LETTERS TO LOVEFRAUD: The private investigator’s double life

Lovefraud received the following story from a woman who wanted to be referred to as “PI’s ex-wife.”

I am a well-educated, professional, hard-working person. I moved to Utah, a divorcee with four children twenty years ago. All four of my children are college graduates, two of them are masters level, and are productive members of society. At a church function, I met an investigator with the police department and we became friends. He had all the props: his parents were active members of our church, salt of the earth, well-educated and community contributors. A few weeks after we met, HE told me that the police department was giving him a choice to resign or be fired because HE had been “framed”—everyone in the PD was jealous of HIM. Of course, the story was not that direct but was designed in a solemn, gentle, believable-over-dinner kind of way. There were small, sensitive acts of kindness and thoughtfulness, detail-oriented plans to make me feel genuinely loved and appreciated.

Fast-forward 18 years: After finding out HE had been “let go” from a total of four PDs, three of them before we were married, affairs that started within the first year of marriage, endless lies, pornography (online and what he filmed himself), paying one woman almost $40,000 in blackmail money, draining my accounts of $20,000, bilking friends and neighbors out of $$$, setting up a PI business as a front, destroying many families (involving children), being registered in almost every online dating site, funneling $$$ to his sister, exploding in rage with every discovery of deceit (my fault, of course), reminding me that I was to “forgive 70 times 7,” telling me that he was talking with the bishop on a regular basis (when, in fact, it had been only once and just general small talk), leaving for 1-2 weeks at a time when enraged ”¦ blah, blah, blah, I said, “no more”.

We had been “married” for 17 years. He had done the minimal amount of work at home, never once contributed financially to house or utilities because “it was all going back into his business” so that I could retire at a reasonable age. He would, however, bring home dinner on the days that I worked (12 hour shifts) and that was because he has a voracious appetite. He would also take me to work and pick me up which looked really good—the attentive husband, who could then go online to plan his next adventure without fear of the wife walking in, because she had no way home unless she called him.

Because of dishonest practices and unethical behavior, HE has lost his PI license, jobs and has been virtually in hiding for over a year. Several cars have been repossessed and I hear he has filed for bankruptcy (which will be the second time). The $10,000 I paid HIM to go away didn’t go far to impress the woman (and her five children) that he was seeing—while we were still married, of course—and convinced to leave her husband. To date, I understand she has moved three times and two of her children are in foster care. The price to society is staggering and ”¦ this woman has no way of knowing that he can never be monogamous. But she will.