Saruti

Still, the depths of John Esposito's denial ran far deeper than the bunker.

He never took accountability for his actions, instead continuously casting himself in the role of a rejected playmate, writing snivelling letters from behind bars where he insisted that he'd always loved and cared for Katie.

And crucially, he consistently refused to admit to any element of sexual abuse.

Back in 1994, Katie had admitted to investigators that John had touched her, but she was too ashamed to reveal the full extent of the abuse.

But in 2007, after years of therapy, Katie was finally ready to tell the truth.

At John's parole hearing that year, she testified that he had indeed raped her.

John denied it, describing himself as asexual and insisting that while he'd kissed Katie on the lips, it was really just a fatherly gesture.

By his next appeal in 2013, John finally changed his tune and finally confessed to engaging sexually with Katie in that bunker.

But even then he tried to downplay it, insisting that Katie loved it and felt safe with him.

And he also said he'd never beaten her up or hurt her physically.

Needless to say, this was hardly convincing to the parole board.

Allegedly.

I really don't know what happened to him, if he took his own life or if somebody gave him a helping hand.

I wonder if he did take his own life.

Maybe he thought he had denied it for so long and he was able to tell the story that he wanted, that he wasn't a bad guy.

He had never done anything like that.

He was in love with Katie, was taking care of her.

And then finally he admits it.

And maybe he realizes, oh yeah, I'm never getting out of here because he sees the look on the parole board members' faces.

And I think he can't live with being the bad guy.