Cruelty has no boundaries, no depth, no shape.

When it is practiced by someone who doesn’t care about the consequences of their actions, cruelty can continue past the point of understanding. In the age of social media and smartphone connectivity, vulnerable people, like the kind who adopt babies, too often have to rely on the perceived kindness of strangers to fulfill their dreams.

Cruelty can be hidden behind the clicks of a keyboard.

Even the law seems ill-equipped when the offense, without physical injury or monetary damages, is merely being cruel.

Cruelty just is. Like air.

Matt and Laura Trayte, a couple from Southern California, are reeling today after a months-long encounter with a woman named Elizabeth Jones of Virginia who promised – without any mention of payment – they could adopt her newborn baby, a girl the Traytes decided to name Noella.

“This is a case of pure psychological torture,” said Matt Trayte, 40, a charter school English teacher. “It is an emotional crime.”

When Laura Trayte flew to Nickelsville in November to finalize plans for the adoption, Elizabeth Jones wore unicorn leggings for their initial meeting, posed for pictures, let Laura touch her belly and gave Laura a stuffed unicorn with a recording she said was the baby’s heartbeat.

The Traytes gave the Southern California News Group transcripts of 6,907 text messages between Laura and Elizabeth (444 printed pages) that read like a Shakespearean tragedy, full of joy, fear and pathos. They provided a copy of a “Durable Power of Attorney” agreement signed in front of a notary and witnesses that outlined the terms of the adoption.

Jones, 34, a former part-time cake decorator and decorated Army veteran, refused to talk on the phone. But she answered a series of questions about her life over several hours of Facebook direct messages.

“I was never trying to be cruel or mean ever,” Jones wrote. “Just trying to move on with my life. Finish school, take care of my kids and do what I have to do to move past all this. You have no idea what I have been through in my life and never will.”

Some of her answers, however, were even more shocking than could be expected.

After what happened on the morning of Nov. 29, one strange question, in a bizarre case full of questions, now has an answer.

The problem with unicorns is they don’t exist.

Change of plans

In the last week of November, the Traytes, along with their 6-year-old son Hudson, traveled from their Lake Forest home to Virginia to welcome Noella into the world.

In the days before the birth, they toured Indian Path Community Hospital and Holston Valley Medical Center (where Jones had recent medical appointments) and met the nurses who would attend to the baby.

Jones lived in Nickelsville, Virginia, but the baby would be born across the border in Kingsport, Tennessee. The Traytes stayed in an AirBnB in Kingsport.

Jones’ labor was scheduled to be induced on the morning of Nov. 29. She said she was told to check in at Indian Path at 9:30 a.m.

But at 6:52 a.m. Laura Trayte received a Facebook message from Jones: “Oh dear gosh. The pain is unreal.”

For the next two-plus hours, Jones sent Laura messages about how much she hurt, and how this wasn’t just normal childbirth pain (she had given birth to two older children). She said she was worried she might die.

She sent Laura pictures of a bloody toilet and bloody blankets to illustrate the emergency.

At 9 a.m. Jones’ message said she had called a “life saving crew” to transport her to the hospital, and that her husband, Brian, would be following the ambulance in their Jeep Wrangler.

The Traytes raced to Indian Path Hospital so they could be there when Jones arrived.

Jones, however, didn’t wait for the ambulance. She sent a text (she started communicating via smartphone) saying that she was in the passenger seat of the Jeep while her husband drove.

Laura Trayte said she called Jones and they were both breathing together, short, choppy breaths, on the phone. Laura was coaching her through labor.

The drama was just beginning.

“Oh dear gosh. The pain is unreal.”

Her husband, Jones said, was on the interstate when he saw an ambulance. Brian got in front of the ambulance, put on his flashing lights, stopped the Jeep and ran to the ambulance to explain his wife was having a baby, Jones said in messages to SCNG.

“We’re ditching the car we are both in the ambulance,” Jones wrote to Laura Trayte. “Baby is ready to come out. I am fully dilated and her head is right there. I gotta push.”

Then suddenly, a change of plan. Jones texted that the ambulance was now en route to Holston Valley Medical Center where they have a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit that can handle a premature baby. Noella was being born at 33 weeks.

The Traytes raced out of Indian Path and head to Holston Valley. The hospitals are only 3 miles apart. Once inside HVMC, the Traytes alerted the doctors and nurses. A team was assembled, and they waited with an incubator. The NICU is on the second floor of the hospital.

“I’m sorry I have to push her out. I can’t keep her in any longer,” Jones wrote.

The birth was happening in the ambulance. She described blood and pain. So much pain.

“Yes yes yes. Her head is out,” Jones texted. “I gotta push again.”

“Oh my god we have a baby omg,” Jones wrote.

Difficult path

Laura, 41, was raised in a family of six kids in Hudson, New Hampshire. She has an identical twin sister, Lynn.

“I always knew I wanted a family,” she said.

Matt was raised in Hudson, Ohio.

They met in grad school at the University of Phoenix in Costa Mesa, where they were both studying to be teachers. Laura remembers approaching Matt.

“I think we’re both in the same program,” she said to him. “It’s the first time I ever made a move on a guy.”

They were married in 2008. Matt had proposed with a song, “I Wanna Grow Old With You” from the movie “The Wedding Singer.”

They decided to start having children. The first, if he was a boy, would be named Hudson, after the towns where they were both raised.

Having a baby proved to be difficult. There were two miscarriages and three rounds of unsuccessful in vitro fertilization. After three years of trying, Laura finally got pregnant.

Hudson was born July 17, 2012.

Laura, an elementary school teacher, eventually became a team mom. Matt became a youth sports coach.

They weren’t satisfied. They wanted a bigger family. They tried two more rounds of IVF.

“Fertility became my life,” Laura said.

“We wanted Hudson to have a sibling,” Matt said. “The idea that you have someone always has your back is important to us.”

When both nature and science weren’t working, they decided to adopt.

First attempt goes wrong

The Traytes decided to use Angel Adoptions, a marketing company in Illinois, to help them find a birth mother. The price tag for their services: $16,000. They borrowed from Laura’s parents and her sister and then came up with the rest based largely on the proceeds from a fund-raising yard sale.

In April, they were introduced to a woman from South Carolina.

The Traytes discovered that adoption is rarely clean, and always a scary proposition.

The woman in South Carolina told them she was the victim of domestic violence. She had gotten pregnant by a man who wasn’t her boyfriend. She had to go into hiding, she told them. She moved in with relatives in New Jersey.

Undaunted, Laura Trayte planned to fly to New Jersey to finalize the details of the adoption.

“We were really excited,” Matt said. “Hudson was running around the house saying, ‘I’m getting a baby brother.’”

That’s when the birth mother stopped taking their calls.

The Traytes said Angel Adoptions informed them they don’t deal with birth mothers in New Jersey and some other states. They said they wouldn’t sanction the Trayte’s adoption.

So Laura didn’t get on the plane. When they finally heard from the birth mother, she said she decided not to give up the baby. She sent them a smiling picture of a newborn boy.

“We were devastated,” Matt said.

“Hopeless,” Laura said.

The Traytes have filed a grievance asking Angel Adoptions for their money back. So far, they have not been successful.

Birth mother mystery

Laura decided to do this adoption thing on her own.

She created a web page called “A Sibling for Hudson” and she wrote a post on Facebook about how they were a nice family looking for a birth mother. She paid Facebook $15 to boost her post to a wider audience.

In the second week of September, three potential birth mothers contacted her.

One was from Jacksonville and had a boyfriend in prison.

One was from New York and had been impregnated by a boyfriend who committed suicide.

The third was Elizabeth Jones.

They chose Jones.

What they didn’t know at the time was that Jones was on probation after a conviction for credit card fraud in 2017. She told the Traytes she was an Army veteran, a former cake decorator and an online student with American Military University.

SCNG verified that Jones, then Elizabeth Ann Crouse, served in the Army from 2005 through 2011, deployed twice to Afghanistan and received several medals for her service.

“I struggle so bad with anxiety and panic disorder so it’s hard to cope some days,” Jones wrote in the Facebook message session with SCNG. “I take medication for it, but it’s still …”

She stopped mid-sentence. During her Facebook message session with SCNG, Jones said she wanted to be called “Beth” when the Traytes knew her only as Elizabeth.

She told the Traytes she became pregnant in April. She and her husband wanted to give up the baby because they couldn’t afford to raise a third child.

“We never planned to add another baby to our family,” Jones wrote. “Adoption seemed like the best route. I was super excited that I had finally found a family. One that was down to earth, nice, shared many values I did.”

From Sept. 13 through Nov. 29, Jones and Laura Trayte communicated several times per day, often several times per hour. They exchanged ideas about pregnancy, child-rearing, breastfeeding and pain. They even shared about the most personal details, and joked about their messages as TMI (too much information).

They referred to the pending child as “baby girl.”

Jones wanted to be involved in every decision the Traytes made. She asked about the decorations for the new baby’s room, about what the name would be, about who would come to Virginia to witness the birth, about how the baby would be received among the Traytes’ extended family.

Laura Trayte kept reassuring her this would be an open adoption and Jones would become part of the family.

Over and over again, Jones pumped Laura Trayte with excitement about the coming adoption.

Oct. 2: “Your day is coming. Bows, makeup, dressed (sic), pink everything, it’s amazing.”

Oct. 5: “Do your friends and the other moms know that you all are adopting baby girl?”

Oct. 7: “Your (sic) gonna be such a good momma to baby girl.”

Oct. 13: “Have you all worked on baby girl’s room any?”

Another Oct. 13: “… just think in 3.5 months God is going to be there with us when you hold your daughter for the first time, kiss her little head and just awww her in pure joy.”

The Traytes started to feel really confident about the adoption when Jones sent three pictures of ultrasounds. One of them had a date of 2012, but Jones told them that was just a mistake by the nurse.

Never asked for money

Laura Trayte flew to Virginia on Nov. 9 to meet Elizabeth Jones in person.

“I’m totally wearing unicorn leggings to meet you,” Jones wrote.

Jones drove to Trayte’s hotel.

“We talked for hours and hours,” Trayte said. “She was anxious and nervous. She was very, very insecure.”

Trayte chalked it up to Jones feeling understandably guilty about giving up her baby.

They shopped for baby clothes together. They ate meals together. They posed for pictures with shirts that said “Birth Mom Strong” and “Adoptive Mom Strong.”

Trayte touched Jones’ belly.

“It was amazing meeting you,” Trayte wrote at 2:41 a.m. on Nov. 10, after she first met Jones. “So happy to be here! Sleep well you two!”

They went to the law offices of Jared Williams, an adoption attorney Trayte found through a Google search. Coincidentally, Williams knew Jones. He had helped Jones deal with parking violations in years past.

Williams and two women who work in his office witnessed Trayte and Jones sign a “Durable Power of Attorney” agreement outlining that the Traytes would have the right to make health care decisions for Jones and her baby once the baby was born.

Williams did not charge Trayte for the service. He gave her a copy of the agreement, so she could show people at the hospital when the time came to take the baby.

Trayte also accompanied Jones to a doctor appointment. She wanted to ask the doctor many questions. Just as the appointment began, Jones asked Trayte to go to the lobby and get her a bottle of water. Then the room of the appointment was changed. Trayte couldn’t find where the appointment was taking place. Trayte never met the doctor.

There were several red flags Trayte now recognizes that could have stopped the process.

But she kept pushing ahead. The fact that Jones had not asked them for money made her credible.

“She doesn’t want anything from us,” said Trayte, who returned home Nov. 13. “She never asked us for a penny.”

Fully clothed in the ER

The Traytes flew in for the birth during the last week of November.

They took Hudson to meet Jones’ two children. They went to dinner and watched movies. Everything was on schedule.

“She struck me as a little nervous,” Matt said.

But what birth mother isn’t?

And then, on the morning of Nov. 29 … chaos.

Bloody pictures. Rhythmic breathing. Ambulance. Jones said the baby was delivered en route to the hospital.

“We were bawling,” Laura said in anticipation of meeting her new daughter.

When the Traytes finally saw Jones, she was sitting in the emergency room of the Holston Valley Medical Center. Something was strange.

She was fully clothed. How had she just given birth if she was fully clothed? An ER nurse told the Traytes that Jones was being treated for back pain.

There was no baby. No blood. No labor. No ambulance. No roadside delivery.

No adoption.

When the hospital caseworker questioned Jones about what was going on, Jones said she had never met the Traytes. The case manager and a hospital spokeswoman refused to comment on the incident, citing privacy laws.

“How could you do this to my family?” Laura remembers saying through her tears. “She stared at me with dead eyes. There was no remorse.”

Matt was crying. He remembers yelling at her. “What am I supposed to tell my son? How could you lie to us? How could you lie to our 6-year-old?”

Matt said he went in the parking lot and saw Jones’ Jeep Wrangler, which she had told them they had ditched on the roadside when they got in the ambulance. Neither Laura nor Matt ever saw Jones’ husband Brian.

At 1:47 p.m on Nov. 29, Jones sent Laura Trayte a Facebook message: “… As for baby girl I wanted to tell you. I was so happy for you all but the pregnancy just didn’t work out. We lost the baby about two weeks ago. I was scared and hurt and devastated. I’m sorry I know I should have told you but I didn’t know what to do or say. I’m so sorry and I know you hate me more than anything. I don’t blame you at all.”

Then four minutes later: “… I will be glad to provide you with a death certificate if you would like and pictures of the dead body.”

Catfish situation?

The Traytes called the Scott County Sheriff’s Department to report a crime.

They were disappointed with the response.

Investigator Sam Cassell spoke by phone with SCNG. He advised the Traytes to get a lawyer and go to court to seek justice.

“There was no money exchanged,” Cassell said. “It will be more a civil thing.”

Cassell and Rachel Townsend, another investigator, questioned Jones.

“She said she lost the baby,” Cassell said. “I’m puzzled. I don’t know if it was a catfish situation. I don’t know if she (Jones) got positive attention.”

“She stared at me with dead eyes. There was no remorse.”

The Scott County Sheriffs referred the case to the Virginia Department of Social Services. The DSS investigator did not return calls for comment.

Attorney Jared Williams, who signed the adoption agreement, wrote the Traytes two emails this week. The Traytes had requested that Williams comment for this story.

But he wrote: “Our managing partner would prefer that I not comment (sic) this matter. I hope you understand. Still heartbroken for your family.” In the second email, he wrote: “Laura, I absolutely do not want her to be able to do this to anyone else.”

Cruelest twist

In the first week after the confrontation at the hospital, Elizabeth Jones has given four different explanations about what happened.

First she told the Traytes that she lost the baby “about two weeks ago.” On Facebook, she posted she lost the baby 13 weeks after conception. She told the investigators that she lost the baby in June (before she connected with the Traytes).

But her last explanation was her most cruel.

This week in her Facebook messages to SCNG, she said the baby was still alive and that she might still consider allowing the Traytes to adopt her. Jones said that on Nov. 29, the ambulance took the baby to Niswonger Children’s Hospital about 20 minutes away. The baby is still in the NICU, she said.

“I wouldn’t say I have really changed my mind on them,” Jones wrote. “I just have to know without a doubt what’s best. I’m not even sure what’s best.”

SCNG asked her to produce a birth certificate or any medical paperwork from Niswonger. She did not produce any documents.

“What was her motive?”

The Traytes are back in their Lake Forest home. They said they shut the door to the room they created for Noella.

They have had several tearful conversations this week. They know there is no baby.

“What was her motive?” Laura asked. “It wasn’t money. It seemed like she wanted to see us in the most emotional pain possible. She should get mental help. What else is she capable of?”

The Traytes have talked to the district attorney’s office in Scott County, Virginia. So far, there are no criminal charges. They would like to talk with a private attorney, but they can’t afford to hire someone.

They have decided to stop trying to expand their family.

“I don’t think we ever want to try again to adopt,” Matt said.

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