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It took a Tinder match, three weeks of constant communication, and a few Google searches for DeAnn Jansen to agree to meet Nate Holzapfel at her Utah home in August 2021.
The 53-year-old hospice worker had lost her husband 13 months prior, and she was struggling. But Holzapfel skillfully convinced DeAnn to ignore her rule about only meeting a first date in public. He even confided in her about his stint on ABC’s reality show Shark Tank, where the 44-year-old scored a celebrity investor for his belt company.
So despite the blaring mental alarm bells about ignoring her first-date rules, she agreed to a midweek visit at her home. And she almost immediately regretted it.