Episode 358

Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is not.
Intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.
Many gave me the night.
And even then he was concerned about me walking behind it, like, well,
we both got trusted just now, don't.
There is no honor amongst thieves or murderers. Really, Sometimes
people that listen to the show get things a little confused.
They think I hate this race, or this sex, or
this pan sexual, binary dogkin or whatever the fuck you
want to be. I really couldn't care less. Sure you're unusual,
but I think that's what you're going for. But this
show is about murder, not your personal political causes. So
if I make fun of some asshole that's pretending to
be a victim and is instead a killer, well too bad.
We're gonna keep doing what we do. And if you
don't like it, well you know where the door is.
You don't have to announce your exit. It's Monday, September
twenty third, twenty twenty Keene, New Hampshire. That's the day
twenty five year old Jonathan Emerald was reported missing. At first,
nothing about it seemed dirgent. John was a hiker, one
of those obsessed types. The mountains of New Hampshire were
his second home. Long grueling day trips, sometimes stretching into
the night, that was normal for him. He had already
conquered ninety nine of the one hundred highest peaks in
New England and nearly every four thousand footer in the region.
So when his mother didn't hear from him over the weekend,
she wasn't that alarmed. Maybe he was just out of service.
Maybe he was with friends. He had plenty of them.
John had a full life. But then Monday came and
John didn't show up to work. That's when the unease
set in, because that just wasn't like him. John was dependable, focused.
At just twenty five, he was already a biomedical engineer
at Teleflex Medical, building devices that helped save lives. He
showed up for work, he checked in, and he loved
his career. So his mother made the call. She asked
the police to check in on him. But when officers
arrived at his quiet cape style home, John was gone,
and so was his Subaru and Preza, the one with
the runhappy bumper sticker.
State Police looking for a missing twenty five year old
man from Keen. Police say that Jonathan armor Ault was
reported missing after he failed to show up for work
in Jaffrey. His family hasn't heard from him since Saturday.
He may be driving a gray Subaru Impreza with New
Hampshire plates. Anyone with information asked to contact state police.
While John's friends rallied on social media to try to
find their friend. The police pinged his phone and discovered
its last known location was near a hiking trail in Jaffrey,
New Hampshire. A desperate scramble started. Most of John's friends
and family were concerned that something had happened to him
out on the trail. Maybe he was just sitting there
with a broken leg, waiting for help. But the police
got to work chasing down leeds. When they spoke with Teleflex,
learned that not only had John mysteriously been absent from work,
but another Teleflex employee, thirty one year old Brittany Baron,
had also failed to show up on that same day.
On Monday, September twenty first, Brittany had called HR not
to call out sick or a personal day, but to
quit just like that. After six and a half steady
years at Teleflex, she walked away without a warning it
didn't make sense. Brittany was a married mother of three
young girls. Her husband did not work, She was the
sole earner for the family, and she loved Teleflex. She too,
had been moving up in the ranks over the years.
Brittany Baron lived in Jeffrey, New Hampshire with her husband, Armando,
and their three kids. They lived modestly on one side
of a duplex house, and Armando's parents lived on the
other side. When the police arrived at the Baron house,
they found Armando's mother her hands full watching her granddaughters
because apparently Brittany and Armando were on a hiking trip.
Brittany's mother in law told the police that she hadn't
seen Brittany since Saturday when the couple left for the mountains.
I think it was Sunday when she called my cell phone.
But don't for telling it, you know so badly listening
the messages that I is full. I don't bother to
delete it, believe guess what's the point, you know, gets
something through and then she just she just tegts me
and she says, Mama, please let the phone ring it
to get to the boy's mail. I want to leave
a boy's mail to the girls.
Brittany had called and asked her mother in law to
let the phone go to voicemail so she could leave
a special message for her daughters. But her mother in
law couldn't figure out how to delete her old messages,
so she just had to relay what Brittany said.
And then she says, but please tell my girls I
love them with all of my heart. And then she
mentioned all the names of the girls, and then she said, remember, girls,
you're a team. Please pray continuously, pray to Yahooa we
call God Yahula. And then she goes, be good to
your Grandmaita Spanish grandma, and to your papa, and I'll
be I'll see you guys. Should I love you my girls.
Her message was less like an update from her mom
on a hiking trip and more like a dark goodbye.
She called back on Monday, Yeah, she called back on Monday,
more earlier. And then she goes, she talked to them.
She talked to all of them, all of them. And
then she says that she loved them and she's taking
time off, taking little time because she wants to heal.
She wants to get the marriage, you know, being a
better mother.
That's when Brittany's oldest daughter jumped on the phone.
Where you at, mom? Then she goes, I am in
a safe place.
Though Brittany had told Teleflex she was quitting, she also
made sure to text a group chat with close friends
and coworkers to let them know what was going on.
She told her friends she had left Armando and that
she was going home to New Mexico to stay with
her family. She said she needed to get herself right again.
When her friends asked about her daughters, she said she
didn't want to bring them along. Unquote mommy's mental breakdown.
She claimed that Armando was being extremely patient and nice
about the whole thing, which is interesting. She confessed she
felt like a failure as a mother. But here's the thing.
Armando and Brittany left on Saturday. That same day, people
stopped hearing from John. By Monday, Brittany was communicating with
people only by phone or text. But Armando had returned
home without his wife, and Brittany.
Was here as well yesterday with Armando. No, no, she was, and.
When when did yesterday?
When did you first see Armando?
Was he here all day yesterday?
Yeah?
He got here Monday.
Night Armando's mother didn't find it strange. She thought this
whole trip was a spiritual way to bring the couple
closer to God. Yeah, that's what she thought.
That's because he told me that he needed Also, he
said that he needed some space, some time off, you know,
because we pray and fast. I think that is I
was thinking that this is like a spiritual thing, right,
But they were not time to pray and be better
because we believe Jesus common swoman, okay, and we have
been trying our best to be spiritual means right?
And what was he here in the morning and then
left and came back yesterday?
Yesterday here Monday.
He lived here with his bed, with the girls and
me I slipped on the girls.
Something about Armando's mother felt a little off. Maybe it
was the language barrier. English wasn't her first language, but
it didn't feel like confusion. What mattered was this, Armando
came home without his wife. Behind him was a trail
of strange phone calls and what sounded like a goodbye
message from Brittany to her girls. Then, after grabbing some
food and supplies, Armando took off again, saying he too
needed space. A little while later, he called his mother,
this time though he didn't sound like himself.
Then he called me and then he says, Mom, really
not with me, and then he said I left her.
I don't know what.
He says, I left her, and I'm.
Just going I'm just gonna be okay, that's okay. Then
I said what happened? And then he says it.
Is because she says that she needs time, but she's
not with me.
And I said okay, And I said, how are you doing?
And who was crying? He was crying and he said,
I don't feel good, Mom.
I don't know, he says.
In her text chain with her friends, Brittany also mentioned
that Teleflex had sent a police officer to her house
despite her having called in and quit. They knew her
that well, and we're concerned that her impromptu exit felt wrong.
Her friends let her know that John also hadn't shown
up to work and that people were actively searching for him.
Brittany never called her friends, She just texted, and her
friends thought that the message, which didn't sound like her.
But was there a connection between Brittany and John beyond
the fact that they both worked at Teleflex? It was
a massive company Brittany worked as a machine operator and
John was a biomedical engineer. They weren't even in the
same divisions. Brittany was six years older than John, with
a husband and kids, and what world would they be friends?
But something was.
Pulling their stories together. Then on Tuesday morning, just twenty
four hours after John's mother had reported a missing New Hampshire,
Fish and Game found something in the woods of Jaffrey.
It was a woman all alone, just her and her dog.
She'd set up a makeshift camp in a place no
one was supposed to be. She was shaking. Her face
was destroyed. Both eyes were black, the bruises flooding down
to her puffy cheeks. One eye was completely swollen, shut,
filled with blood. She couldn't even see out of it.
The top of her head was split open, still bleeding,
and she was crying as a bloody saw sat a
few feet away on the dirt. This was Brittany Barren.
A few feet behind her, Fish and Game found John's
missing Subaru and Presa. Twenty five year old Jonathan Emerald
had been reported missing in September of twenty twenty. He
was a biomedical engineer who worked at a company called
Teleflex in Jeffrey, New Hampshire. Smart driven and aspirational, John
had climbed the ladder at work, purchased his first home
and was living life to the fullest when he disappeared.
But now police had found his coworker, thirty one year
old Brittany Baron, in a desolate area of the New
Hampshire Wilderness, beaten to a pulp and camping out with
John's car parked behind her. The police brought her into
the station. They knew this woman was the key to
finding John, and time was of the essence, but coaxing
things out of a woman who had seemingly been battered
and abandoned wouldn't be quite so simple.
How you doing, okay? You need an ambulance or anything
for your Are you sure? Okay?
Brittany sat with her head down Beside her was her
panting and lying at her feet. The officers offered her
medical help, but she refused. She insisted she was fine.
Brittany, what brings you? What brings you up up here? Camping?
Just trying to clear my head, clean your head? Okay?
You have some stuff going on?
Yeah, yeah, I just needed to get away for a while, Okay.
So we did.
Okay, do you mind me asking what happened to your
eye and your.
Okay?
And you don't have to and that's that's you did
the exactly the right thing. If if if I ask
you a question you don't feel comfortable, then just don't.
You don't have to talk about it, okay, But I
want to make sure that you get whatever help that you.
That you need if you need it.
Okay, Okay, So you wanted to to clear your head
and that's why you would you would come up?
And where did you go?
I went to I don't know what it's called.
I am moose fuck, moose.
Buck, something like that. Cabins, but you turn off on
like a logging road.
Okay, that's pretty far out.
Okay, Just I knew no would would really be there.
So okay, what kind of when did you come up?
Sunday morning?
Sunday morning? And who did you come up with?
Her speech was slow and removed. The thirty one year
old mother slowly tucked her brown hair behind her ear
and closed her eyes. The white of her right eye
wasn't even white anymore. It was a deep blood red.
It was uncomfortable to look at.
What kinds of what kinds of things are you going through?
I don't know. Okay, is everybody with are your three kids? Okay?
Yeah, okay there with my mother.
Brittany assured the officer that she was only taking some
time alone to clear her head. There was too much
going on, but her face told a different story.
Nobody knows where I am. Okay.
Well, part of the concern was people want to make
sure that you were okay.
They know that I'm safe and okay, but that I'm
choosing to not come home for now. I wanted, like,
I just didn't want my girls to see my face, okay, honestly,
So I was like, if I can spend at least
a couple of weeks trying to get it done, and
when I look at them, they're not going to be
afraid of me.
Sure.
When Fish and Game found Brittany in the woods, they
handed her over to New Hampshire deputies, who arrested her
for illegal camping, not so much for the crime, but
as a cover. It was the only way to get
this beaten, terrified woman somewhere safe to find out what
happened and why exactly she had John's car. Now, she
sat under fluorescent lights shaking, insisting she'd only gone into
the woods so her girls wouldn't have to see her
face the way it was.
You said that you had come up here with someone,
but you didn't want to get into who that person was.
We know that there's a car that's where you're, where
your camp was. Did you come up with that person
that's that car belongs to? I don't Okay, Well, Brittany,
the thing is obviously you've been injured. You know, we
know that the person who owns that car is missing.
I know that you think that you might be in trouble,
and what I don't know is kind of what the
circumstances were that led up to that and why you
feel that way. And my guess is that your your eye,
your eyes, something happened that led to to that, And
I think that that's important to explain that what happened
to you. Did John cause those injuries to you?
No? Yeah, did, Armando.
Brittany looked down and whispered, I don't want to talk
about it. That's when the cop knew what was happening.
He knew he had to get through to this damaged,
battered woman to find out the truth about where John
was and what exactly happened in those woods.
Well before before you leave here today.
And you're leaving here today, regardless of what we talk about,
regardless of what you say, You're you're going to leave today, Okay,
regardless of what you say.
You have my word.
I'm telling you now, you're leaving here as long as
I have your word that you'll stay in contact.
With me if we need to. Okay, Is that is
that fair? Yeah?
Okay, it's kind of a good faith thing if you
if I can take your word and you can take
my word.
Then do I get to go back?
Yes, as long as we can establish that it's safe.
But we need to we need to make sure that
it's safe. But you understand why, I'm kind of in
a difficult position right now.
I'm don crank because I can.
Girls.
That's when Brittany broke everything she'd been holding inside slowly
started coming out at the thought that if she told
the truth, she'd get to go home and hug her
children once again.
All I want is the truth. I don't want any
more or any less. I just want. I just want
the truth, whatever that may be.
And if that means that you were in fear you
were in danger if it means that you were, you know,
in a relationship with you know, John from work. Whatever
it may be, Whatever the truth is is all I want.
If that's not the truth, that's not what I want,
you know. But I also don't want to be reliant
on what other people tell us, you know.
I mean, I'm going to find out that.
Me and John were talking to each other.
We only talked for like a week, and he was
really serious.
What do you mean by he was really serious? She
just really liked.
Me, okay, And I didn't realized that he liked me
a lot like that.
We worked together for a long time, but I didn't
talk to him because I was attracted to him.
John liked Brittany. He had made it known, and though
she felt the same way, she avoided him. After all,
she was a married woman who had been with her
husband since she was eighteen. She grew up in faith,
adultery was out of the question, no matter what problems
were brewing inside her marriage. Supposedly that is.
And then like beginning of the month, I made it
a stupid nickname for him at work, and I felt
really bad. I called him Abercrommie because he looked like immortial.
It's really handsome.
And he found out about the nickname because somebody called
him that and they.
Really, isn't that your last name?
It is because I called him Armani at first, and
then I said he's way too young.
He's an Abercromie model, and we laughed and it stuck.
But he didn't know because I was not going to
tell him that I caught that.
Is this normal behavior for women in the workplace. I
wonder how many times former coworkers referred to me as
Adonis back in the day. Bets You think the Abercrombie
nickname Brittany made up for John spread throughout the office,
as things do, and eventually it got back to him.
At first, he thought people were making fun of him,
Brittany explained, because as a kid, John was often made
fun of for his outfits. You see, he was color blind,
so he didn't really match very well. So when Brittany
found out about all of this, she felt bad and
decided to talk to John. Big mistake.
I always felt bad and I told my friend to
just tell him the truth, like, just tell him that
it was because he's really hard. I mean, I don't
want to be a jerk, you know, and make him
think that people were saying many things about him, right, so.
She told him, but I never really apologized.
The beginning of the month, I messaged him on Facebook
and I apologized for the nickname.
That first Facebook message opened everything. John had always had
a crush on Brittany, and now she responded. By early September,
they were talking online and then at work they took
breaks together. But this mutual attraction and communication had only
been going on for about two weeks.
So let's just we were just talking anyways, you know
what I mean, Like we weren't dating because we couldn't.
But he really liked me.
I really liked him. What did he say to you?
What do you mean? Like, what do you how do
you know that he really liked you?
He wanted me to go with him, like be with him.
Like leave your leave your husband and be with him.
Yeah, Like basically my husband admitted to me like last
year that he cheated on me.
Like our whole marriage since coming to New.
Hampshire, like you know, like the whole time, Like yeah,
like a year in he messed with somebody else.
And then I knew that he was like hitting on
my like he would hit on my friends and stuff.
But like.
I didn't know that he was accounting sex with other women.
And then he told me about like two other times,
and so we were.
Like, when when was the when was the you said
I uarantee of marriage? When was the most recent since
you've moved here.
When I was pregnant with my last baby?
Okay, sorry me too. So John knew that you told him.
Yeah, he was kind of your somebody that you trusted
that you could confide him.
He became in really short time. Like again, I hadn't
really spoken to him until this month. I didn't say
a word to him. I avoided him at all. Class
I'd really weird. He used to laugh at me because
I acted really weird. I just avoided him.
You were just initially physically attracted to him, and then
once you got to know him over the last couple
of weeks.
Wow, you're actually really cool too, like genuinely, genuinely nice.
Brittany found in John what she'd been missing, a partner
who felt like a friend at home. Her marriage to
Armando was unraveling years of cheating, no financial support from
this lazy douchebag Armando unless his parents gave him some money.
That is, there was no way out. She'd been with
this adult toddler since she was very young, their families
living side by side. But Brittany had changed. She'd lost
over one hundred and thirty pounds in the last two years.
She'd built up her confidence and started building a career.
She was building a life, you know, and in John
she saw something potentially dangerous, a way out of her
life with Armando. So Brittany told Armando that she wasn't
in love with him anymore. He begged her for forgiveness
about the cheating. He promised he would change, but she
told him she was not interested in trying. She was
just exhausted, which is understandable.
So Saturday leaving, did Armando go with you? I know
that when the fishing game person came up to today,
you were digging, digging a hole today, and you told
him that you felt like you were in a lot
of trouble, that you were going to be in a
lot of trouble. That there there are clearly some some
answers that that we need to give to John's family.
You know, they're looking for They're looking for their son
right now, that man Jonah dead.
I did not kill him.
How do you know that he's dead?
Brittany broke. Her tears were soft at first, and then
the truth slipped out. She said she'd be betraying him
if she spoke, but the officer already knew she wasn't
a killer. The bruises on her face, the blood tangled
in her hair, the way they found her alone in
the woods, digging a hole and crying. This was not
a choice.
He found my phone on Sorday, Armando did, and he opened.
My stop chat and saw my messages, which held me
to the bathroom where he was when he found it.
He grabbed me by my neck and threw me down,
and he showed me the phone and he was choking me.
Armando choked Brittany until she saw black specs and stars.
She told the officers she was surprised that he let
her live.
My face was.
Already pretty school and he opened the middle door.
We fought for why.
I struggled and put the gun.
In my mouth.
I was just praying and I kept screaming, so he
kept joking me so that I wouldn't scream. So the
girls looking in they were upstairs. He told the girls
to go into Grandma's house.
And then he went and he told his mom, like.
We stot in the doorway, and he's like, stay right there.
And he was holding me, and I saw my oldest daughter,
and I just I was telling her, help me, help me,
like without words, like without saying it. And my poor baby,
she just looked at me and her eyes rolled back
in her head and she fainted.
And I was like, fuck, I'm gonna die.
He just told his mom, Hey, mom, going out, and
she didn't ask any questions. She was in the living
room with the baby, and she just thought we were
having relationship problems.
So she was like, of course, go out, have a date,
you know, do whatever you guys need to do. I
screamed so loud, and no one heard me.
No one heard me all.
Armando walked Brittany outside to her car and started driving.
He continued reading through her messages as they drove, administering
blow after blow to her face with each flirty text.
He discovered by the time they got to Annette State Park,
her face was dripping with blood. After they parked, Armando
started texting John from Brittany's phone, and.
He messages him and I'm just like please, and he
messaged him, Hey, can we meet?
And of course John was super stoked because it was me,
and he was like finally regaining That was.
Probably ten o'clock. It's probably around ten o'clock.
John replied he'd be there in thirty minutes.
He said.
Brittany waited, praying for anything to stop him, but nothing did.
Soon John's car pulled into the lot.
He gets out of the car.
He saw my face, like he saw me sitting because
I was sitting in the driver's side, and Armando got
out before he got there, and.
He stood behind the car so that John wouldn't see
that he was there.
Booh, I could tell John who something was wrong. And
then when he saw my face, he definitely knew something okay.
And then that's when Armando came around the car and
he pointed the gun at him.
John threw his hands up, pleading for his life. Armando
was in control. He had a loaded gun.
He punched him.
John fell and then he just started kicking him and
kicking him. He stomped on his face
at one point, just killed me because I've been thinking
about a NonStop. At one point, Armano looked at me
and said, yeah, so you're gonna fuck my wife.
Bro.
He's like, look at it, now, do you still think
she's pretty? Jah looked up at meaning yeah, she's still right.
I like, even when your life was like you, we're
still so nice to me.
But the memory of John standing up to Armando was
too much for Brittany. She had never experienced a man
being that chivalrous.
Started asking you questions about us to see if the
story's matt and I didn't tell him everything because I
didn't want to die. And then John admitted stuff that
he didn't know. He got even angrier. At one point,
he handed me the gun and he told me to
do it.
Rondo handed you the gun and told you to shoot John.
But we were outside and I was like, I can't
do it. He's like, no, no, you want to. You
want to do this, and I was like I don't.
Like he's trying to make me prove who I was
loyal to. And then he said fine, stand on his throne.
He said, come on, hurry, he's not dying fast enough.
Brittany was crying, begging Armando to stop, but he said
he'd kill her too.
I wasn't heavy enough to do anything to him.
Humble brag.
I don't know. I guess, I don't know. He had
me stay on there for a while, and then finally
John like actually had the ability to like move like
like just jerked me off, and I.
Was like, you think you when you had your foot
on his threate? What was Armando doing standing there watching?
Where does he have the gun pointed out us?
Okay?
Is it still in his hand? Okay? Is he pointing
at you? Pointing at him?
I'm not exactly sure. I was trying.
And that goes on for what feels like a long
time to you.
Yeah, but it wasn't long enough. And then what happens,
like finds is taking too long? Get off.
Armando was frustrated. He wanted Britney's stuff up on John's
throat to be the final pain that killed him Shakespearean
this guy was. But John was still jerking and moaning,
fighting for his life under her heel. That's when Armando
picked John up like a sack and pushed him into
the back of his own car. Then Armando handed a
knife to Brittany and told her to slit John's wrists.
Brittany refused, but then he threatened her again. So Brittany here,
who couldn't point a gun at a perpetrator that was
threatening her life, gave her new boyfriend what she calls
a shallow cut, just deep enough to satisfy Armando yet
keep John alive.
Which way did you cut like that? Down? Like down
the floor arm?
But I couldn't get I couldn't.
It was really hard to cut, like, it was really
hard to cut. It wouldn't just how many times do
you go down as soon as it was open?
I just once.
I didn't both sides.
Okay, I don't even think the second one, or I
even didn't.
I don't even think I.
Cut him, cut him deep enough to actually do any of.
You cut anywhere else?
No, No, that was the only thing. I stood on
his throat and he made was.
This inside the car outside the car.
Gris was inside the crent standing on his throat with
outside the car.
Okay, where is he inside the car? From the back?
They say, if you want to slit your wrists and
have it actually be effective, you should cut down the
forearm lengthwise. Not across has so many unsuccessful suicides do
suicideise suicide.
E's is John fighting at all?
He knew I didn't have a choice.
He was like please, no, please, but he wasn't like
struggling to get his arms away from me or fight
me words.
Armando grabbed Brittany, forced the trunk shut, and the two
of them got in the front of John's car with
him stuck in the back.
And we were both in the car, and at one
point Armando got out of the passenger side.
To go get you close the who closes the background?
I don't remember. It might have been or it might
have been me, I don't remember.
So the back hatch goes down, and then we.
Go into the front of the car, and then Armando
puts the machete in the car, which I believe he
hit him a couple of times with that.
Too, okay, with like the the blade, Yeah, but.
It didn't do a crazy amount.
Of you don't worry him.
I don't I know his hands.
Probably he was like covering, so like whatever was covering
got hid.
Okay, And you guys go in the car, yes, And
then who goes in sea.
I went in the driver's site and Armando went in
the passenger and he put the machete down on the
floor and he's like, get some.
I don't know why he left me.
I don't know why.
And he looked at me too, like I don't know
if I should And when he like John sent him,
He's like, just pick up the machete and kill him.
Just pick up the machete and kill him. And I'm like,
he don't understand, man, I'm not going to kill him
with that blow. And We're both gonna die in this car.
And I just told him just to be quiet, just stop,
don't just stop, because he hadn't killed him yet, and
he told him that he wasn't going to it. He
was like, I'm thinking, He's like, I just might let
you live. Like he kept on playing with him. He
even said something about the judge. He's like, do you
know what this is?
Like he was just so.
He came back to the car and he sat in it,
and I don't remember what he said after that.
All I remember was hearing.
He pointed the gun at him, and I.
Heard the one gun shot.
You're on the driver's driver's seat. I didn't look back
to see does he go back and open up the back.
He did it from the passager.
He did it from the passenger seat. He was turned
back andamed, how do you know where he shot him?
He told me, after how many shots did you hear?
Two in the body and one in the Brittany claims
she kept her face forward as the shots rang out.
She said she couldn't bear to turn her around. Yet
somehow she knew exactly where her boyfriend was shot. She
told detectives she thought she'd be next, But then Armando
told Brittany to start the car and take them home.
Brittany's mind raced with all the possible scenarios, each one
more graphic than the last. According to Brittany, as they
pulled up to their house, Armando instructed her to go
inside and pack up all their camping gear. He stood
there and watched her holding the gun down the hallway.
Their girls and Armando's parents were fast asleep.
Every time we went outside, I could hear John.
So John was still making noise. What was he? What
was he doing or saying? Er?
Armando told Brittany they'd be going deep into the woods
in Jeffrey. He had her follow him in the jeep
and she drove John's car again. She's in a car.
She has control of the car. She doesn't have to
follow him, but she does. He handed her phone back
so he could stay on the line the entire time.
And it was one o'clock in the morning. The sky
was black, the roads were vacant. Armando stopped at a
store to get a shovel and buy some supplies, all
the while Brittany's in John's car with his body in
the back. She thought she was next, she says. Armando
kept talking on the phone, asking questions she had to answer,
keeping her paralyzed with fear. When they finally got to
the forest at the end of the long logging road,
Armando guided them deeper into the thick, cold woods. This
was a place only a hunter would venture.
I was waiting for him to shoot me out there,
like I was waiting for it. I was afraid for
him to walk behind me, and so he told me
to get rid of the body and to hide the car,
and that he would be back Freddy.
But before he left, Armando said something chilling.
As soon as the sun comes off, I'm going to
forgive you, like I decided I forgive you. He was like,
even after all this, I'm still in love with you.
Isn't that sweet? And they say romance is dead. Brittany's
phone had died, so he left it with her, Knowing
she couldn't get help, he took off in their car.
He planned to go home and resume life as usual,
tell his mother some lies about Brittany needing some space,
and his kids off to her while he plans his
next move. By now, though it was Monday and Brittany
was expected at work, you know the thing that Armando
doesn't do. Armando had sent an email to her boss
on Saturday night saying she wouldn't be there. But what
Armando didn't know was that Brittany's boss was aware of
Armando's violence. This wasn't the first time he had beat Brittany.
He had done it once before, and Brittany had confided
in her manager. So when Brittany mysteriously didn't show up
for work, her manager sent police to her house. As
Armando drove away from the campsite, he hit a cell
service area and his mother started calling, freaking out that
the police were at her door. So Armando backtracked to Brittany.
He needed to get her to call HR and stop
the police from sniffing around so I called Jen.
And again he's sitting with me the whole time, so
I'm like.
He called gen den Bell from my work.
She's the HR lady, and she was just like, are
you okay? And I'm like I am. She asked me
when I had heard from John last, and I lied
to her?
Would you say?
I told her the last time I talked to him
was on Saturday and that we met at Temple Mountain
because that's what Armando was writing down for me to say.
HR was actively looking for John at this point and
they knew something was going on between him and Brittany.
She lied, She said she hadn't heard from him. Then
Armando texted her friends a strange message from Brittany saying
she was leaving and going to New Mexico alone. He
thought he had all his bases covered. Armando took her
back to the campsite and left her with their dog
in a twenty two for protection. Yeah, he gave her
the gun he used to kill John and told her
what to do next. So once again she's standing there
holding a gun and not pointing it at her aggressor.
That's twice now for you keeping score at home.
And what was the plan for you to bury that.
Yeah, he wanted.
He made me cut off his head.
Who wha, wha wha Hold on a second, you did
what because he wanted.
The dental records to knock be found.
Okay, So where is John's head? It's it's in the woods.
And what did you use to cut?
A saw? They're going to find it right next to
the car. It's a saw. It was a saw.
Now, when did you do that?
Yesterday morning?
Armado stood back and watched. After all, he wasn't big
on things like working. He claimed he couldn't do it himself,
so he made her do it. He put the saw
in Brittany's hand and waited and she obeyed. Now people
like to believe they'd fight, they'd refuse, they'd run, But
in that moment, with death standing right in front of you,
sometimes survival doesn't look like bravery. Sometimes it looks like
doing something absolutely demonic, just for the slim chance to
see your children one more time. And anyone who thinks
that they know what they would do in a situation
like this is deluding themselves.
So you, guys, together, you and Armando cut his head off.
It's just it was just.
You but you said Armando was still there.
He was there, so he made you do that. He watched. Okay,
that was you said anything? Correct me wrong? That was
part of your punishment.
He said it wasn't.
Oh he said it wasn't the punishment.
He made you do that.
Yeah, you didn't have the stomach for it. He expected
me to cut the whole thing up. What do you
like to chop him up?
So?
Was that the planet areas well?
He he's mentioned that, and once I did it, I
was like what, like, I ah, what, No.
I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that anymore never again?
Like lah, no what?
And then he said, okay, like just bury him, Like
but you need like, no later than tomorrow.
It has to be done.
Armando told Brittany what to do. She had the guns,
her bloody saw, a shovel, and her dog to keep
her company. She stared at John's decapitated body, raw and ragged,
unable to process exactly what she'd done. Armando hugged her,
told her it was hard for him to leave, but
then he did. Anyway, I hate myself.
It's wonderfault. I should have just left to kill alone.
He's twenty five in twenty five. He was so nice
to me, But you didn't know this was gonna happen.
I didn't.
I didn't know. I didn't know that talking him, I'm
gonna call him his life dude.
No, he who does that?
Who kills somebody like that?
Oh?
God, he's so stupid. He could just left him alone.
He could have just been like, you're quitting your job,
you're never going back. Yeah, that's all he had to do.
When you're quitting your job, you're never going back. You
can't talk to him anymore.
Leave the guy.
Alone, Leave him alone. He was such a gentleman. He
was so nice, so sweet, he was so good at
his job. He didn't deserve any of it. And I
didn't do I didn't do I heard him do. I
really shocked that I'm even still alife. And I was
all one thinking to him, like where he comes back,
when he comes back after I dispose of it? And
then he just lost me too.
Without Armando hovering over her, putting her under pressure, she
just sat at the campsite, trying to figure out what
to do next. A million thoughts ran through her head
about John, his family, her girls, back home, Armando, all
of it before Saturday.
Has Armando been physically abusive to you in the past
is a past?
Yeah, the early past, like in team past, so in
the beginning of your relationship, and it's abusive.
It was just like a.
Control thing, like he wanted me to be a certain way,
like I wanted to smoke him, party and drink. He
didn't want me to want that. But he he gave
me a black eye once before, one time, and when
I was nineteen and he was still out of nowhere.
And that was the scary part about him is that
he has emotion, but he doesn't show it. So when
he blows up, it's like you didn't even see it
coming because there was nothing there before. And he said
something to me, and I kind of pushed him, like
I like pushed him like that, and he got on
top of me and he just started launching and this
when to me, Oh, yeah.
This I too.
He's slapping the hell out of me, basically just slapping me,
and I was just like staring at him like I
had no idea what was going on, Like no idea
what was going on? And then he said sorry and
he was super apologetic.
And but now was it?
And then.
Up until that Saturday that I said I wasn't in
love with him anymore.
Which was the Saturday before last when he slapped before.
This and he slapped me then and that was that
was then, and then Saturday night and Sunday morning ages.
So from age nineteen till two sad days ago there
was no physical abuse.
Wow.
No, here's the thing about a man like Armando. He's
deeply insecure, but his insecurity doesn't show up as tears.
It comes out in rushes of rage. Brittany said that
until two Saturdays ago, he hadn't been her like that
since the early days of their marriage. Maybe she had
just learned how to stay in line just enough to
avoid punishment, or maybe it was that his mother was
living next door, always close, always watching for bruises. But
then Brittany changed. She lost one hundred and thirty pounds
to control of her diet, started exercising, and started getting attention.
And when Armando saw proof of that new life in
her snapchat messages with John, something in him snapped. Because
in his world there were rules. He could cheat, he
could call prostitutes, he could not work for years, basically
be a complete deadbeat piece of shit. He could do
whatever the fuck he wanted, because he's the man. But
Brittany was never supposed to become someone else. She was
never supposed to have options besides him.
Like, I don't know when that decision to not kill
me happened.
I don't know, because he's like on his own, he
told me that, He's like, you were both gonna die
that night, he.
Told both of you, So you were both going to
die that night.
I hope you know.
I really didn't expect you to say you surely proved
and really cared about the family.
He said the same thing about the head.
In Armando's warped mind, Brittany had proven herself. Every order followed,
every step obeyed. It all feed his delusion of loyalty.
But none of this was loyalty. It was just pure survival,
and that delusion, his inability to see the truth, may
have been the only reason she lived.
I am going to ask you for a couple of
more things, one being to bring us out to John's
head and show us where that is, and the other
being I would like to be able to document your
injuries with some photographs.
Brittany nodded and agreed. Now the police had the story.
They knew what had happened, but knowing wasn't enough. They
had to retrace every step, lock down every piece of evidence.
They had to move fast because Armando Baron was still
out there, still armed, still unstable and unraveling, and no
one knew exactly what he might do next. When Jonathan
Emerrault went missing in late September twenty twenty, no one
suspected foul play. The assumption was simple. He was lost.
An avid outdoorsman and biomedical engineer, John spent as much
time as he could on the trails. If anyone could
vanish by accident, it was him. But then something just
didn't add up. Around the same time as coworker Brittany
barn abruptly quit and disappeared inside the office, rumors had
already started circulating. They had grown close in the weeks
before he went missing. What felt like a coincidence started
to feel connected. Then Fish and Game made a discovery.
Deep in the woods. They found Brittany at a remote campsite, alone,
beaten and terrified. Nearby was John's Subaru, and not far
from that John his body had been dismembered and decapitated.
Brittany told investigators that her husband, Armando, had discovered the
flirtation and snapped out in the woods. Under constant threat,
he forced her to cut off John's head herself. She obeyed,
only to survive. Before leaving the campsite for the final time,
Armando told her he forgave her. In his mind, she
had proven her loyalty to him, to their family. He believed,
in his dumb, underdeveloped mind, that they could simply return home,
resume their lives, and move forward as if none of
this had ever happened. But nothing about this was forgettable.
Armando had taken the life of Jonathan Emerald, who was
deeply loved by his family, his friends, his colleagues, and
everyone who ever met him. He wasn't someone who would
fade into the background. He was someone whose absence would
be felt forever. The police found Armando quickly. It was easy.
He wasn't that smart.
You're under arrest for domestic violence assault. So a domestic assault?
What's that? Who?
I'm Brittany, Brittany.
Okay, Okay, So that's that's what you're charged with. So
that's what we want to talk to you a little
bit about. Okay, So where is she Brittany. Brittany is
at another police department right now?
Okay, okay.
The officer started reading Armando his rights, informing him that
they already had Brittany in custody and had her testimony.
Then he interjected, so when do they get to call?
He? Well, like, so do you understand these are these rights?
All right? I'm gonna just ask you to initial next
to yes.
And then understanding these rights, are you willing to answer
questions a lawyer?
No?
Okay.
Armando may be dumb, but asking for a lawyer was
a surefire away to tell he knew the difference between
right and wrong when it came to abuse, torture, and murder.
He wasn't crazy, he was just evil. But still, Brittany
told the officers she knew he would never hurt their children.
Then again, I'm sure she would say she never thought
any of this would happen either. That exactly a great
judge of character.
You don't think he would do it with Oh no, no, no, no, no
no no.
I just I'm like, I hope they're not there when
they arrest him.
I hope they're not there.
I hope they don't see it. I feel so bad
for him.
Even I know it's stupid, but even after all that,
I feel bad for him, Like I feel bad for
what's going to happen.
She felt bad for him. Let that sink in. We've
covered so many domestic violence episodes on this show, and
any expert worth their salt will tell you that most
domestic violence homicides are preventable. If someone strangles you to
the point of passing out and puts a gun in
your mouth, death is the next step. But Armando had
only given Brittany a taste of what he was capable
of at age nineteen. Then he hurt her in other
ways by not being a provider, by cheating on her
and harming her emotionally. But that violence never reared its
head again, although it had clearly been brewing seething inside Armando,
and on the night he found the texts, he lost
all control. Armando did a very good job at hiding
who he really was, but we can only hide pure
evil for so long. The police put Armando in a
holding cell and he requested his phone call, so they
let him call his mother, and of course it went
to voicemail. I'm sure she never got it.
Mom, is me they're taking me to m.
Cheshire House of Corrections, which is in Marlboro.
House of Corrections in Marlboro.
They're charging you more than.
If I guess I just I love him.
You can get a lawyer from me.
Thank you.
Jonathan's family was devastated. They avoided the media entirely as
news of his brutal murder spread across local headlines and
flooded the internet. His friends were great trying to process
the loss. At Teleflex, John and Brittany's coworkers were unable
to comprehend how a rumored workplace flirtation could spiral into
something so horrific. Even Brittany said it herself. Armando didn't
have to do this. There were other options. He could
have forced her to quit, made her find another job,
put distance between them, But he didn't. Armando let something
much darker take hold. Jealousy rage. It consumed him completely,
spreading fast like a cancer, and in that spiral he
never stopped to think. Perhaps he was incapable of it.
Armando was charged with capital murder and twelve additional charges.
Brittany was charged with falsifying evidence. Armando faced life. Brittany
was looking at three to seven years. They were both
put in jail, leaving their kids in the care of
Armando's broken, helpless mother who didn't even know how to
check her voicemail. But as clips of Brittany's bruised, battered
face in that arraignment room spread across the internet, a
question lingered, did she really deserve to be locked away?
I mean, this was a woman who had been brutally beaten, strangled,
and had a gun forced into her mouth inside her
own home. She was made to watch John die and
forced to participate in his torture. She was dragged miles
into the woods, where the man she'd been married to
for twelve years stood over her and forced her to
cut off John's head. Just imagine that for a moment,
the isolation, the fear. If Brittany had screamed, no one
would have hurt her, no one would have come. In fact,
it's a miracle that Fish and Game even found her.
Armando made the mistake of taking them to what he
thought was public hunting area, but it wasn't. The landowner
saw them and contacted Fish and Game. And look, Sure
she could have gotten away multiple times. Sure she could
have pointed the loaded gun she was given by Armando
too Armando and ordered him to stop doing what he
was doing. But that would have meant she would have
had to have been capable of pulling the trigger, and
she just wasn't. I mean, she could cut off a
human head, but she couldn't squeeze a trigger. I still
don't fully understand why. Maybe I never will. Maybe I
am lucky to never have to know, I asked the audience. Though,
what do you think is Brittany a victim or does
she hold some culpability here? Brittany's lawyer started working on
a deal. In exchange for her testimony against Armando, who
we all know is really the bad guy, she would
be granted parole until his trial. Jonathan's family was adamant
that this was unacceptable, and the prosecution fought hard for
Brittany to remain locked up. Brittany was put before the
parole board to make her case.
Baron's parole was vehemently opposed by Amerol's parents. They wrote
a letter that was read by the victim's advocate urging
the parole board to keep Britney in custody until after
she has testified against her husband.
So if you think chances are low that someone capable
of doing all that wouldn't simply just run before testifying
next month, or simply go back on her word at
his trial.
Please think again.
In granting parole, the board made it clear that Baron
must fulfill her obligation to testify truthfully at her husband's trial.
Brittany told the board she understands and that her actions
over those days continue to haunt her.
Something that I continue to struggle with is forgiving yourself
for the choices that you.
Make and.
Being able to own, like, just really accept that it happened.
Should Brittany forgive herself as a religious woman? Is that
even her place? Or is that something that only God cangrant?
Maybe self forgiveness is necessary just to survive, just to
get out of bed in the morning, to eat, to
face the courtroom. Maybe it's just something she has to
say out loud to keep going. But could you ever
truly believe it? Could you ever forgive yourself for something
like this? Because I don't think I could. I think
I'd be begging God and the universe and everyone in
it for forgiveness every single minute of every single day
until I didn't have a breath in me anymore. Brittany
was a victim of Armando that night, but John was
the victim. The only thing anyone could possibly fault him
for was getting involved with a married woman. But John's
presence lit something in Britain. It gave her the confidence
to finally tell her cheating, deadbeat husband that she was
done trying to fix their marriage. And that shift is
what set everything in motion, that push for her empowerment,
her independence. It's what triggered Armando's suspicion and his need
to start digging into his wife's phone. The plea deal
allowed Brittany to skip straight to sentencing in exchange for
her testimony. In twenty twenty one, she pleaded guilty to
falsifying evidence, which included removing John's head and putting it
into a hole that Armando duck, but she was granted
parole in April of twenty twenty two. Armando's trial took
place a month later. His team argued that Brittany was
a liar. She had participated much more in Jonathan's murder
than she led on. Armando slumped in and out of
the courtroom every day with his scraggly prison beard pot
belly and snarling face. He was vile. No one felt
a drop of sympathy for him, except maybe his own mother.
In the end, Armando was found guilty and the judge
spared him no mercy.
The depravity of your actions and single handedly causing the
immense suffering and the death of Jonathan Emerald show an
extreme indifference to the value of human life. Your actions
were brutal, they were absolutely horrific, They were selfish, and
they were completely senseless. The abject cruelty, the pain and
suffering and all that you inflicted on Jonathan that night
is unfathomable. As his parents just said, he did not
deserve to die in that manner. One of the hardest
parts of my job is often sentencing in cases and
finding the appropriate balance to strike and imposing the fair sentence. However,
I have absolutely known hesitation or reservation imposing the sentences
that I'm about to impose on you, given your actions
and the crimes that you committed and that you were
convicted for.
In this case, the judge gave Armando life with no
possibility of parole for Jonathan's murder. She tossed on even
more years for the kidnapping and domestic violence, but in essence,
he was never leaving prison unless he was in a
body pack. The judge also instructed that he received counseling
in prison. Maybe they could beat morality into him somehow,
not that it mattered anymore.
So that is the sentence. You will be spending a
very long time at the state prison for these heinous crimes.
Instead of taking the punishment he deserved, Armando spent the
next three years filing appeal after appeal after appeal, all
of which were denied. Now that he's exhausted all of
them and spent all of our taxpayer money, he will
sit quiet in prison, waiting to die. No one will
ever hear about him again. Jonathan, on the other hand,
continues to be remembered for the incredible young man that
he was. After the Barons were arrested, eighteen of his
friends honored him in a way he would have wanted
by hiking. They took a six and a half mile
climb up one of his favorite trails in New Hampshire
and built a small altar for his worn trail shoes.
By the end, their legs were shot jelly. They told
the local news reporters, but it was a release of
grief and a path towards healing. Out there, surrounded by
the elements, John loved so much. They shared stories, they laughed, cried,
They set their prayers out into the mountains, hoping somehow
they'd reach him, And now every time they returned to
those trails, they carry him with them. John loved life.
He chased it into the unknown, down unmarked trails, with
nothing but a paper map and the confidence that he'd
find his way. He was smart, driven, and unafraid of
what might be ahead. Then he met Brittany Baron. What
started as a flirtation a few messages and a couple
of kisses in a parking lot grew into something much more.
John saw something in her, something worth caring about, and
he couldn't quite pull himself away. John was a kind man.
Brittany had never known that kind of kindness before. She'd
spent her adult life with someone who cheated on her,
who failed her, who just was one disappointment after another,
and ultimately showed just how dangerous he truly was. John
didn't see a situation to avoid. He saw a person
in Brittany, and tragically, that was what put him in
Armando's path. You know, we've got a lot of feedback
on our new animated true crime history thing called Tails.
Go check it out Sword and Scale dot com.
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