Like many other millennial moms, I love a good crime documentary. My husband isn’t a big fan, but every so often if I fire one up on TV he’ll reluctantly watch it from the corner of his eye as he plays a game on his Switch. The ones that intrigue us both have to do with married couples, especially when one is completely in the dark about the other’s insidious nature. “How do they not know?” we’ve incredulously asked more than a few times. But the sad truth is, there aren’t enough marriages like the one we have, that are full of mutual trust, love, and respect. Some folks are simply master manipulators, charming liars, and sadistic schemers.
The ABC show ‘Betrayal: Secrets & Lies’ deep dives into marriages built on those deceptions.
The addictive new series that launched on March 29, 2026, takes an unfiltered look at stories where marriages weren’t exactly what they seemed. Recently, the show dove into the story of Donielle Showvay and Chad Schipper, whose marriage was built entirely on a cracked foundation. People reports that the pair first met at Bible study. Not long after they got married, Schipper made a blindsiding confession: He had an encounter in a public bathroom with a man.
They decided to work on their marriage, despite a therapist advising Showvay to leave him, and welcomed their eldest child, who was the first of six kids.
Over their 17-year marriage, Schipper routinely worked long hours in his first-floor office.
As a man in finance, he tried to forge a relationship with an older couple from church, Larry and Connie Van Oosten, who just came into a large sum of money. After several meetings, the couple declined doing business with him because he was so new in his career. Schipper went on to invest in real estate and began overseeing rentals. The rentals became his scapegoat: Schipper was always running off to one, claiming it needed some sort of tending to.
Then, one night in 2017, things changed when a mysterious car rolled up to the house and Schipper asked his daughter to wrap a sledgehammer in black tape, which she did.
Just a few nights later, Showvay awoke to a loud bang and police cars swarming her home.
It was then she learned the truth of who her husband was. He had reportedly used the sledgehammer to break into the Van Oosten couple’s home, tased them, bound them with duct tape, and abducted them. Schipper used a voice distorter to communicate with them and upon kidnapping them asked, “Where is your God now?”
He took them to the bank and forced Connie to write a $350,000 check, threatening Larry’s life. While there, Connie took the opportunity to write on a flyer that she was in trouble. The check they wrote was to an LLC connected to Schipper, leading the police right to him. Police discovered a room with a television screen broadcasting security footage in one of his rental properties and saw the elderly couple in a concrete room, shackled to a wall, blindfolded in a soundproof underground basement.
When questioned, Schipper confessed he felt “desperate” for the money, and unveiled that for years he had been embezzling from other businesses, stealing money from family, and had forged papers to borrow money against his parents’ house. He planned to use the check to settle his debts.
Schipper was sentenced to 60 years in prison, per WQAD.
Despite her faith, Showvay ultimately filed for divorce.
Schipper tried contacting her several times, even forging a letter from another person to try to convince her to respond, but with no luck. Showvay never spoke to him again. Since then, the mom of six reconnected with her “first love” and married him. The two are still happily together.
