Wife Learns Her 'Perfect' Marriage Hid Dark Secret as Husband’s Shocking Double Life Is Exposed

Illinois woman Donielle Showvay thought she had everything she wanted in life. She had a loving husband, Chad Schipper, whose financial advising business was booming. The couple lived in a big house in Erie and had six children.

At one point, Showvay thought her life was too good to be true, and her doubts soon became reality. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined that her husband, whom she first met at a Bible study meeting, would turn out to be a kidnapper who was holding an elderly couple hostage in a rental home.

Showvay and Schipper’s story began in college. Schipper was considered a smart and kind young man, and sparks flew between him and Showvay on their first date. The two married and lived happily for a while. Soon they welcomed their first daughter, Grace, and later became parents to five more children.

As their family grew, the couple decided to move into a bigger house, where Schipper could manage his office work on the first floor. However, Schipper soon grew distant from Showvay as he began spending most of his time in the office. To expand his business, he also began buying and renovating properties and renting them out.

However, the rising demands of his work further further took a toll on his family life. In the mid-2010s, he came across a wealthy elderly couple, Larry and Connie Van Oosten. Schipper proposed forming a business relationship with them, but the two declined, thinking he was still in the early phase of his career.

Their apprehensions proved true, as Schipper was actually incurring losses. He was in debt and had already stolen money from some of his family members. He was also involved in fraud, including document forgery and embezzlement from his clients.

After his uncle found out that he had stolen over $300,000 from his grandmother, he threatened him with a lawsuit. Schipper then came up with a plan to instantly secure a large sum of money to repay his grandmother. In the middle of the night on February 7, 2017, he barged into Van Oosten’s home and kidnapped them at gunpoint.

He then locked them in the basement of a home he owned. Schipper also took Connie to the bank and forced her to write a $350,000 check in his company’s name. However, the woman used the opportunity to alert the bank employee. She gave a note to the teller, revealing that she had been kidnapped along with her husband.

The bank teller then called the police, who identified Schipper using his company’s name. Authorities arrested him after a high-speed chase that ended in a car crash. Meanwhile, Showvay was shocked to learn that her husband had kidnapped someone. She decided to divorce him after 17 years of marriage.

In 2019, Schipper was sentenced to 60 years in prison on charges of aggravated kidnapping, concealing identity, and home invasion. Showvay has since moved on in life and has married Billy, whom she dated as a teenager.

The case has come into the spotlight again after it was covered on ABC’s docuseries Betrayal: Secrets & Lies. “I had a really hard time figuring out what reality was as opposed to what I thought reality was,” Showvay said about her marriage on the show.