America's most forgiving wife reveals why she's staying with husband after he murdered secret girlfriend with a MACHETE… and the photo that made victim's horrified parents 'scream'

A newlywed couple beams for photographs on a sun-drenched beach in Southern California, dressed in all white.

More than 4,000 miles away, on another stretch of coastline, a mother and father collapse to their knees in Panama, sobbing as the search for their missing daughter grows more desperate by the day.

Two scenes unfolding on opposite shores: one family celebrating the start of a new chapter, the other unraveling beneath the weight of grief and unanswered questions.

And at the center of both was Brian Brimager, the grinning groom and Marine veteran who would soon become the focus of an investigation into the disappearance and murder of Yvonne Baldelli, who vanished in Panama two days after Thanksgiving in 2011.

Baldelli, 42, and Brimager, 40, had been in the country only a matter of weeks. After a turbulent two-year relationship, the couple left Laguna Beach for Central America in search of calmer waters.

But Brimager was leading a double life.

He was secretly making plans with ex-girlfriend Kristin Werkhoven to return to the US and help raise the child they shared together. 

Neither woman knew about the other. That changed when Baldelli found a series of incriminating emails.

The discovery sparked a late-night confrontation that ended with Brimager killing Baldelli with a machete before dismembering her body in a shower and dumping her remains in the jungle, where they would lie undiscovered for nearly two years.

After killing Baldelli, Brimager returned to the US and, within days, married Werkhoven.

When suspicions began to mount, Werkhoven publicly defended her husband and insisted he was innocent.

Fourteen years later, despite Brimager's eventual confession and 26-year prison sentence, she remains by his side.

She is documenting their relationship on social media, sharing details of their marriage and plans for a life together when he is released from prison in 2035.

To supporters, Werkhoven's story is one of loyalty, forgiveness and redemption. To others - including Baldelli's family - it represents something far more troubling: the romanticization of a man who admitted to brutally killing and dismembering a young woman.

'I understand that I look crazy,' Werkhoven told the Daily Mail. 'It was disgusting what he did... but I made a pledge.'

Werkhoven acknowledges that many people struggle to understand her decision.

For years, despite publicly standing by Brimager, she struggled to understand it herself.

When FBI agents first approached her about Baldelli's disappearance, she was blindsided.

Then, working as a defense contractor, Werkhoven was attending a conference alongside hundreds of female professionals when agents pulled her from her seat in the second row and asked to speak with her about her husband.

Married for only a few weeks and caring for their infant daughter, she had never even heard Baldelli's name.

'She's missing,' the agents told her. 'And Brian was the last known person to see her alive.'

Werkhoven drove home in a panic. She didn't know Brimager had been living in Panama with another woman. She believed he had traveled there with fellow Marines to celebrate retiring from the military.

'I remember driving home and thinking my life is over,' she recalled.

What she didn't know then was that Baldelli wasn't missing - she was already dead, and Brimager had gone to great lengths to cover it up.

But she refused to even consider his guilt.

Investigators would later tell CBS News that Werkhoven was unwilling to entertain any information that contradicted her perception that he was 'the best thing.'

Amid mounting scrutiny, Werkhoven said she eventually asked Brimager a single question.

'Do you know where she's at?'

He told her no. She chose to believe him.

'I wanted to believe he didn't do this because I had never seen him violent. I had never seen him abusive, ever,' she said. 'I think sometimes you ignore information if it doesn't align with your pre-existing beliefs.'

As investigators continued to close in and evidence mounted against Brimager, Werkhoven found herself torn between the man she thought she knew and the increasingly disturbing picture emerging from Panama.

'I believed he was innocent and he was not,' she said. 'There's a level of shame and embarrassment in that. I almost lied to myself to make myself believe he was innocent because I wanted him to be innocent.'

During the five years between Baldelli's disappearance and Brimager's confession, the couple had a second child.

Even after Brimager admitted to killing Baldelli in 2016, Werkhoven chose to remain in the marriage, a decision she attributes largely to her Christian faith.

After her mind went to the darkest depths, she turned to prayer for guidance.

'There was a point where I was very much like, "I'm just done. I'm going to take my life and be done,"' she said.

'And then I told God, "If you get me through this, I swear I will spend the rest of my life serving you"… and I made that pledge and kept it.'

Werkhoven's convictions have since become the foundation of an unlikely social media following.

She shares advice to the partners of other convicts while also answering questions from the public, recounting her 'love story' with Brimager, her road to forgiveness and addressing criticism. 

She has around 25,000 followers, and regularly shares pictures of her and Brimager as a loved-up young couple with captions such as, 'Our story isn’t finished… but we’ve already won - because we made it through the worst season of our lives and came out stronger, together.'

In another post, which has the comments switched off, Werkhoven writes, 'He told me "I'll be gone for 26 years." I said "I've waited for you through war... I can wait through this too."'

She also shares posts about dealing with online hate and pictures of her husband with their kids.

Werkhoven said it took years for her to forgive her husband for his actions, for the impact they had on their family's life and Baldelli's loved ones.

She also insists that remaining in the marriage does not mean she condones what he did.

'I love you, but I hate what you did,' she recalled telling Brimager.

'Someone I love did something that I hate and something that I would never support. And that's hard. It is so hard to love someone who did something like that.'

Werkhoven said she set up the social media page to create a support network for others going through circumstances similar to hers.

However, the existence of Werkhoven's platform came as a surprise to Baldelli's family.

Lillian Faust, Baldelli's stepmother, told the Daily Mail that she had no idea Werkhoven had built an online following around her relationship with Brimager.

For years, Faust said, she and other loved ones have struggled to understand why Werkhoven chose to remain by his side.

One moment in particular has stayed with her.

Attending a court hearing after Baldelli's murder, Faust recalled looking across the courtroom and seeing Werkhoven seated behind Brimager.

'I went straight to the victim's advocate and said, "Does Kristin know about the machete?"' Faust recalled. 'And she said yes.'

'I said, "She knows they found Yvonne's blood on it?" And she said yes.'

'Well, what is she doing here? Why would she be here?' Faust recalled thinking of Werkhoven.

Each new revelation about the crime only deepened her confusion.

'When everything started coming out, and she was still sitting behind him, standing by his side, I felt like she must be crazy,' Faust said.

The Baldelli family's bewilderment dates back to the earliest days of the investigation.

When relatives discovered photographs of Brimager and Werkhoven's wedding shortly after Baldelli vanished, Faust said she immediately feared the worst.

'Someone sent me a link and I opened it and screamed,' she said. 'I couldn't believe he was married to another woman. I thought this must've been why he killed her.'

Baldelli's family believes Brimager murdered her because he wanted to return to the life he had left behind in California.

Brimager insists he is no longer the man who committed that crime. During a failed bid for a reduced sentence last year, he apologized to Baldelli's loved ones and told the court he had dedicated himself to faith, becoming a Christian worship leader and mentor to other inmates. 

His attorney argued that he had accepted responsibility for his crime and spent years working to better himself while incarcerated.

But Baldelli's family remains unconvinced.

'I just think he plays the part,' Faust said. 'I don't think he even loves her. I believe she's being used and doesn't even realize it.'

Like Werkhoven, Faust says her faith shapes how she views the world. But when it comes to Brimager, forgiveness remains out of reach.

'God would have to help me with that one,' she said.