Speaker 1: Pushkin. One morning last December, my co host Jess McHugh
Speaker 1: and our producer Amy Gaines McQuaid traveled to Rhode Island
Speaker 1: sit down with a woman named Rosemarie Coffee.
Speaker 2: Oh, he's going to market to mailman, like all good
Speaker 2: dogs do. Boo.
Speaker 1: That's Rosemarie talking to her dog Boo. When Jess and
Speaker 1: Amy arrived, Rosemarie had pastries from a local bakery waiting
Speaker 1: for them. And Rosemarie she likes to take care of
Speaker 1: people like this. She's sixty years old and recently retired,
Speaker 1: but before that she spent her career supporting people when
Speaker 1: they're at their most vulnerable. She worked as a community
Speaker 1: support specialist and for a time Rosemary took care of
Speaker 1: Sarah Kavanaugh.
Speaker 2: Well, I've worked with her. I'm guessing three years.
Speaker 3: Wow, So it's absolute the end. So it would.
Speaker 2: Write exactly to the point.
Speaker 1: Sarah enrolled in the Wounded Warrior Independence Program. It's designed
Speaker 1: for veterans with life changing injuries. And it was through
Speaker 1: this program that Wounded Warrior paid for Rosemares services.
Speaker 3: What did you understand her physical injuries to be she
Speaker 3: had the traumatic brain injury, she had a prosthetic hip, supposedly,
Speaker 3: and she was also going through cancer treatment, the prosthetic,
Speaker 3: the brain injury, and the PTSD with the primary challenges.
Speaker 1: She still remembers the first time that she showed up
Speaker 1: to Sarah's house.
Speaker 2: At the time, Sarah was like curled up in a
Speaker 2: blanket in you know, on the couch in front of
Speaker 2: the window, just looking out the window, all forlorn and
Speaker 2: shy and withdrawn, and according to the case manager, she
Speaker 2: you know, she wasn't getting adjusted to the community and
Speaker 2: she really needed a lot of support. If you can
Speaker 2: just picture that person that's just not been able to
Speaker 2: do anything, you know, or go anywhere, you know, really struggling,
Speaker 2: you know, that was that was the persona that she
Speaker 2: put out there.
Speaker 1: Throughout our reporting, Jess and I had heard these stories
Speaker 1: about Sarah running down mountain trails and competing in epic
Speaker 1: workout challenges, but this, this was an entirely different Sarah
Speaker 1: we were hearing about. Rose Marie worked with Sarah right
Speaker 1: up until Sarah's double life came crashing down. Throughout all
Speaker 1: that time, Sarah let rose Marie into her home, into
Speaker 1: her life, and we wondered what did rose Marie c
Speaker 1: turns out she saw and heard an awful lot, some
Speaker 1: of which has major implications for our story. It suggests
Speaker 1: that there may have been someone else helping Sarah with
Speaker 1: her deception, a possible accomplice.
Speaker 4: I couldn't even tell your name. I couldn't even tell
Speaker 4: you necessarily who I suspected. But there were a couple
Speaker 4: incidents when somebody had to call Sarah's caseworker at the
Speaker 4: VA when Sarah's standing in the rooms or wasn't Sarah,
Speaker 4: So who was on the other end of the phone.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Deep Cover Season six. The Truth about Sarah.
Speaker 1: This is rose Marie's story. Rose Marie has worked with
Speaker 1: people living with disabilities for decades, and if there's one
Speaker 1: thing she's learned, it's that every case is different.
Speaker 2: So there isn't a set blueprint for working with someone
Speaker 2: with brain injury. It's different in the sense of each
Speaker 2: person's injury manifests itself in different ways.
Speaker 1: Rose Marie told us that most of the people that
Speaker 1: she works with have had their worlds turned upside down
Speaker 1: and they're still trying to find their footing.
Speaker 2: So they've had pretty much a normal life leading up
Speaker 2: to this injury, and then they may have had a
Speaker 2: car accident, a stroke, a brain tumor, and then everything changes,
Speaker 2: including personality changes. So that's part of it that you
Speaker 2: wouldn't see it with other disabilities.
Speaker 1: Necessarily her job helping people get back into the world,
Speaker 1: running errands, doing chores, the simple stuff, which is no
Speaker 1: longer so simple. That's where Rosemary comes in. That's what
Speaker 1: she started doing for Sarah.
Speaker 2: At the time I met her. Supposedly she couldn't even
Speaker 2: go into a store, she couldn't go to a target,
Speaker 2: she couldn't go grocery shopping, she couldn't you know, take
Speaker 2: care of her household.
Speaker 1: Rosemary believed Sarah was dealing with PTSD, so she tried
Speaker 1: to break things down, make simple tasks even simpler.
Speaker 2: Okay, your first task is to try to just go
Speaker 2: into target, you know, get one item and go through
Speaker 2: the register and that's a success. Or we'd go, you know,
Speaker 2: make a grocery list, like what do I need? What
Speaker 2: am I going to eat this week?
Speaker 1: And rose Marie was told certain things were going to
Speaker 1: be hard for Sarah.
Speaker 2: Okay, these are things emotionally she needs to address, you know,
Speaker 2: going out in the community like the DMV would have
Speaker 2: been a big trigger for her. You know, to do
Speaker 2: that by herself.
Speaker 1: So rose Marie went with her to the DMV to
Speaker 1: get special purple heart plates for her car. You might
Speaker 1: remember Sarah claimed she earned a purple heart in combat.
Speaker 1: Somehow she had the paperwork to back that claim up,
Speaker 1: and she got the plates without even realizing it or
Speaker 1: meaning to. Rose Marie had played a small role in
Speaker 1: helping Sarah deepen her deception. As they spent more time together,
Speaker 1: rose Marie and Sarah began to form a bond.
Speaker 2: So I was supporting her. And of course when you're
Speaker 2: doing that, you want to build a rapport. You want
Speaker 2: to have the person be comfortable, so you're your I mean,
Speaker 2: I was willing to do the things with her. Let's
Speaker 2: say she's no, she's got to do laundry. Well, I'm
Speaker 2: not just going to stand there with a clipboard, you know,
Speaker 2: and talk at her.
Speaker 1: Instead, rose Marie said, let's chat as we fold the clothes.
Speaker 1: And over time, rose Marie became a sounding board for Sarah.
Speaker 2: She talked about things that bothered her. She talked about relationships,
Speaker 2: she talked about family. She was always talking about financial
Speaker 2: troubles that was weighing on her.
Speaker 1: The version of Sarah that we kept hearing about from
Speaker 1: other people was tough, unbreakable, always smiling through the pain,
Speaker 1: the kind of person people held up as a hero.
Speaker 1: But rose Marie saw something else, something that seemed more
Speaker 1: tender and fragile.
Speaker 2: I would say about ninety nine percent of the time
Speaker 2: when I arrived at her home, she was in tears. Wow,
Speaker 2: she was anxious, she was worked up. There was things
Speaker 2: that had happened, and then you know, we would talk
Speaker 2: and she would come down and then we'd say, okay,
Speaker 2: what's the plan, and we would you know, be able
Speaker 2: to move on to an activity that she orchestrated that
Speaker 2: we should do.
Speaker 1: One of these things was physical therapy.
Speaker 2: She wanted to start physical therapy and the organization was
Speaker 2: paying for it, wounded Warrior, and so she was nervous
Speaker 2: about going to the first visit. So I took her
Speaker 2: to her first visit with Sam.
Speaker 1: Yep, Rosemarie says she took Sarah to her very first
Speaker 1: appointment with Sam, the physical therapist she went on to
Speaker 1: become romantically involved with. At first, nothing stood out to Rosemary,
Speaker 1: but over time she came to understand that Sarah's relationship
Speaker 1: with Sam had evolved.
Speaker 2: It took a long time before I saw evidence there
Speaker 2: was something else with Sam And I'm trying to be professional.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to delve into like obviously she had
Speaker 2: just gotten married, you know, not long.
Speaker 1: Before or Rose Marie knew Nicole, Sarah's wife at the time.
Speaker 1: She spent many hours in the home that they shared,
Speaker 1: and she did her best to stay out of this
Speaker 1: whole mess and just stick to her job being a
Speaker 1: community support specialist. Well, it's tricky work. You get pulled
Speaker 1: into people's lives, the mess, the chaos. Rose Marie kept
Speaker 1: her focus, helped the person in front of you. What
Speaker 1: she didn't know was just how messy it really was.
Speaker 1: In early twenty twenty two, as Sarah's lives were falling apart,
Speaker 1: Rose Marie arrived at Sarah's house to help with an
Speaker 1: errand the moment she got there, she sensed it and
Speaker 1: on settling tension in the air, like everything was on edge.
Speaker 2: I show up. She's outside, she's not even in the house.
Speaker 2: She's outside, she's anxious. She's got the plates in her hands,
Speaker 2: she's got the paperwork. She was just like, we have
Speaker 2: to go to the DMV. I have to return these plates.
Speaker 2: They're causing so much problems. I just want to get
Speaker 2: rid of them.
Speaker 1: Sarah was desperate to return those purple heart license plates.
Speaker 1: It was a request that seemed to baffle the DMV staff,
Speaker 1: but Sarah just wanted those plates gone.
Speaker 2: The staff at the DMV were like so nice, and
Speaker 2: they were trying to get at what was going on,
Speaker 2: like why why do you want to return these? Is
Speaker 2: somebody harassing you? Like, because we can help you, you know,
Speaker 2: We'll get contact whoever we need to to help you
Speaker 2: with this. If you know, you should feel like you
Speaker 2: you earn these And she's like, no, no, I just
Speaker 2: have to get rid of it. I don't want to
Speaker 2: talk about it.
Speaker 1: Soon after this, reports about Sarah's fraud started circulating. Rose
Speaker 1: Marie was at home when her husband showed her an
Speaker 1: article that revealed Sarah's deception.
Speaker 2: My husband came to me and said, is this Sarah
Speaker 2: Sarah in the news is showing me on my phone.
Speaker 2: I was just like, oh my god, they really have,
Speaker 2: you know, gone out of their way to hurt her.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, poor Sarah. What's my first response? I
Speaker 2: was like reaching out to her and be like, are
Speaker 2: you okay?
Speaker 3: But so initially it sounds like your reaction is disbelief.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, yeah. I had no reason to doubt her,
Speaker 2: and I was just like, what are these people doing
Speaker 2: to her? Oh my god? Is she okay?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: Call her right away? And I just said to her,
Speaker 2: are you okay? And she's like, well no, And I
Speaker 2: was like, well, if it's not true, you have to
Speaker 2: defend yourself, Sarah, you know, and she's like I can't.
Speaker 2: She said, I can't. I was like, what do you mean.
Speaker 2: She's like, I can't defend myself. And then I was like,
Speaker 2: tell me what's going on. She's like, I can't talk.
Speaker 2: I'll call you right back. I'm getting another call, and
Speaker 2: then she hung up and that was it.
Speaker 1: Rose Marie soon learned about the investigation into Sarah's fraud
Speaker 1: and what the FEDS had begun to discover, and she
Speaker 1: came to the unsettling realization that she had been deceived
Speaker 1: for years. In some ways, rose Marie knew Sarah so intimately,
Speaker 1: but in other ways she didn't know her at all.
Speaker 1: We asked rose Marie if she knew whether Sarah had
Speaker 1: a job, and turns out she had no idea. Sarah
Speaker 1: was a social worker at the VA and Providence Now,
Speaker 1: granted she did only work for Sarah part time, roughly
Speaker 1: six hours a week, she knew that Sarah visited the
Speaker 1: VIA pretty often, and she knew this because sometimes she
Speaker 1: drove Sarah there.
Speaker 2: I've taken her to the VA, So I mean, I
Speaker 2: have no idea what I took what I took her to,
Speaker 2: but you know, definitely dropped her off and waited in
Speaker 2: the car in that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: Part of what made Sarah's story so convincing to Rose
Speaker 1: Marie and others we interviewed was the fact that someone
Speaker 1: from Sarah's healthcare team was in contact with them. This
Speaker 1: person's name was Ivy. Supposedly, Ivy was a social worker
Speaker 1: at the VA assigned to managing Sarah's care.
Speaker 2: She had a lot of talks about the social worker
Speaker 2: Ivy at the VA, So that's what I thought was
Speaker 2: going on.
Speaker 1: But what was really going on with Ivy, Well that's
Speaker 1: something we're all still trying to figure out more on that.
Speaker 1: After the break, a few people we've interviewed, including Rosemarie,
Speaker 1: say they spoke with someone claiming to be Ivy. Rosemarie
Speaker 1: told us about one conference call in particular. It was
Speaker 1: a check in with Sarah's healthcare team. Rosemarie was on
Speaker 1: the line, as was a case manager from the Wounded
Speaker 1: Warrior Project, and then there was Ivy from the VA,
Speaker 1: offering updates on Sarah's care, so.
Speaker 2: She would go on and talk about her medical situation,
Speaker 2: the cancer, what they were trying to do there, So
Speaker 2: I'd be there with Sarah, and then the other two
Speaker 2: were in conference call, and so Sarah was in the
Speaker 2: room with yes, so she couldn't have been the one
Speaker 2: on the phone right right, And that was the case
Speaker 2: as well another time some of other woman was speaking
Speaker 2: and as Ivy.
Speaker 1: The question that now comes up, the one that Rose
Speaker 1: Marie still thinks about, and the one that we still
Speaker 1: think about a lot, is this who's on the phone
Speaker 1: pretending to be Ivy offering these made up details about
Speaker 1: how Sarah's treatment was going. It wasn't Sarah, because on
Speaker 1: that particular call, Sarah was sitting in the room with
Speaker 1: Rose Marie. So it had to be someone else, someone
Speaker 1: who was complicit in Sarah's lies.
Speaker 2: So there had to be other people involved. There absolutely
Speaker 2: had to be, because I clearly remember at least two
Speaker 2: times when Ivy was on the phone. But yeah, there
Speaker 2: had to be another person.
Speaker 1: We talked to Tom Donnelly about this. If you recall,
Speaker 1: he's the in house investigator at the VA's Office of
Speaker 1: Inspector General. Donnelly's thought about this a lot.
Speaker 4: We could never proof that another person was involved, but
Speaker 4: it's evidence that leads me to believe that one hundred
Speaker 4: percent somebody else was involved.
Speaker 1: Donnelly told us there really is someone named Ivy who
Speaker 1: works for the Providence VA, but investigators had interviewed her
Speaker 1: over the course of their investigation and they felt convinced
Speaker 1: that she was not in on this in any way.
Speaker 1: We actually got in touch with the real Ivy and
Speaker 1: she told us quote, I knew Sarah from the time
Speaker 1: she was a social work intern. We would eat lunch together,
Speaker 1: and although she never pretended to be a veteran with
Speaker 1: me or other coworkers, she would tell us story after
Speaker 1: story about her large military family. I was shocked to
Speaker 1: learn that they never existed, and was appalled when I
Speaker 1: was questioned by federal agents investigating whether or not I
Speaker 1: was involved in her schemes. She went on to say
Speaker 1: more appalling than her using my name was the grift
Speaker 1: that she had been running for years, duping many organizations
Speaker 1: and betraying the trust of so many veterans, like the
Speaker 1: ones that she was receiving a salary to help. All
Speaker 1: of this has led investigators to believe there had to
Speaker 1: have been someone else, someone impersonating Ivy on a series
Speaker 1: of phone calls.
Speaker 4: Like we figured out who Ivy's phone number was, Ivy's
Speaker 4: phone number was Sarah's VA issued government cell phone. So
Speaker 4: I don't know where that phone was or who had it,
Speaker 4: but we do know that it was used.
Speaker 1: In other words, Donnelly thinks someone was using Sarah's work
Speaker 1: phone to fake the whole thing, calling people pretending to
Speaker 1: be Ivy. But if it wasn't Sarah, well, then who
Speaker 1: was it. That question has yet to be answered. Maybe
Speaker 1: one day we'll find out. Before Rosemarie learned about Sarah's lies,
Speaker 1: she says she was never really suspicious. She felt nothing
Speaker 1: but empathy for Sarah.
Speaker 2: You see, this person has been impacted, and her life
Speaker 2: has been so impaired, and she's so young. I mean,
Speaker 2: it really pulled on your heart, There's no question about it.
Speaker 2: Everybody who met her felt sorry for her. Every time.
Speaker 2: Everyone wanted to help her.
Speaker 1: Rose Marie became so attached to Sarah that even after
Speaker 1: retiring in twenty twenty one, she continued to help her,
Speaker 1: volunteering her time for free.
Speaker 2: I just knew I had to be there for her,
Speaker 2: like I felt when she reacted that she wasn't going
Speaker 2: to have my contact and she felt so lost. There
Speaker 2: was just so much going on that I wanted to
Speaker 2: be there for her. I wanted to be able to say,
Speaker 2: you can call me anytime. I'm here for you. And
Speaker 2: she was like, great, okay, you know, ever said, oh,
Speaker 2: you don't have to do that, or you know, I
Speaker 2: don't want, you know, she definitely let me do it.
Speaker 3: It's really generous of you.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I mean, you.
Speaker 2: Can't work in this career, in this field and not
Speaker 2: care you know what. You can't. It's just, you know,
Speaker 2: it doesn't make me any kind of a special person.
Speaker 2: It's just that's where I was at, you know, at
Speaker 2: the time.
Speaker 1: The last time rose Marie saw Sarah was on the
Speaker 1: day of this sentencing in March of twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: Rose Marie was there in the courtroom, surrounded by people
Speaker 1: who are angry and demanding justice.
Speaker 2: You know, by that time, you know, sympathy had worn
Speaker 2: off and everybody just wanted to see her be held accountable,
Speaker 2: you know. So basically it was Sarah and her attorney
Speaker 2: and then a whole bunch of other people just you know,
Speaker 2: rooting for her to go to jail.
Speaker 1: At sentencing, Rosemary connected with many other people in Sarah's orbit,
Speaker 1: like Michelle the Jim Buddy and Dave the VFW commander.
Speaker 1: Rosemarie had felt hurt and embarrassed that she'd fallen for
Speaker 1: Sarah's schemes, but when she looked around, she started to
Speaker 1: see the bigger picture, and it put things into perspective.
Speaker 2: So many people got scammed. I mean, that's where I
Speaker 2: stopped beating myself up. Was people smarter than me got scammed,
Speaker 2: you know, in a lot larger ways. All the times
Speaker 2: all of us could have intersected somehow, we didn't, you know,
Speaker 2: And then but it just didn't happen. Oh God, I
Speaker 2: got to save some grief for people.
Speaker 1: I just wish I could have saved some grief for people.
Speaker 1: It felt like rose Marie was basically saying, if only
Speaker 1: I had figured this out, maybe we could have avoided
Speaker 1: this whole mess. The fallout from Sarah's actions was far reaching,
Speaker 1: but one of the cruelest outcomes is that someone like
Speaker 1: Rosemarie would be left feeling even a little bit responsible,
Speaker 1: blaming herself for her own generosity, wondering if that very
Speaker 1: kindness did more harm than good. Of course she's not
Speaker 1: to blame, but sometimes it's not so easy for her
Speaker 1: to see it this way. At the very end of
Speaker 1: this interview, our producer Amy asked rose Marie a final
Speaker 1: question about Sarah.
Speaker 3: Is there anything that you would want to ask her
Speaker 3: or like, do you think that you'll.
Speaker 2: No? I think everybody just probably wants to know why,
Speaker 2: But you'd never get an answer that we could trust.
Speaker 2: If I asked her why, I wouldn't get a real
Speaker 2: honest you know. So what I really ask, you know,
Speaker 2: just a part of my past and time to move on.
Speaker 1: So many people in this story were deceived. Rosemarie saw
Speaker 1: this for herself at the sentencing hearing. But the human mind,
Speaker 1: it's a curious thing. It's not always governed by rationality
Speaker 1: or self love. Our friends may tell us we did
Speaker 1: no wrong. We may yearn to believe them, and perhaps
Speaker 1: we should. But in quiet moments late at night, the
Speaker 1: mind often wrestles with guilt, regret, and recriminations, feelings that
Speaker 1: defy logic, but hard as we may try, prove impossible
Speaker 1: to quiet, and in this way, Sarah's story lives on.
Speaker 2: I don't think it ends. That's what I worry about.
Speaker 2: I guess the biggest thing I wonder is like what
Speaker 2: she's going to do after, because how do you come
Speaker 2: out of jail and having done this and have some
Speaker 2: kind of a normal life. She's going to have to
Speaker 2: create another set of lies. She's not going to just
Speaker 2: come out and say, yeah, I just went to prison
Speaker 2: because I scanned all these people and I stole valor,
Speaker 2: and you know, so, I don't think it stops. That's
Speaker 2: what I'm afraid of.
Speaker 1: These last words, they've stayed with me. I find them haunting.
Speaker 1: As storytellers were always chasing after the elusive perfect endings,
Speaker 1: looking for that final note of closure. But as long
Speaker 1: as people remember, and as long as they're willing to
Speaker 1: ask that most human of questions, what if, then there
Speaker 1: is no end, not really, only more questions that spin
Speaker 1: into the night. This episode was produced by Amy Gaines McQuaid,
Speaker 1: Jess McHugh, Tally Emlin, and Sonya Gerwitt. It was edited
Speaker 1: by Karen Chakerjee. Our executive producer is Jacob Smith. Original
Speaker 1: music from Luis Gara, mastering by Sarah Bruger. Special thanks
Speaker 1: to Owen Miller, Lucy Sullivan, Jake Flanagan, Sarah Nix, and
Speaker 1: Greta Cone. I'm Jake halpern