The Grenade | EP 1 | Season 3

Burden of Guilt

The first episode of Season 3 of 'Burden of Guilt' explores a devastating family tragedy triggered by Cindy's engagement to Kenny, whose act

Key takeaways

• False child abuse allegations were weaponized in a high-stakes custody battle to destroy a family.

Main topics

• Child custody disputes
• Parental alienation

Notable quotes

I'm going to take your kids away. Cindy's effectively been erased from her kids' lives.

Conclusion

The episode reveals how one man's manipulation, fueled by wealth and c

Transcript preview

Speaker 5 (0:00) This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Speaker 5 (0:05) Hi, I'm Nancy Glass, host of the Burden of Guilt podcast, and I am excited to share this amazing story with you. I'm also excited to tell you that you can now get access to all episodes of Burden of Guilt Season 1 and 2 100 % ad-free and access all episodes of Burden of Guilt Season 3 one week early through the iHeart True Crime Plus subscription available exclusively. on Apple Podcasts. Plus, you'll get access to other chart-topping true crime shows you love, like Betrayal, American Homicide, Love Trapped, Creating a Con, The Story of BitCond, Paper Ghosts, Piketon Massacre, The Girlfriends, and more. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts, search for iHeart True Crime Plus, and subscribe today. Speaker 7 (1:05) Honey, is it on? Is it on? Is this thing recording? This is your girl, T.S. Madison, coming to you live, live, and always and forever in color from the Outlaws podcast with me, T.S. Madison. This week, Laverne Cox is back. We're talking about her new book, her controversial ex, and going off on the red carpet. 20 minutes later, he was like, let's squash this. Let's talk about it. I Speaker 1 (1:24) was Speaker 7 (1:24) like, no, you do not talk to me like that. That is unacceptable. I walked in, I was like, we need to break up. And can you ever really change a man? Listen to Outlaws with T.S. Madison on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 1 (1:39) Need dating or relationship advice or help figuring out what to say in a really awkward conversation? We've got you. I'm Ellen Kay, and by popular demand, we've turned our fan favorite segment, Therapy Thursday, into a full-length podcast. Each episode, Ryan Mano and I sit down with licensed therapist Sarah Dash to answer your questions and offer therapy you can actually use. Sarah's the expert, and Ryan and I, well, we're not. I Speaker 8 (2:02) don't feel chosen anymore. So I'm wondering, is this normal after you get engaged? Speaker 1 (2:07) I think he sounds like a psychopath. Oh, this is her fiance? No, Speaker 8 (2:11) I'm Speaker 1 (2:11) so sorry, Sonia. Listen to Therapy Thursday with me, Ellen Kay, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 8 (2:20) Why do some women yearn for Shakira's black hair to make a comeback? And whatever happened to the power couple of my dreams, Mariah Carey and Luis Miguel? I'm Maria Garcia. You may remember me from my podcast, Anything for Selena or My Divo. And now I'm back to unpack more stories from the present and the past. Listen to Muy Excited with Maria Garcia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 5 (2:52) In the past, I've said, we're going to tell you a story unlike anything you've ever heard Speaker 2 (2:57) before. But this one, this one is something totally new and totally shocking. Speaker 5 (3:07) We'll start with a newscast from Colorado. Speaker 8 (3:10) We begin here at 930 with the jury awarding more than $21 million to a couple in Steamboat Springs. Cindy got a lot of money. $21 million, and that was a huge amount of money. There's no way I can wrap my brain around someone doing this to their own child. The Speaker 3 (3:28) case where a jury found parental alienation on steroids. I never ever thought something so small and inconsequential would lead to me losing my kids for life. I mean, my kids want nothing to do with me. Speaker 5 (3:42) This is a story about how far someone will go, the lies they'll tell, and the lives they'll ruin in order to get what they want. Speaker 8 (3:50) I had to choose between the truth and my family, and I had to choose the truth. Why would you start dating a wealthy woman and then abuse the children? Speaker 3 (3:59) The judge in the family court said, I'm going to take your kids away. Cindy's effectively been erased from her kids' lives. Speaker 2 (4:08) We're going to tell you about a family destroyed by damage that can never be undone. There Speaker 3 (4:15) was a lot more going on in Speaker 8 (4:17) the background. It's the worst example I've ever seen of what somebody can do when they have unlimited resources. Speaker 3 (4:25) One side wins and the other side loses. And in the end, the people who lose the most are the kids. It's Speaker 4 (4:31) probably one of the most tragic cases I've seen. Speaker 8 (4:33) This is a guy who's very used to just paying money and getting his way. Speaker 5 (4:37) Three children are at the center of this and one parent who's determined to control the narrative. Speaker 8 (4:43) I'm not this asshole like just trying to pull these kids away from Cindy. I don't think they're safe. Speaker 5 (4:58) I'm Nancy Glass, and this is Season 3 of Burden of Guilt, Episode 1, The Grenade. Speaker 2 (5:05) When Speaker 5 (5:09) I first learned about this, it sounded like it was all about child abuse allegations, and they were serious. But were they true? Or were they just made up to weaponize children and punish a spouse in the cruelest way possible? But before we go there, let's Speaker 2 (5:27) meet the people involved. Speaker 2 (5:29) At the center, a mother of three named Cindy. Speaker 2 (5:34) Cindy's an early riser. Every morning, Speaker 5 (5:37) she has the same routine. She takes her dog out, makes a cup of coffee, and grabs her iPad. Lately, she's been Speaker 4 (5:44) using one of those language apps to learn French. One of my kids decided last semester he's going to learn French, so I'm trying to Speaker 3 (5:52) get some conversational phrases that I can use with him. I also do the New York Times puzzles and connections. I love that game. Speaker 5 (6:02) Her most pressing goal is always the same, just to keep her mind occupied. I Speaker 3 (6:07) would recommend anybody going through this situation that they have a good, good distraction. Because when you're in the learning part of your brain, you can't be stuck in that emotional part of your brain. Speaker 5 (6:20) Okay, let's go back to the beginning here. In 1997, Cindy was in grad school to become a geologist. One weekend, her friends organized a ski trip. Cindy tagged along. She was single at the time, and her friends decided to set her up on a blind date. She met the guy on the mountain, but right away, things on the slopes did not go well. Speaker 3 (6:45) Within an hour, I'm having problems. I'm getting blisters. And I'm like, I've got to pull over and put something on my feet. And he says, okay, see you later. And he takes off. And he leaves me. Speaker 3 (6:59) And I'm like, okay, I'm already not liking this guy. Speaker 2 (7:02) Well, who can blame her? Left all alone, Cindy managed to put some bandages on her feet. And then she tried to find her way back to the ski hut. Speaker 3 (7:12) I'm already starting to panic a little bit because I'm by myself. And I'm falling down and I'm falling in creeks and I'm still by myself. And I'm like, okay, just follow the tracks, Cindy. You'll be fine. All of a sudden, the tracks kind of spread out in this big meadow. And I don't know which way to go. I'm starting to get really worried now. Speaker 2 (7:33) That's when Cindy noticed some snowshoe tracks. So she followed them and eventually found her way back to the ski lodge. I'm soaked. I'm soaked to the bone. Speaker 3 (7:46) I'm ready to go in tears right now. Like, oh, God, God, hold it together, Cindy. You don't want to ruin it for everybody. Speaker 2 (7:52) Cindy noticed a 20-something guy putting away his snowshoes. Speaker 3 (7:57) And I said, are you the snowshoer? And he goes, yeah, why? I said, dude, you just saved my life. I just want to let you know that. Speaker 2 (8:06) She explained how his tracks led her back to the ski hut. And we kind of really headed off. The snowshoer was named Steve. He was a couple years younger than Cindy. And like Cindy, he grew up in a small Midwestern town. And get this, he was also a geologist. Speaker 5 (8:25) The same career Cindy was about to begin. And Speaker 3 (8:29) I said, oh! Speaker 3 (8:31) Well, lucky you, I'm a geologist too. I said, I'm in geophysics. And his eyes just lit up and it was just like an instant kind of karmic moment. Speaker 2 (8:44) So that weekend, Cindy ditched her blind date and got to know Steve. At the time, that was an easy decision. One she didn't expect would change her life for better and for worse. Speaker 2 (9:05) At first, Cindy and Steve had a long-distance relationship. They later moved in together and met each other's families. Speaker 3 (9:12) I thought Steve was the epitome of the perfect, functional, normal family. And so I'm like, oh, this is normal. This is kind of cool. So I was really attracted to it because it was the exact opposite of my situation. Speaker 2 (9:27) That's because Cindy's parents had been divorced for as long as she could remember. Her dad remarried when she was four, and Cindy primarily Speaker 4 (9:34) grew up with her mom. My mom was a stay-at-home mom up until the Speaker 3 (9:39) divorce, and then she went and got a degree in accounting. Basically, from age four to nine, I didn't see my mom a lot. So I didn't really get a, you know, a nurturing type environment of somebody staying at home baking cookies kind of thing. My experience was a lot of neglect, not really involved. Mother, especially not emotionally. Speaker 2 (10:07) Finding Steve was a breath of fresh air. His parents had a long-term marriage and lived on a farm in the Midwest. She felt a sense of stability around Steve's family that she had never experienced growing up. Speaker 2 (10:26) A few years later, Cindy and Steve tied the knot. At the time, Steve was 32 and Cindy was 34. Speaker 3 (10:34) I hear this report on the news, and it was something along the lines of, if you're not married by 35 years old, you're never going to get married. So I had a wedding within a few months. And so by October, we're married. And I turned 35 the very next month. I'm like, barely Speaker 4 (10:49) under the wire. They Speaker 2 (10:53) had a small wedding on Speaker 4 (10:54) a budget. Everything was about Speaker 3 (10:57) how can we save money. We got married on a Wednesday because it was cheaper. I mean, this is how cheap we were. My dress was $99. It was a great dress, though, for $99. I got a good deal. Speaker 2 (11:11) You see, Steve had a dream of retiring by the age of 50, and that meant working hard and saving every penny they could. Shortly after they got married, Steve and Cindy decided to put their geology expertise to use and start their own company, Wildcat Minerals. Wildcat was a player in the fracking industry. This was in the early 2000s at the start of the fracking boom in the U.S. Their company quickly took off. Cindy and Steve's dreams were coming true. Speaker 2 (11:46) Within their first year of marriage, Cindy was pregnant. A baby girl was on the way, and everything went smoothly until Cindy went into labor. Speaker 3 (11:57) I was in like a 30-hour labor, and I wasn't progressing. And all of a sudden, they lost her heartbeat. And they came rushing in and ripped everything out of the wall. And I ended up with an emergency C-section. So all I remember was somebody yelling knife, and out came a baby. Speaker 3 (12:24) Fortunately, she was fine. She was healthy. So it was really scary. Really scary. Speaker 2 (12:38) After that harrowing labor, the months that followed were some of Cindy's happiest times as a mom. Speaker 3 (12:45) She was wonderful. It was really the best, best year of my life. Speaker 2 (12:54) Cindy knows not everyone can have the luxury of being a stay-at-home mom, but it gave her a priceless opportunity. After having her daughter, Cindy wanted more children, but having them was difficult. Over the next four years, she had three