# Meet Katie Walker’s Second Husband, The ‘Miracle’ Man

An episode of [MAFS Funny Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1791455504), 19 Sep 2026, 18 min.

Audio: https://p.podderapp.com/2544644999/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/2fb3740d-3436-44af-8cc0-a91900716aa5/4378b371-f620-4053-b015-b4820004b108/3161e37f-94c7-4173-b592-b4ca011edcc1/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=394a18af-b302-4b40-a738-b29c00404415

Before I get to why Katie Walker’s friends and family now believe she was potentially targeted by a human trafficking operation, in this episode I take you back 10 years to Costa Rica when Katie’s search for solace led to her being persuaded to take psychedelic drugs as part of a ritual that promised her a spiritual awakening. It was this trip that friends say changed the trajectory of Katie’s life and led to more darkness than enlightenment. Plus, in this episode I introduce you to Katie’s second husband Dean Taraborelli, who claims to make ‘miracles’ at the sanctuary he owns in Sedona, which Katie lived at for six years up until late 2023. The next episode will be out on Monday. If you know anything, please contact Crime Stoppers 1800 333 000 and PROOF INVESTIGATIONS. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: This is the disappearance of Katie Walker, and this episode,
[0:04] Speaker 1: some people may find distressing to listen to. As I've
[0:07] Speaker 1: said before, this is a real story about a real woman,
[0:11] Speaker 1: and everything you're going to listen to today is also, sadly, very,
[0:16] Speaker 1: very real. In the last episode of this podcast, I
[0:22] Speaker 1: explained that as a new friend of Katie's had come
[0:24] Speaker 1: forward and was going through some pretty distressing messages, they'd
[0:29] Speaker 1: shared with Katie over the years, suddenly, and in front
[0:33] Speaker 1: of their very eyes, those messages were deleted. And again, suddenly,
[0:40] Speaker 1: as this person seemingly started to get a little too
[0:44] Speaker 1: close to what feels like maybe the truth, it wasn't
[0:47] Speaker 1: just Katie's.
[0:48] Speaker 2: Former messages that were deleted.
[0:50] Speaker 1: Katie's entire Telegram account was deleted too, with every message
[0:54] Speaker 1: she'd ever shared with anyone.
[0:57] Speaker 2: Gone.
[0:59] Speaker 1: Now, this could have been done by Katie herself, of course,
[1:02] Speaker 1: and Katie is out there somewhere watching her loved ones
[1:06] Speaker 1: desperately try and find her and for some reason is
[1:09] Speaker 1: trying to deter them and stop that, which makes no
[1:13] Speaker 1: sense to anybody out there. As we've known since the
[1:16] Speaker 1: very start of this series, the thing Katie loved most
[1:20] Speaker 1: in this world were her two children.
[1:22] Speaker 2: She came back to Sydney in February.
[1:24] Speaker 1: She was at a point in her life where she
[1:25] Speaker 1: wanted to settle here She wanted to be there for
[1:28] Speaker 1: them more than she had been for many years. And yeah,
[1:31] Speaker 1: this idea that she could have purposely disappeared, it just is.
[1:37] Speaker 2: No one can comprehend that.
[1:40] Speaker 1: Which means the much more plausible explanation to all these
[1:45] Speaker 1: messages suddenly being wiped and her presence online is that
[1:50] Speaker 1: someone out there has Katie's devices. They are watching this
[1:54] Speaker 1: investigation unfold. in real time, and they are most likely
[1:59] Speaker 1: listening to this right now, which honestly sends fucking chills
[2:03] Speaker 1: down my spine. And as they're doing this, and as
[2:07] Speaker 1: it feels like we, like me on here, the private investigator,
[2:12] Speaker 1: Katie's friends and family, are starting to get closer to
[2:16] Speaker 1: the truth, it feels like they're now becoming reactive, potentially
[2:21] Speaker 1: while feeling like the walls around them are slowly starting
[2:25] Speaker 1: to close in. And if you're thinking, who could this
[2:29] Speaker 1: person be? Why could they have taken Katie or potentially
[2:34] Speaker 1: done much worse than just take her? The theory, according
[2:38] Speaker 1: to Katie's friend, whose recent discovery of her disappearance has
[2:42] Speaker 1: led to this new evidence is that over the years,
[2:46] Speaker 1: Katie had potentially fallen victim to some kind of human
[2:50] Speaker 1: trafficking operation. And the other working theory to go with
[2:54] Speaker 1: this is as Katie finally made it back to Sydney
[2:58] Speaker 1: in February to be closer to her two teenage children,
[3:01] Speaker 1: as I just said, while now determined to build a
[3:05] Speaker 1: new life and escape things from her past and potentially
[3:08] Speaker 1: even speak her truth, someone has put a stop to
[3:12] Speaker 1: that before she was able to do any of those things.
[3:16] Speaker 1: Because whoever this person may be could not let that happen.
[3:22] Speaker 1: In order for this to make a little more sense now,
[3:25] Speaker 1: we're going to have to go back around 10 years.
[3:29] Speaker 1: And throughout this podcast, you would have heard me and
[3:32] Speaker 1: Katie's friends describe her as a free spirit and spiritual,
[3:36] Speaker 1: which is how everybody who's ever known Katie has described
[3:39] Speaker 1: her to me, as well as being just someone with
[3:42] Speaker 1: so much light, energy, and joy. And around 10 years
[3:47] Speaker 1: ago now, as Katie's first marriage to the father of
[3:50] Speaker 1: her children was ending, I'm told that this is when
[3:53] Speaker 1: she really started to embraced her spiritual side and booked
[3:58] Speaker 1: a trip to a retreat in Costa Rica to meet
[4:01] Speaker 1: like-minded people who helped her on this journey of enlightenment.
[4:08] Speaker 1: Now I'll be honest I don't know much about that world.
[4:11] Speaker 2: Of new age.
[4:14] Speaker 1: Rituals and spirituality and when Katie's family first told me
[4:18] Speaker 1: about that trip to Costa Rica they weren't really able
[4:22] Speaker 1: to explain what type of retreat it was or what
[4:25] Speaker 1: it actually offered because they don't know and as I've
[4:29] Speaker 1: been googling lately it's hard to say for certain because
[4:33] Speaker 1: in Costa Rica and in most countries you know you
[4:35] Speaker 1: have your more generic places that offer yoga and meditation
[4:40] Speaker 1: but Katie was apparently in search of something a bit
[4:43] Speaker 1: more than that and then you've got the centers that
[4:45] Speaker 1: offer treatment programs for addiction and trauma and mental health
[4:50] Speaker 1: but that wasn't what Katie was searching for either And
[4:55] Speaker 1: then a little more off the grid and unconventional, you
[5:00] Speaker 1: then have retreats that offer you spiritual awakenings and inner healings,
[5:06] Speaker 1: starting with things such as breathwork and then escalating up
[5:10] Speaker 1: to plant-based medicines, all the way to using psychedelics, often
[5:15] Speaker 1: involving ayahuasca, which I think I'm saying that right, which
[5:20] Speaker 1: is a traditional South American psychedelic brew made by boiling
[5:25] Speaker 1: some type of vines and plants i can't say the
[5:27] Speaker 1: word and it does cause quite strong hallucinations now as
[5:34] Speaker 1: i just said ayahuasca and psychedelics is just something i
[5:38] Speaker 1: personally have zero knowledge or experience of but in the
[5:42] Speaker 1: years that followed that first trip to costa rica while
[5:46] Speaker 1: on the very rare occasion sharing very very vague details
[5:50] Speaker 1: of that trip with her friends and family Katie did
[5:54] Speaker 1: mention once to one person about being introduced to ayahuasca
[6:00] Speaker 1: and being persuaded to take it as part of some
[6:03] Speaker 1: ritual where she said she believes she ultimately saw a
[6:06] Speaker 1: man levitating above some trees you know which of course
[6:11] Speaker 1: didn't happen but these psychedelics they do alter your visual.
[6:16] Speaker 2: Perception like that.
[6:18] Speaker 1: According to some of Katie's friends I spoke to Katie
[6:21] Speaker 1: did go back to Costa Rica a couple of times
[6:24] Speaker 1: and when her ex-partner Scott the father of her two
[6:28] Speaker 1: children ultimately got full custody and moved them from London
[6:33] Speaker 1: where they were based as a family back to Sydney
[6:37] Speaker 1: with Katie left in London alone the other side of
[6:39] Speaker 1: the world now from her children as far as I'm
[6:42] Speaker 1: told this is when she turned more than ever to
[6:47] Speaker 1: all things new age and alternative and spiritual and supposed
[6:52] Speaker 1: to fill that void she now had in her life
[6:55] Speaker 1: which was suddenly very empty and please know also this
[7:00] Speaker 1: isn't a story of a woman abandoning her children Katie
[7:05] Speaker 1: loved her two children more than anything but these matters
[7:08] Speaker 1: are complex especially when it comes to custody battles which
[7:13] Speaker 1: I won't go into in this episode back to the
[7:16] Speaker 1: story now and you know as Katie then found herself
[7:19] Speaker 1: traveling the world in search of enlightenment and visiting all
[7:23] Speaker 1: these questionable retreats that her loved ones didn't really know
[7:27] Speaker 1: anything about. And as she would often tell them, just
[7:31] Speaker 1: little snippets, they tell me they always thought it felt
[7:35] Speaker 1: like cult-like. And Katie eventually found herself in Sedona, Arizona,
[7:41] Speaker 1: which is one of the best known new age and
[7:44] Speaker 1: spiritual destinations in America. And it was there, where she
[7:48] Speaker 1: met a man named Dean, who she went on to marry.
[7:53] Speaker 3: Hi, my name is Dean Carabarelli, and I'm the founder
[7:56] Speaker 3: of The Sanctuary. And I had a vision of The
[7:59] Speaker 3: Sanctuary 23 years ago.
[8:01] Speaker 1: The Sanctuary at Sedona describes itself as the next level
[8:06] Speaker 1: of clinical treatment integrated with scientifically proven holistic therapies.
[8:12] Speaker 3: I had a vision of an outdoor space. The Sanctuary
[8:15] Speaker 3: is 22 acres, and we are In the middle of
[8:19] Speaker 3: the desert, there's nothing around us. We have national forests
[8:22] Speaker 3: around us. We have peace and quiet and privacy.
[8:27] Speaker 1: And it also states on their website, you don't have
[8:30] Speaker 1: to have a substance use disorder to attend a holistic
[8:34] Speaker 1: mental health recovery program to treat your depression, anxiety, or trauma.
[8:41] Speaker 3: The land has been sculpted with labyrinths and stupa and
[8:46] Speaker 3: various gardens and shades and shelters and places for people
[8:51] Speaker 3: to reflect and have privacy and get inspired.
[8:54] Speaker 1: Our functional medicine approach to mental health includes a complete
[8:58] Speaker 1: evaluation by our medical team to rebalance, reduce or eliminate
[9:04] Speaker 1: medication based on your unique circumstances and needs. Our focus
[9:11] Speaker 1: is to identify and resolve the root cause of your
[9:14] Speaker 1: mental distress and and to go beyond just symptom management.
[9:19] Speaker 3: How is the sanctuary different? Well, for one thing, we
[9:24] Speaker 3: create miracles here. And for the people that are coming here,
[9:28] Speaker 3: oftentimes they are at the end of their road. They
[9:31] Speaker 3: have exhausted all of their treatment options. They've exhausted all
[9:34] Speaker 3: their medication options. They've exhausted all their therapeutic options. They're frustrated.
[9:38] Speaker 3: They're tired. They are at the end of their rope.
[9:40] Speaker 3: And nothing short of a miracle is going to help them.
[9:43] Speaker 3: And somehow our staff is able to pull that out
[9:48] Speaker 3: every time. We have magic and mystery and inspiration that
[9:53] Speaker 3: people connect to. When people start to get excited about
[9:56] Speaker 3: life again and get inspired about what's possible. that's how
[10:01] Speaker 3: the sanctuary is different.
[10:02] Speaker 1: Now, during the six years they were together, Katie lived
[10:06] Speaker 1: with Dean at the sanctuary in Sedona, where she was
[10:10] Speaker 1: surrounded by therapists and healthcare professionals daily. But Dean has
[10:15] Speaker 1: since told the Daily Mail that although Katie occasionally spoke
[10:19] Speaker 1: to some of them at the facility, it was never
[10:22] Speaker 1: in an official capacity. And Dean has publicly said that,
[10:25] Speaker 1: you know, Katie never addressed any struggles and never had
[10:29] Speaker 1: any diagnoses. And Dean said that because he was asked
[10:33] Speaker 1: about Katie's mental health, because remember the police still have
[10:37] Speaker 1: this theory. She just took her life. Therefore they believe
[10:40] Speaker 1: she was just a depressed and suicidal woman. And in
[10:43] Speaker 1: response to that, Dean said he'd never believed Katie was suicidal,
[10:48] Speaker 1: which Katie's family have also told me and every friend
[10:52] Speaker 1: of Katie's I've spoken to.
[10:54] Speaker 2: And from what I can see.
[10:55] Speaker 1: Online and what people connected to Katie and Dean have
[10:59] Speaker 1: told me, the sanctuary is everything it's described as. And
[11:04] Speaker 1: by that, I mean, it's like the actual reputable establishment,
[11:09] Speaker 1: which it promotes itself as, but not everywhere and every
[11:15] Speaker 1: other establishment in Sedona can say the same. Sedona also
[11:24] Speaker 1: has a much darker side. People travel there from all
[11:28] Speaker 1: over the world to try and reach a higher consciousness
[11:32] Speaker 1: through things like psychedelics and people believe the area is
[11:36] Speaker 1: full of energy vortexes at supposedly sacred locations and many
[11:42] Speaker 1: people believe it's the best place to see UFOs and
[11:45] Speaker 1: as you know tens of thousands of people travel there
[11:47] Speaker 1: every year in search of something or saving there is
[11:53] Speaker 1: then an endless list of self-proclaimed gurus like they're just
[12:00] Speaker 1: ready to take advantage of them and these people who
[12:02] Speaker 1: exist alongside the reputable places like the sanctuary which again
[12:08] Speaker 1: I just want to say I'm not suggesting is part
[12:11] Speaker 1: of this darker side of Sedona but like previous investigations
[12:16] Speaker 1: into these more rogue and unregulated setups have shown that
[12:21] Speaker 1: you know you've got leaders these apparent gurus claiming to
[12:25] Speaker 1: have supernatural powers such as levitation and when people turn
[12:30] Speaker 1: to them they do discourage any outside contact and they
[12:34] Speaker 1: demand secrecy and they you know make them give unquestioned
[12:39] Speaker 1: loyalty and then that often turns to like levels of
[12:46] Speaker 1: coercive control and then sex is brought into it and
[12:50] Speaker 1: this pressure to like hand over large payments or if
[12:54] Speaker 1: not give them everything you own and they're presenting drugs
[12:57] Speaker 1: and all these things like represented in a way of
[13:02] Speaker 1: spiritual healing and earlier I mentioned how one of Katie's
[13:05] Speaker 1: friends had said sometimes when Katie described the places she'd
[13:08] Speaker 1: visited over the last few years they felt like a
[13:12] Speaker 1: cult like that's the first word that came to their
[13:15] Speaker 1: mind and from my research I get it and the
[13:19] Speaker 1: most documented example in Sedona is a Dutch spiritual teacher
[13:24] Speaker 1: named benfino massaro who established a community there and held
[13:29] Speaker 1: many intensive retreats and former insiders who kind of attended
[13:34] Speaker 1: and later leaked details essentially accused him of organization of
[13:40] Speaker 1: coercive control financial exploitation sexual misconduct and you know he
[13:45] Speaker 1: denies all of these claims i must state that but
[13:48] Speaker 1: this is all out there it's very well documented and
[13:52] Speaker 1: During a retreat of his in 2017, again in Sedona,
[13:56] Speaker 1: a participant left the property where this was based and
[14:00] Speaker 1: they died by suicide. And authorities did not charge Massaro
[14:05] Speaker 1: with anything, but his Sedona retreat or operation, however you
[14:11] Speaker 1: described it, was subsequently described in major reporting out there.
[14:16] Speaker 1: Like go and Google this as a digital cult because
[14:19] Speaker 1: he essentially... found people or they found him through social media.
[14:24] Speaker 1: And all of this is important here because for the
[14:28] Speaker 1: last few years of Katie's life before going missing, Katie
[14:33] Speaker 1: was writing a book. And this is a book that
[14:37] Speaker 1: not many people know about. And it's a book that
[14:41] Speaker 1: she had essentially told just a handful of people she
[14:45] Speaker 1: was writing and even fewer people what it was about,
[14:50] Speaker 1: which I have now been given permission to share on here.
[14:56] Speaker 2: Or actually Katie in her.
[14:59] Speaker 1: Own words can reveal because I've now obtained a video
[15:05] Speaker 1: from the one person in the world that Katie shared
[15:08] Speaker 1: this writing with.
[15:10] Speaker 4: I've been writing a book called Believe from my shamanic
[15:15] Speaker 4: journey into the world of energy medicine healing and tantra
[15:22] Speaker 4: and I wanted to read an extract from my book
[15:25] Speaker 4: see what people think.
[15:26] Speaker 1: Now Katie's book is fiction Katie's book is about a
[15:31] Speaker 1: woman a mum to young children in an unhappy marriage
[15:36] Speaker 1: so lost that she went off in search of enlightenment
[15:41] Speaker 1: and Katie's book according to those very few people she
[15:45] Speaker 1: told about it is inspired by her own life and
[15:50] Speaker 1: experiences since that very first trip to Costa Rica. And
[15:56] Speaker 1: circling back to the mentions of potential trafficking in this
[16:01] Speaker 1: episode and the one before, Katie's book also details how
[16:06] Speaker 1: that woman, her fictional protagonist, then finds herself gradually becoming
[16:13] Speaker 1: sexually exploited all under the promise of spiritual awakening. And
[16:20] Speaker 1: in her writing, which I've got the audio and the
[16:24] Speaker 1: video of Katie reading herself, she or her protagonist is
[16:31] Speaker 1: constantly asking herself, is this helping me? Is this healing me?
[16:36] Speaker 1: Is this what I've been searching for? Or am I
[16:41] Speaker 1: being used here and exploited? And am I being trapped
[16:48] Speaker 1: into something very very sinister. And just to circle back
[16:53] Speaker 1: to that earlier revelation of how Katie's messages have all
[16:57] Speaker 1: been wiped recently, in those messages was details of this
[17:04] Speaker 1: book and the videos of her reading it, which luckily
[17:08] Speaker 1: some were saved before someone out there went out of
[17:12] Speaker 1: their way to quickly erase forever. In the next episode
[17:17] Speaker 1: of The Disappearance of Katie Walker, you will hear for
[17:21] Speaker 1: the very first time, Katie herself sharing this sad, confusing,
[17:27] Speaker 1: and just increasingly infuriating story.

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