A Berks County woman discovered a secret camera in her bathroom — and then it got much worse. Now, she’s speaking out.
Mother and son, Stacey Rutherford and Tyler VanScyoc, are still processing a trauma. But they're ready to talk about it.
In 2021, Douglassville, Pa.’s Stacey Rutherford discovered that her second husband, a doctor at Reading’s Tower Health, had hidden a camera in their bathroom, which for years had captured images of people showering and changing clothes.
In 2024, her husband — Justin Rutherford — was sentenced to 26 years and 10 months to 70 years for sexual assault charges, including rape of a child, rape of an unconscious victim, and invasion of privacy. Some of those crimes were committed against her teenage son, Tyler VanScyoc.
That same year, Justin Rutherford also received a 5- to 10-year sentence for plotting Tyler’s murder while he was in jail.
Throughout the process, Stacey Rutherford said, she and her family were tight-lipped about their trauma, hoping the privacy would protect them. Now, she’s speaking out.
“For a long time, my ex-husband’s voice was prominent in telling his side of the story,” Rutherford said. “It was always [about] what he was doing, and what was going on with him. And I think it was finally time for us to have a voice. It was a liberating moment.”
Both Stacy Rutherford and VanScyoc are telling their story in ABC News Studios’ latest Betrayal documentary, Betrayal: Under His Eye, now streaming on Hulu.
“It was almost healing, reliving it,” VanScyoc said. “Throughout this journey, I’ve learned that talking about all these experiences and the trauma is something you need to advance in your healing journey. It really did help me.”
Before meeting with Betrayal: Weekly podcast host Andrea Grunning in 2024, VanScyoc said he and his mother had not fully dealt with their past. “It’s your mother,” he said. “You don’t want to talk to her about those things. It’s harder for her to hear than maybe some other people.”
“I kind of pushed everything down,” he said. But through the docuseries, which also produced a podcast on the topic, the mother and son spent hours recounting their experiences and exchanging stories.
“The podcast forced me to do something I didn’t want to do,” VanScyoc said. “After going through all those meetings, interviews, and Zoom recordings, we started talking outside of the meetings as well. Now, we’re super open about everything. And I think it’s brought us a lot closer.”
Stacey said those conversations also opened her eyes to the various layers of sexual abuse.
“Like the psychiatrist that I spoke to said, ‘It’s sometimes easier for them to deal with the abuse that they live with than the unknown of coming out and telling everybody what happened,’” Stacey said.
She is still working through her guilt. “I don’t think it will ever go away. We’re supposed to protect our children. And when something like this happens, you instantly feel you have failed them” she says.
“We have to learn to give ourselves a little bit of grace,” she said. “We have to learn to put the responsibility on the perpetrators,” she said.
VanScyoc wants the series to inspire other survivors of sexual abuse to not just speak out against their abusers, but to find the strength in having tough conversations with loved ones — just as he did.
“I feel like that’s where the real healing starts.”
“Betrayal: Under His Eye” is streaming on Hulu and Hulu with Disney+.