The Engagement That Ended in Handcuffs
The Dating Detectives
Dear Media
4.7 • 3.2K Ratings
🗓️ 4 May 2026
⏱️ 78 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this week’s episode of the podcast, our guest Erica shares the shocking unraveling of a five-year relationship that seemed picture-perfect from the outside. What began as a Tinder romance filled with business success, engagement plans, and dreams of a future together slowly spiraled into jealousy, manipulation, and mounting red flags she tried desperately to explain away. But when an unexpected knock at the door exposes a devastating secret, she’s forced to confront the reality of the man she thought she knew.
You can follow Erica and get rat man merch at @__ericamerica
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***The following Program contains names, places and events that have been anonymized or fictionalized for the purposes of protection and safety. The following Program is provided for entertainment purposes only and any commentary from the hosts are strictly conjecture and should not be held as making any definitive statements about the truth or identity of any particular individuals or circumstances.
If you or a loved one are involved in an abusive relationship, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for support.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following program contains names, places, and events that have been anonymized or fictionalized for the purposes of protection and safety. |
| 0:08.8 | The following program is provided for entertainment purposes only, and any commentary from the hosts are strictly conjecture and should not be held as making any definitive statements about the truth or identity of any particular individuals or circumstances. |
| 0:21.2 | If you or a loved one are involved in an abusive relationship, |
| 0:24.2 | please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7-233 for support. |
| 0:40.1 | Happy dating detectives Monday. |
| 0:41.8 | Hello, everybody. |
| 0:47.9 | I'm so excited because we announced tour dates last week and people are already buying tickets. |
| 0:51.5 | Can we just start this Monday with... We have live shows scheduled and I know you guys have been asking for that so |
| 0:54.9 | excited it's a mini tour we're going to Chicago Tampa and Orlando you guys did you hear that |
| 1:01.4 | Tampa so we have a big listenership situation in Chicago but come to Tampa too let's go to Tampa |
| 1:09.8 | we're going to hang out with McKenzie. So check it out into show notes. But anyways, always thank you so much for being here. We have so much gratitude for you as our listener. And whether you've been here since the beginning or have just celebrated your three years with us as well, we just celebrated a three year dating detective bursery. Thank you for being here. Thank you for listening. Thank you to our |
| 1:29.8 | Patreoners who pay money like actual the $5 tier or the $9 tier. $9 no ads. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 1:36.7 | Thank you so much. We are so grateful for you. Especially because you are the people who |
| 1:41.4 | brought us our guest today. Our guest today is Erica. And you |
| 1:46.1 | tagged us in so many comments about her story. She was posting on TikTok her story. Her real name is |
| 1:53.2 | Erica. So she's going to be able to tell us her real story, her real name. And that's how we found |
| 1:58.7 | her. And then she was like, wait, I have to get this out to more people. And we were like, guess what? That's our whole thing. Yeah. And so the thing is a little bit of a trigger warning with this one because it has to do a little bit with, it doesn't go into great detail about it. But there is a minor situation involved. Yeah, definitely some soliciting of a minor and some |
| 2:20.7 | addiction stuff comes up. But it's definitely, I mean, she's a baddie and her story's ongoing, |
| 2:26.4 | so she'll hopefully be able to keep us in the loop. But she's awesome. I love her. And just another |
| 2:31.4 | great example of how when you share your story, someone else sees it and |
| 2:35.2 | they say, oh my gosh, me too. It's those me too moments that bring us together as a community and |
| 2:39.4 | help us support one another. So keep sharing your story. Email us, investigate at the dating |
... |
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