time. I sat down at the kitchen table and he's leaning at the island and he still said, you know, you're the best thing that ever happened to me, Heather. I loved you. He tried to convince me he never cheated on me. And this is all just a big misunderstanding. This is just going to devastate my son. The son she'd never met. In that moment, Heather felt split in two. There's the part of me that's looking at him going, I love this person. My heart still looks at him and feels love. And then there's the other side of me that's like disbelief and he stole all your mom's jewelry and he's a predator. She saw through the facade. And I was like, you did all this, like you're still gaslighting me. You're still trying to turn this around and make it like it's my fault. And he left. - And he went off and got arrested? - In September of 2021, he was arrested for theft under $5,000. and possession of property obtained by crime. When Jace erased the computer at their house in Aurora, he deleted a lot of evidence. Heather and her family hired a lawyer to help them prove that Jace stole far more than $5,000 from them. Heather wanted to get out of the house she shared with Jace. She began to sell off their belongings. She listed the furniture she bought for Jace's son on Facebook Marketplace and began clearing out the kids' bedroom, which had sat empty during their whole relationship. Then I see this, like, all this stuff under the bed. I'm like, what is that? So I pull it out, and it's a plastic bag just stuffed with, like, papers. These were court documents. And I realize I'm staring at all his things from family court. And I'm reading that he was only ever going to have these twice-a-week supervised visits. There's no custody battle. Jason Porter does have a son. In fact, he has more than one child, though Heather only ever heard about one. But his custody arrangement had been decided in February 2019, a year before Heather and Jace moved in together. The hope that Jace and Heather would have unsupervised visits or sleepovers with his son was never a reality. The central tension of their relationship, Heather waiting to meet his son, the custody battle, it was all manufactured. There was no lawyer. There was no nothing. It was all a lie. I had been deceived for over three years about this family court situation that didn't exist. And also in that bag were the birthday cards and Christmas cards I had given his son. And that wasn't all. As she continued to clean out the house, Heather found more and more. There were my mom's missing credit cards. There were all these SIM cards and credit cards and a burner phone. I can't even believe what I'm looking at. Jace didn't have to post bail. And shortly after being arrested, he was released again. August, September, October of 2021 were probably three of the worst months of my life because it was just exhausting. And what made it even harder was that she got little to no help from the police. I realized when the police weren't going to help me, I wanted answers. I wanted somebody to hold this guy accountable. She got in touch with a local journalist at Toronto Life magazine. They do often some really great investigative stories. And maybe like a week later, I was sitting down with a journalist, Jane Gerster, and she was incredible. I realized if I hold on to feelings, I'm embarrassed and ashamed about what he did to me. It just gives him more power and more fuel. Heather wanted to take back her story and she wanted to stop Jace. This article would be a great way to do that when the piece came out. Within days, I'm having people reach out to me and I'm like, oh my God, I'm connecting with more victims of his and I have more people just randomly reaching out to me. She learned really quickly the scale of Jace Importer's con. He had scammed so many women and their stories all followed the same pattern. Jace posed as the perfect boyfriend in order to gain access to their possessions. The story being out in the open allowed them to come together. All the women I've connected with, they're lovely. Leslie, I talked to her yesterday. I talk to her all the time. She is such a beautiful, amazing woman. Judy, I have so much respect for her. She is such a titan in, in business and there's some that I still haven't even met in person, but like every now and then, one of them will call and they'll be like, I was thinking about you. Jace hurt a lot of people. It took three and a half years for Heather to finally see her day in court. Once everything was uncovered, Heather's family learned that Jace stole over $50,000 in value from them through stolen property, purchases made with Heather's credit card, unpaid bills and more. But because Jace deleted, everything off the computer, there wasn't enough evidence to prove the full extent of his crimes. In January of 2024, we finally were set to start the trial. And as luck would have it, Jace's lawyer was sick that day. So everybody got sent home and court was going to re-adjourn on Wednesday. And I was going to be the first witness up. I get a phone call from the OPP detective saying, don't bother coming to court. Court's been adjourned. I'm like, why? Well, some very serious allegations have been brought forward. He said, did you see flyers the other day at court? I'm like, flyers? Like, what are you talking about? The courthouse had been canvassed with flyers campaigning against Jace. And it's a picture of Jace and it says, guilty Jace Parati. And he said, they basically implicate you for, for jury tampering, Heather. It looked like someone was trying to bias the jury against him. And that could have serious consequences. At the very bottom of the flyer, it says something like, if you have more information or would like to be interviewed, contact Heather Rovette at Gmail or call. And it was my phone number, but I'm like, oh, he actually got my phone number wrong by one digit. The police began investigating who was behind the flyers. Jace was eventually arrested for obstruction of justice, jury tampering. And Detective Kahn said to me, these are very serious allegations. These actually hold way more weight than the theft and crime. On January 20th, 2025, Jace pled guilty to one count of theft of property over $5,000 and one count of possession of property obtained, claimed by crime, over $5,000. Two months later, there was a sentencing hearing. And we got to read our victim impact statements. And I went in person and he was there. And he wouldn't look at me. He wouldn't acknowledge me. The judge ended up giving him more time than the prosecutors asked for. So he got two years less one day. She definitely made a point of referencing that it wasn't just, a robbery and theft. It was calculated, done over a length of time. There was the intimacy and bringing him into my family. He really betrayed our trust. The judge ordered him into custody and he was led away in handcuffs. After her trial, Heather had to focus on healing and rebuilding her life. I had two therapists. I did a lot of EMDR for the trauma. I've gotten way more into meditating. And kundalini yoga. I know it all helps. Another part of her healing has been sharing her story. Heather told her story on a documentary, alongside other women that were victimized by Jason Porter. By talking publicly, I felt like it gave me back my story. Like it gave me control. It gave me confidence. It gave me the power back. She's become a face of the movement to criminalize and stop serial romance, scammers. And after all of this, it's still not a crime what he did to me. You know, I really hope that times change and I just wish the system would recognize the emotional abuse, especially if it's from a known felon. It's helping her and she hopes her story brings awareness. My story is not unique. There is a Jason. In every town, city, province, country around the world. One in 25 people are sociopaths, psychopaths, narcissists, whatever. If something doesn't feel right, you ought to be able to speak to that person and get a straight answer. But it's very hard when you are being conditioned, groomed, love-bombed, and you're not thinking straight. And I do think those, little nudges of not feeling right, it's easy to ignore them. But I do think that's like your deepest intuition. Like that's something in you that's saying like, uh-uh, that doesn't, listen, listen. And it's a soft whisper. But I think we have to listen to that. We end every weekly episode with the same question. Why do you want to share your story? Why do you want to share your story with us? Your podcast, I feel, helps heal the internal bruises that we can't see. Like you just feel this like, oh my God, it's not just me. I'm not so alone. I'm not making up how I'm feeling. Like it's so validating. It's that human heart connection that's so important. When you tell your story, you're taking ownership of it. And that is so empowering. If you want to watch it, click the link in the description. watch Heather's documentary, you can find it on Amazon Prime. It's called RomCon. Who the F is Jason Porter? On the next episode of Betrayal Weekly. She made it seem like it was a normal thing, but we'd have gold bars. A gold bar, I remember at the time it being like $10,000. It was like the slow burn to like, that wasn't weird to me. I don't think I was even always told what I was doing. I just did whatever she asked me to do. If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal team or want to tell us your betrayal story, email us at BetrayalPod at gmail.com. That's Betrayal, P-O-D at gmail.com. Or follow us on Instagram at BetrayalPod. You can also connect with me on Instagram at It's Andrea Gunning. To access our newsletter, view additional comments, and subscribe to our YouTube channel. And connect with the Betrayal community, join our Substack at Betrayal.Substack.com. We're grateful for your support. One way to show support is by subscribing to our show on Apple Podcasts. And don't forget to rate and review Betrayal. Five-star reviews go a long way. A big thank you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Faison. Hosted and produced by me, Andrea Gunning. This episode was written and produced by Olivia Hewitt and Monique Laborde, with additional production from Ben Fetterman. Casting support from Curry Richmond. Our iHeart team is Allie Perry and Jessica Kreincheck. Audio editing and mixing by Matt Dalvecchio. Additional audio editing by Tanner Robbins. Betrayal's theme composed by Oliver Baines. Music library provided by MIB Music. And for more podcasts from iHeart Podcasts, visit our website at iHeart.com. Visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What if you could save up for that new car or vacation just by buying the stuff you're already buying? 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