Hidden camera leads to Pennsylvania stepfather's arrest in family abuse scandal

A Pennsylvania single mother's marriage to a charming doctor took a dark turn after the discovery of a hidden camera destroyed the life she thought they had been building. The case became even more horrifying when he was accused of plotting to silence a key witness.

Justin Rutherford is in prison after pleading guilty to sexually abusing his stepson and another minor, while also being convicted in a separate murder-for-hire plot. His medical license was revoked after his conviction.

He was sentenced to 26 years and 10 months to 70 years, with 12 years of special probation for charges including rape of a child and invasion of privacy in February 2024, along with a charge of "rape of an unconscious victim." He later received an additional concurrent sentence of five to 10 years for attempting to arrange the murder of his stepson from prison.

ABC News Studios' "Betrayal: Under His Eye," a three-part series, is streaming in its entirety on Disney+ and Hulu from Tuesday, Sept. 2.

The case gained national attention when actor Anthony Edwards, known for his roles in "ER" and "Top Gun," met Rutherford's stepson Tyler VanScyoc through the "1 in 6" organization, which supports male survivors of sexual abuse.

"More kids are going to get hurt and stay silent like I did when people don't share," Edwards told ABC News. "From a lot of survivors in the world that I've met, they're saying 'Tell Tyler thanks.'"

The investigation began in summer 2021 when a teenage friend of VanScyoc discovered a hidden camera disguised as a phone charger in the Rutherford family's bathroom. The friend took the camera home and showed his mother, who contacted police.

"There were thousands of images of people showering, using the bathroom, changing in and out of clothing," Chief Jeffrey Smith of the Amity Township Police Department told ABC News.

VanScyoc told one of his aunts that his stepfather had been sexually molesting him since he was 11.

"If I didn't do what he wanted, he'd get very angry," he told ABC News.

During the investigation, one of VanScyoc's friends revealed Rutherford had sexually assaulted him during a sleepover while the friend was under the influence of alcohol. This disclosure ultimately led VanScyoc to come forward about his own years of abuse.

While he was under investigation, Rutherford fled to Europe for several weeks but was apprehended when he returned through Dulles International Airport in Virginia. While in jail awaiting trial, he attempted to orchestrate VanScyoc's murder through letters to a close family friend, police said.

"The person was to wait in our driveway and, when Tyler got off work, they were to kill him painlessly. And then he wanted him either buried in a forest or burned in a barrel," Stacey Rutherford, Tyler's mother, told ABC News.

The case shook the family, who had thought of Rutherfordas an upstanding husband and father.

"We lived the American dream and he destroyed it," Stacey Rutherford said. The family had to leave their dream home and rebuild their lives after the revelations.

The judge issued the maximum sentence and barred him from any contact with his two young children with Stacey.

"The second they said you'll never see your kids or talk to your kids again, his body language was different. His face drooped," VanScyoc recalled.

Since then, VanScyoc --who is now 20 -- has gotten engaged and started working toward becoming a personal trainer.

"Just because we're men, it doesn't mean we're weak," he said. "We're still strong. It doesn't mean we're not a man."

The case highlighted the prevalence of male sexual abuse, with Edwards noting that, on average, men wait between 40 and 50 years before disclosing childhood abuse.VanScyoc spoke out at age 16, decades earlier than most male survivors.

"As a community, it is shocking for people to believe that a doctor, a stepfather, a person who we pour our trust in, could do these types of things," Berks County Supervising Attorney Meg McCallum told ABC News.

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