Deb Proctor was at work when her phone rang from an unknown number \u2014 a call that would shatter everything she thought she knew about her husband.<\/p>\n
An investigator delivered the devastating truth to the Oklahoma woman: The man she knew as Jeff Walton was actually Ronald Stan, a Canadian man who disappeared 37 years earlier and was presumed dead after leaving behind a wife and two children.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter gathering my composure, I went to my immediate executive and explained this bizarre phone call,\u201d Proctor told Fox News Digital. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy colleagues were very concerned that my life was in danger, that maybe Jeff was in witness protection, and I had just blown it to some stranger who was not real, a so-called investigator.\u201d<\/p>\n
Proctor is coming forward with her story in the ABC\u00a0true crime\u00a0series \u201cBetrayal: Secrets & Lies.\u201d <\/p>\n
Inspired by the \u201cBetrayal\u201d podcast franchise, the series explores how people from across the country survive scandalous confessions, financial ruin and acts of violence, among other hardships.<\/p>\n
Deb Proctor is coming forward with her story in the ABC\u00a0true crime\u00a0series \u201cBetrayal: Secrets & Lies.\u201d Fox News<\/p>\n
\u201cDeb Proctor\u2019s story is an incredible exploration of what happens when the person closest to you is living a double life,\u201d Andrea Gunning, host of the \u201cBetrayal\u201d podcast, told Fox News Digital. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat stayed with me the most while working on Deb\u2019s story was not just the scale of Jeff\u2019s deception, but the deeply human process of Deb rebuilding her life after the truth was exposed.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was 1998 when Proctor, a 41-year-old divorcee<\/a> and mother of two sons, was ready to meet someone new. She decided to join a dating site<\/a>, where she came across Walton, an Ohio State graduate and former football player who traveled and played golf \u2014 a passion of hers. She was intrigued.<\/p>\n After a year of talking, they decided to meet in person. When Walton stepped off the plane and saw Proctor, he asked, \u201cYou will marry me, won\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n Walton moved in a few months later. They married<\/a> in 2000.<\/p>\n Proctor and Jeff Walton, real name Ronald Stan, were married in 2000. Fox News<\/p>\n \u201cI felt like this was a person that I loved very much,\u201d Proctor said. \u201cI could see us traveling together, creating a life together. I felt hopeful about the future.\u201d<\/p>\n But a year into their marriage, Walton was struggling to find work. That\u2019s when he told her for the first time that he was a Vietnam War<\/a> veteran. According to the podcast, Walton claimed that at age 18, he served in the Special Forces when he was captured and held prisoner. For months, he was tortured before eventually escaping by following a stream.<\/p>\n \u201c[As a nurse] I had some experience working with Vietnam vets\u00a0and PTSD<\/a>,\u201d Proctor said. \u201cIt really tugged at my heart. He had also uprooted his life, given up his job as a project manager at a large industrial construction company, given up everything just to be with me. He had given up everything for love.\u201d<\/p>\n Proctor\u2019s seemingly happily ever after was disrupted. Walton, who was unemployed<\/a>, suffered a heart attack<\/a> requiring ongoing care. <\/p>\n The couple struggled to cover his medical expenses. Proctor, who had worked at the VA years earlier, tried to convince her husband to seek help as the bills piled up. But he refused to get healthcare, insisting he was dishonorably discharged and wouldn\u2019t be listed.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \u201cI was dumbfounded,\u201d Proctor admitted. \u201cThat\u2019s the biggest moment when I thought, \u2018Something\u2019s not right here.\u2019 I couldn\u2019t put my finger on it. I just kept insisting on going to the VA so he could get healthcare. We were going to go broke. It was just a 30-minute drive to the nearest facility. But he looked at me strangely and said, \u2018I\u2019m not going. I was in Special Forces. Because of what I witnessed and what I reported, my actions were illegal and unethical. They won\u2019t have me listed anywhere.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI kept saying to him, \u2018You\u2019ve served your country. There are records somewhere,\u2019\u201d Proctor continued. \u201cBut he said, \u2018I will not get government healthcare<\/a>.\u2019 He got up and walked away.\u201d<\/p>\n Confused, Proctor considered hiring a private investigator. But after realizing she couldn\u2019t afford one, she put her feelings aside.<\/p>\n Shortly after Walton\u2019s heart attack, he had a stroke<\/a>. Then he began exhibiting signs of dementia<\/a>. The medical bills continued mounting into the thousands. <\/p>\n Proctor was his primary caretaker while working full-time as a nurse to make ends meet. She began drinking to cope with the stress. As Walton\u2019s memory worsened, she was able to place him in a funded outpatient care facility.<\/p>\n Cherokee Nation citizen Proctor is pictured as a young woman. facebook\/debra.proctor.14<\/p>\n In 2014, Proctor received a phone call from a detective\u00a0in Canada. Investigators were probing the cold case of Ronald Stan and were able to track him down through social media, according to the podcast.<\/p>\n In September 1977, a barn fire killed several pigs. Stan, then 32, disappeared. Although human remains were never found, Stan was declared legally dead in 1986. <\/p>\n However, the case was reopened in 2014. Using modern investigative technology, the Ontario Provincial Police discovered that Stan was alive and living in a rural part of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma under a new name, \u201cJeff Walton.\u201d He later admitted the truth to police.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought to myself, \u2018Oh my gosh, I\u2019ve just spilled my guts, and now I\u2019m in danger, he\u2019s in danger,\u2019\u201d Proctor said about the phone call. <\/p>\n \u201cI felt like I was in somebody\u2019s movie. I thought, \u2018Who am I? Who was I married to this entire time?\u2019 I was outside of my consciousness.\u201d<\/p>\n Proctor immediately went to the Cherokee Nation Marshals Service. After an investigator made several phone calls, she confirmed that every detail was true. Stan had faked his death in a fire, abandoning his wife and two children.<\/p>\n Proctor stayed with a friend and immediately\u00a0filed for divorce.<\/p>\n \u201cI did love him,\u201d she admitted. \u201cBut it was all an illusion. He was not the man I thought I married. Nothing was real.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI did love him,\u201d Proctor admitted. \u201cBut it was all an illusion. He was not the man I thought I married. Nothing was real.\u201d cherokeephoenix<\/p>\n Proctor said that Walton, now identified as Stan, made numerous calls to her and repeatedly tried to text her. She said that in one voicemail, Stan told her, \u201cIf you want to play hardball, then come on.\u201d He also tried contacting one of her sons and emailed several of her friends and colleagues.<\/p>\n \u201cI had nothing else to say to him,\u201d Proctor said. \u201cBut I was frightened. I remember walking out of my home and into the woods, where there was a worn-down pathway with a small seating area. I also noticed lots of cigarette butts. I don\u2019t know. I just thought he was coming back to harm us. What if he was preparing to burn our home down because I knew about him burning down his place in Canada?\u201d<\/p>\n She also wondered whether he was planning another escape.<\/p>\n According to the podcast, the statute of limitations for arson had expired in Canada. It also noted that too much time had passed for Stan to face identity fraud charges in the US.<\/p>\n In the series, Proctor said that Stan never apologized. The calls stopped, and she never heard from him again. In 2019, Proctor said his son reached out to her to say that his father had died.<\/p>\n Today, Proctor\u00a0supports victims of domestic violence\u00a0in her community. She also remarried a longtime friend and fellow golf enthusiast.<\/p>\n \u201cI never intended to do this again,\u201d she said with a laugh. \u201cBut the gentleman I married, Richard, is absolutely the sweetest, kindest, most loving person I\u2019ve ever known in my life. It\u2019s a love that I\u2019ve never experienced before. It\u2019s genuine.\u201d<\/p>\n If there\u2019s one message Proctor hopes audiences take away, it\u2019s this: Don\u2019t ignore that nagging feeling.<\/p>\n \u201cPathological liars, they\u2019re a dime a dozen,\u201d she said. \u201cThey walk among us. Some people fall for them more than others, but it can happen to any one of us. If something doesn\u2019t feel right, dig out the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Deb Proctor was at work when her phone rang from an unknown number \u2014 a call that would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8120,17,47,21307,2450,21308,30,218],"class_list":{"0":"post-48562","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-arson","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-oklahoma","12":"tag-podcasts","13":"tag-true-crime","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}