Part 1 of 5 · Making the most of their victims’ misfortune

He said it on tape

On March 15, 2025, Vincent Michael Hyler told the mother of his son, on her own cameras, that the paperwork was filed, that his family had money and knew the county’s judges, and that she didn’t get to take the boy. Seventeen months later they took him.

When my parents found out I was pregnant, I was exiled to his hometown — five months along, 2,500 miles from anyone of my own. I went, terrified, because I thought it was the right thing to do for my son. He was very happy about it. He said why, later, on camera: “You don’t own a car. You don’t have a job.” “Your name’s not on nothin’ here.” “No one’s got your back around here.” “All I have to do is call the cops and you are gone.” That is a predator describing prey, out loud, on tape, and it is where this begins.

On the afternoon of March 15, 2025, he came home to the house at 9501 Laughlin Way in Redwood Valley, threw rocks at my dog, and when I told him to stop, turned it on me. For the next hour and a half he followed me through the house while I tried to get dressed. The living-room camera recorded thirty-nine minutes of it. I have put the transcript under this article with the time stamps, and I would ask you to read it the way a court should have.

At two minutes in: “The paperwork’s filed. You brought it up. It’s filed. And I’m goin’ full custody.” Twenty seconds later: “Let’s play. My family’s got money too. You think I’m scared of your family and your family’s money?” At ten minutes: “I’ll never be out of his life.” “Start packin’ your bags. I ain’t changin’ my mind.” At sixteen minutes: “I don’t care if you’re here or not, but he’s not leavin’.” At eighteen: “Don’t be surprised when that phone of yours is canceled — your insurance is canceled as well.” At twenty-eight: “Get a U-Haul — and you will be bein’ served Monday — and there’s a damn good possibility we ain’t gonna be home ’til Monday.”

And at thirty minutes and forty-three seconds, the sentence I’d ask you to listen to twice: “I’m gonna enjoy it when I see you in court — I’ll tell you that — I ain’t scared — but you’re not in this county with any judges — you think I don’t have family that’s already been in and out of this shit — not that it’s somethin’ to brag about — but it is — a little bit of familiarity — more than what you’ve got.”

A minute later: “You think you’ve been scared of me before? This ain’t fuckin’ shit right now — get the fuck out … you’re not a breastfeedin’ mother — you don’t have to take the boy with you — I know — I’ve done my homework.”

He had. The case he filed in Mendocino County Superior Court, No. 25FL01030, sits ahead of mine, No. 25FL01032, on the register; mine was filed March 18. In the same recording he told me, “I’m not done breaking you yet,” and “You think you’re scared of me already? You’ve seen nothing yet.” At three o’clock he took our six-month-old and left, and blocked my number. I did not learn where my son was until three in the morning, when the doorbell camera recorded him at the front door: “Yeah, you’re gonna open the fuckin’ door … if you don’t, I’m gonna fuckin’ kill you.”

The next five days are on camera too. On the night of March 16 he came home drunk, I barricaded the bedroom door with a dog crate, and I called 911 as he forced it. Mendocino County deputies came. He would not open the house to them. They recommended a restraining order and left; the incident number is 2025-5365, and I have the deputy’s handwritten slip. Just after midnight on March 17 I found the crib empty and the front door open; his mother confirmed by text that the baby was at her house next door and declined to return him. On March 18 the court issued a temporary restraining order and ordered his firearms surrendered. On March 20, before it was served, his mother walked into my home and carried my son out over my protests. That clip is under this article as well.

I am telling you this first, before the orders and the warrants and the letters from the sheriffs, because everything that happened afterward was announced here, in his words, in March 2025: the paperwork, the money, the familiarity with the courthouse, the boy not leaving. Nobody had to infer a plan. He said it, on my cameras, and then his family carried it out — with help I will show you, office by office, over the next four days.

The documents for this part

• The March 15, 2025 transcript (39 minutes, time-stamped) and the clips
• The March 16, 2025, 3:01 a.m. doorbell clip
• The March 20, 2025 clip
• The Declaration for the April 10, 2025 hearing, as filed
• The Mendocino register showing No. 25FL01030 ahead of No. 25FL01032

Every statement about a court proceeding on this page is drawn from a filed court record, cited by case number; where a recording is quoted, the quotation is verbatim and the time stamp is given. J.J. is referred to by his initials. No photograph of him appears on this site.