Shownotes Transcript
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Jill Evans has it all, a big house, fast car, and a great career as a decorated police sergeant in Wales. But when it comes to love, she can never seem to get things right. And after multiple failed engagements, Jill is starting to think it's never going to happen for her. That is, until she connects online with a charming, handsome, and successful man named Dean Jenkins. He's a self-proclaimed entrepreneur with a business that's a bit of a mystery.
After a few dates, they go on a spontaneous holiday to Italy, and Dean pays with bags full of cash. From the outside, there may be some red flags, but Jill doesn't care. He's the one. And just six months in, Jill finds out she's pregnant, and they make plans to spend the rest of their lives together. But the night after Halloween, Jill receives a shocking text that will change everything. And what she reads threatens to take away her dreams of happiness, her career, and maybe even her freedom.
Wondery and Novel's new podcast, Stolen Hearts, tells the intricate love story of Jill and Dean and how opposites really do attract. We're about to play a clip from Stolen Hearts. While you're listening, follow Stolen Hearts wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, Prime members, you can binge all six episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. ♪
Like a lot of small towns in the UK, Haverford West manages to be both charmingly quaint and slightly depressing. It's in Wales, about 100 miles from the capital, Cardiff. It's a small community nestled in the countryside. The sort of place where medieval churches mix with empty shops and greasy kebab houses. But for those that are born there, many choose not to leave.
Because despite the slightly run-down High Street, it's the kind of place that you can get on with your life without too much fuss. It's very quiet, it's peaceful, it's close to the sea. And where we live, it's just your bog-standard residential cul-de-sac. And nothing out of the ordinary ever tends to happen. And Sam, one of the 15,000 residents in Haverford West, loves that about this place.
Except today. That's going to change. It's the 3rd of November, 2006, and Halloween has come and gone. Leftover pumpkins dot across doorways, unsmashed, unbothered. It's getting late as Sam winds her way through the dark roads lined with trees and fields, leading up to her own quiet street. Her headlights start to sketch images of an unusual sight ahead of her. Strangers on her road. Lots of them.
And they're all in uniforms. Wow, there are just police cars everywhere here, lined up both sides of the road. But she doesn't stop and stare because it's none of her business what's going on. I went into my house, chucked off my work gear, getting my uniform all chucked in the wash and things.
Her husband, though, well, he can't resist. I hear my husband shout, quick, come quick, come and look out the window. They're searching Jill's house. Sam and her husband are not the only ones showing neighbourly concern.
I could see neighbours just peering around corners and peeping over fences. Everybody could see everything open, all the curtains, every blind. Officers rifling through all of her things, pulling out bits and pieces from everywhere, picking things apart, upstairs, downstairs. The house in question belongs to a police officer, a neighbour everyone in the road knows, Sergeant Jill Evans.
The gossip was just, woof, like wildfire through the streets. And who could blame them? I mean, a raid like this in their town? And for a police officer, no less. It's been a long time since anything this exciting happened in Haverford West. And Sam's husband has a theory as to what, or who, might be behind the commotion. He said, I wonder if it's him. And I said, what do you mean, him? He said, well, the guy she was with. I wonder if it's something to do with him. And I said, well...
Gosh, it could be. It's been 72 hours since a man was shot dead and the trail has led the police to Jill's door. A trail lined with tens of thousands of pounds, broken hearts and shower gel? Haverford West has never seen anything like it. But the truth is that this little town is about to witness one of the greatest and strangest love stories the world has ever known.
Hey, Prime members, you can binge all six episodes of Stolen Hearts ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. If you like Scampleincers, you can listen to every episode early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.
