WEBVTT - Episode 3: The Confidante 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:22.596 Pushkin. Hey, it's Jake. I hope you enjoyed our season 0:00:22.796 --> 0:00:26.356 The Truth about Sarah. We'll be having a live event 0:00:26.596 --> 0:00:29.916 later this year. It's going to be a conversation between 0:00:29.996 --> 0:00:33.876 me and my co host Jess McHugh, and we want 0:00:33.916 --> 0:00:37.396 to hear from you too. What questions do you have 0:00:37.556 --> 0:00:41.516 for us about this season? Send your questions to deep 0:00:41.636 --> 0:00:45.636 Cover at Pushkin dot fm. That's deep Cover All one 0:00:45.716 --> 0:00:49.836 word at Pushkin dot fm and stay tuned for more 0:00:49.876 --> 0:00:55.196 details on this event. Previously on deep Cover. 0:00:56.236 --> 0:01:01.476 She explained to me that she just got out of 0:01:01.636 --> 0:01:05.556 the Marine Corps and she needed help with some car 0:01:05.556 --> 0:01:09.116 payments because she was waiting for via disability to kick out. 0:01:09.796 --> 0:01:14.516 She was very likable, she was very charismatic, and then 0:01:14.596 --> 0:01:17.796 on top of it, she was a veteran and badass 0:01:17.916 --> 0:01:22.916 and had these injuries. We would kind of quietly make 0:01:22.956 --> 0:01:25.436 sure that when she was in our environment at the gym, 0:01:25.516 --> 0:01:26.476 she was protected. 0:01:28.276 --> 0:01:31.876 So I call up our records keeper and I say, hey, 0:01:31.996 --> 0:01:35.916 I need a copy of her DD Form two fourteen 0:01:36.396 --> 0:01:39.396 and he said, ooh, she just left my house two 0:01:39.476 --> 0:01:42.596 hours ago. She came here to the house to come 0:01:42.676 --> 0:01:58.676 get it. That's when I start thinking something's not right here, So. 0:01:59.636 --> 0:02:01.596 Like here, right when I get up in the morning, 0:02:01.636 --> 0:02:04.036 I make it a point to go outside. 0:02:04.556 --> 0:02:08.116 This is Sarah Katanaugh. She's the person you've been hearing 0:02:08.116 --> 0:02:10.836 about for the past two episodes, and. 0:02:10.916 --> 0:02:14.996 Like, step outside by myself, see the sunrise, look at 0:02:15.036 --> 0:02:18.516 the view because the view behind overlooks the mountains, and 0:02:19.076 --> 0:02:23.036 really enjoy that and just let that be the start 0:02:23.076 --> 0:02:27.356 of my day versus some of the intrusive thoughts about 0:02:27.396 --> 0:02:29.356 the past that would come up before, and I would 0:02:29.436 --> 0:02:32.836 let that dictate my day. So I've really changed how 0:02:32.876 --> 0:02:37.196 I let the past affect my moods, so I don't 0:02:37.236 --> 0:02:40.036 become just a continuous repetition of them. 0:02:41.516 --> 0:02:44.676 Jess and I spent the better part of several days 0:02:44.836 --> 0:02:48.596 interviewing Sarah. We talked about her past and her life 0:02:48.636 --> 0:02:51.036 now and a great many other things too. 0:02:52.396 --> 0:02:55.876 How we found her, where we found her. We'll get there. 0:02:56.396 --> 0:02:58.036 You're going to hear from her throughout the rest of 0:02:58.036 --> 0:03:01.036 the season, but for now, we just want you to 0:03:01.076 --> 0:03:03.236 hear some of the very first things that she said 0:03:03.316 --> 0:03:05.876 to us in person, so that you get a read 0:03:05.916 --> 0:03:09.716 on her just like we did. We started with small talk, 0:03:10.116 --> 0:03:11.876 like read any good books lately? 0:03:13.316 --> 0:03:17.316 Right now? I am reading The Secret History by Donna Tart, 0:03:17.716 --> 0:03:23.156 which is interesting. I had read Goldfinch The Goldfinch and 0:03:23.196 --> 0:03:26.116 I loved it, so now I'm reading this one, and 0:03:26.116 --> 0:03:27.516 I'm really enjoying it so far. 0:03:29.116 --> 0:03:31.796 This was just a few minutes into our first conversation. 0:03:32.716 --> 0:03:36.116 At this point, I knew a fair amount about Sarah Cavanaugh, 0:03:36.276 --> 0:03:39.676 what she'd done, about all the people she deceived and hurt. 0:03:40.356 --> 0:03:42.316 I had a pretty good picture in my head of 0:03:42.316 --> 0:03:47.516 who she was, and this this was not it. This woman, well, 0:03:47.756 --> 0:03:50.476 she sounded more like a high school guidance counselor or 0:03:50.876 --> 0:03:52.836 the type of person you'd hope would be taking care 0:03:52.836 --> 0:03:56.356 of your grandma the senior citizen home. In fact, she 0:03:56.436 --> 0:04:00.036 told us working with seniors that was her first job. 0:04:01.076 --> 0:04:04.636 So I was in undergrad working at an assisted living. 0:04:04.676 --> 0:04:07.156 I worked there for five and a half years, and 0:04:07.196 --> 0:04:11.116 I loved it. I did every thing from serving in 0:04:11.156 --> 0:04:15.956 the dining room to running activities to housekeeping. I did 0:04:15.956 --> 0:04:19.276 anything they asked me to do to basically pay my 0:04:19.356 --> 0:04:22.196 rent and pay my tuition and kind of survive undergrad 0:04:22.236 --> 0:04:26.916 at all costs. But I developed really meaningful relationships with 0:04:27.076 --> 0:04:28.236 the residents. 0:04:28.516 --> 0:04:32.156 Right as I sat there listening to her. I noticed 0:04:32.636 --> 0:04:35.916 Sarah was doing this a lot, ending a sentence by 0:04:35.916 --> 0:04:40.556 saying right. It's kind of subtle. She doesn't yank you 0:04:40.636 --> 0:04:43.316 through her version of events. It's more like she was 0:04:43.676 --> 0:04:46.076 feeling around for things that we might have in common, 0:04:46.716 --> 0:04:49.556 and if we nodded along, she'd say right. 0:04:51.116 --> 0:04:53.036 A lot of people don't like older people. I remember 0:04:53.076 --> 0:04:54.556 a lot of people I worked with who were like, 0:04:54.596 --> 0:04:59.796 she's grouchy, or she's this, or she's that, And I thought, well, 0:04:59.836 --> 0:05:04.316 they've had fifty years to practice right type thing. And also, like, 0:05:05.076 --> 0:05:07.316 I always think about our moods as a product of 0:05:07.356 --> 0:05:11.836 something else, right, I know that personally, and so I 0:05:11.916 --> 0:05:14.276 just think there was an appreciation there for me. But 0:05:15.316 --> 0:05:18.036 I didn't really know where that was going to go. 0:05:18.076 --> 0:05:19.196 I think I thought I was going to be like 0:05:19.196 --> 0:05:21.156 an activities director or something like that. 0:05:22.276 --> 0:05:26.116 But instead she got her master's and became a social worker. 0:05:26.676 --> 0:05:30.196 Eventually she got a job at the local VA in Providence, 0:05:30.276 --> 0:05:34.396 Rhode Island. That was her job, helping veterans in some 0:05:34.436 --> 0:05:37.876 pretty tough situations. And this is one hundred percent true. 0:05:37.916 --> 0:05:41.276 By the way, many of these people coming to Sarah 0:05:41.316 --> 0:05:44.876 for help, they showed up maybe on a Saturday kind 0:05:44.876 --> 0:05:48.596 of reluctantly, and it was Sarah's job to put them 0:05:48.596 --> 0:05:48.996 at ease. 0:05:50.276 --> 0:05:54.436 I would just say, hey, how are you like, it's Saturday, 0:05:54.836 --> 0:05:57.476 you know, what's how do you feel about this? How 0:05:57.476 --> 0:05:59.036 do you feel about being here? And if they were like, 0:05:59.196 --> 0:06:00.556 I really don't want to be here. I had to 0:06:00.556 --> 0:06:02.476 get up early and I had to drive to Providence, 0:06:02.556 --> 0:06:04.476 and I'd be like, yeah, I understand. 0:06:05.756 --> 0:06:09.636 When her clients did open up. Sarah took this approach. 0:06:10.836 --> 0:06:14.636 When someone said something like I'm you know, I'm struggling 0:06:14.636 --> 0:06:17.676 with I might be homeless, or my my wife and 0:06:17.676 --> 0:06:21.276 I are fighting, or something like that, I wouldn't respond 0:06:21.716 --> 0:06:27.036 with surprise. I would just be like, yeah, those things happen. 0:06:28.196 --> 0:06:30.916 Those things happen, and okay, what do you think you 0:06:30.996 --> 0:06:31.716 need right now? 0:06:31.756 --> 0:06:35.556 Because of that, what she never wanted to do was 0:06:35.596 --> 0:06:39.756 send veterans elsewhere to some other program, you know, push 0:06:39.836 --> 0:06:41.076 them off on someone else. 0:06:42.116 --> 0:06:44.636 I know that when I've opened up and told people things, 0:06:45.196 --> 0:06:47.876 if they've turned away from it because it makes them uncomfortable, 0:06:47.996 --> 0:06:51.316 I've then kind of thought, oh, this makes other people 0:06:51.316 --> 0:06:51.996 feel uncomfortable. 0:06:51.996 --> 0:06:53.436 Shouldn't talk about this, right? 0:06:53.436 --> 0:06:56.956 And I don't want to do that to them, but 0:06:57.036 --> 0:07:01.996 you have to be present in a way that silently 0:07:02.076 --> 0:07:03.396 says I get it. 0:07:06.916 --> 0:07:09.476 When she talked about her old life as a social worker, 0:07:10.116 --> 0:07:12.236 I got this strange sense that I was seeing the 0:07:12.276 --> 0:07:16.716 Sarah Kavanaugh that won over everybody's hearts. Because, let's be clear, 0:07:17.396 --> 0:07:20.396 the people we interviewed for this story, once upon a time, 0:07:20.956 --> 0:07:24.956 they all loved Sarah, and listening to her talk, started 0:07:24.956 --> 0:07:29.556 to understand why she knew, in her own words, how 0:07:29.596 --> 0:07:32.476 to be present in a way that silently says, I 0:07:32.516 --> 0:07:35.996 get it. It's weird to say, but I found her 0:07:36.036 --> 0:07:39.676 really likable by the time we met in person. I've 0:07:39.716 --> 0:07:41.996 been talking to her over the phone for nearly a year, 0:07:42.636 --> 0:07:45.076 and I've been hearing about all the terrible things she'd 0:07:45.116 --> 0:07:49.796 done for just as long. Sarah, she seems pretty aware 0:07:49.796 --> 0:07:53.836 of her effect on people then and now, of all 0:07:53.836 --> 0:07:58.756 the ways big and small said and unsaid that people 0:07:58.796 --> 0:08:02.196 come to trust each other to trust her. 0:08:03.516 --> 0:08:05.876 I've always been told I'm a really good listener, right, 0:08:06.196 --> 0:08:11.116 and I maximized that while I was lying people. When 0:08:11.156 --> 0:08:17.396 you create space, people fill that space. And I had 0:08:17.396 --> 0:08:21.796 always been really I had always been able to kind 0:08:21.836 --> 0:08:23.436 of keep my mouth shut and be quiet and not 0:08:23.476 --> 0:08:25.636 share anything. I'd really learned that really well. 0:08:30.876 --> 0:08:34.116 Sarah went on from there, talking about her old job 0:08:34.236 --> 0:08:38.116 and who she once was, because, as you might have guessed, 0:08:38.396 --> 0:08:41.796 she's no longer a social worker. She has another life now, 0:08:42.356 --> 0:08:45.276 very different life, one in which she has a great 0:08:45.316 --> 0:08:48.356 deal of time to think about what she did and 0:08:48.436 --> 0:08:50.196 the people she hurt most. 0:08:50.996 --> 0:08:52.636 I don't think it's ever going to be easy to 0:08:52.716 --> 0:08:57.516 think about the people I hurt, and because these are 0:08:57.556 --> 0:09:02.916 people that even before they knew I heard them right, 0:09:03.596 --> 0:09:06.236 I was hurting them right because I was lying to them. 0:09:06.796 --> 0:09:10.876 And they were people I called every day, that I 0:09:10.916 --> 0:09:16.676 spent most of my weekends with, that they were my friends, 0:09:16.756 --> 0:09:21.396 some of them my best friends. And I think about 0:09:21.396 --> 0:09:24.076 that now, I mean, that's really hard. 0:09:26.516 --> 0:09:30.996 When Sarah says this, she's really talking about two people 0:09:31.156 --> 0:09:34.956 who trusted her deeply. In this episode, we're going to 0:09:35.036 --> 0:09:38.436 hear from both of them. And these aren't just stories 0:09:38.476 --> 0:09:42.636 about friendship. They're about what happens when you meet someone 0:09:42.996 --> 0:09:46.356 a confidant who seems to get you and understand what 0:09:46.356 --> 0:09:51.836 you're going through, someone who listens quietly with what seems 0:09:51.876 --> 0:09:56.556 like empathy. But here in lies the danger. What if 0:09:56.596 --> 0:10:00.556 that very person takes your most personal struggles and uses 0:10:00.596 --> 0:10:05.036 them to their advantage, sees them as an opportunity. Then 0:10:05.436 --> 0:10:10.276 the line between empathy and manipulation is thinner than we'd 0:10:10.276 --> 0:10:13.876 care to admit. And sometimes the people who know us 0:10:14.036 --> 0:10:31.716 best are the ones we should fear the most. I'm 0:10:31.796 --> 0:10:36.516 Jay Calburn and I'm Jess mchuughe and this is Deep 0:10:36.556 --> 0:11:11.596 Cover Season six, The Truth About Sarah, Episode three, The Confidante. 0:11:20.956 --> 0:11:23.796 Last fall, Jake and I, along with our producer Amy, 0:11:24.036 --> 0:11:26.956 went on a road trip to Rhode Island. We wanted 0:11:26.956 --> 0:11:30.116 to meet the people in Sarah's inner circle, people who 0:11:30.116 --> 0:11:33.356 were closest to her, who each knew some part of 0:11:33.436 --> 0:11:36.996 the truth. One morning, Amy and I went to meet 0:11:36.996 --> 0:11:39.636 someone named Sam. We're just going to use her first 0:11:39.716 --> 0:11:43.156 name to protect her privacy. We spoke at her boyfriend's house, 0:11:43.436 --> 0:11:46.876 sitting around the kitchen table. Sam is in her fifties 0:11:46.996 --> 0:11:51.076 with short blonde hair. She's a physical therapist and for 0:11:51.196 --> 0:11:54.116 years she was Sarah's physical therapist. 0:11:54.596 --> 0:11:59.716 She was really kind. She definitely knew me, and she 0:12:00.276 --> 0:12:05.396 knew I think what I wanted to talk about type thing, 0:12:05.996 --> 0:12:06.876 if that makes sense. 0:12:07.276 --> 0:12:09.996 What was it that drew you to her in those early. 0:12:10.036 --> 0:12:15.036 Yeaies, it definitely was her intelligence. I mean her intelligence 0:12:15.156 --> 0:12:17.716 like just sparked something in me. 0:12:19.036 --> 0:12:21.636 Sarah and Sam first met in the fall of twenty eighteen, 0:12:22.276 --> 0:12:25.236 just a few months after Sarah's wedding to Nicole, the 0:12:25.236 --> 0:12:29.076 wedding attended by all her VFW friends. By this point, 0:12:29.556 --> 0:12:33.756 Sarah was fully immersed in this veteran role. Sam told 0:12:33.756 --> 0:12:35.836 me about the moment when Sarah first came in for 0:12:35.876 --> 0:12:36.596 a consultation. 0:12:37.756 --> 0:12:39.636 She was really quiet and reserved. 0:12:41.196 --> 0:12:41.396 You know. 0:12:41.516 --> 0:12:44.636 She answered questions, but very kind of matter of fact, 0:12:46.476 --> 0:12:49.956 definitely seemed like things were she was uncomfortable with, Like 0:12:49.956 --> 0:12:52.036 she didn't want me to look at her hip. 0:12:53.316 --> 0:12:55.916 This was the Sarah who, in her own words, had 0:12:55.916 --> 0:12:58.756 always been able to quote, keep her mouth shut and 0:12:58.796 --> 0:13:02.116 be quiet and not share anything, someone who let the 0:13:02.156 --> 0:13:05.716 silences do the talking. But Sarah did say she had 0:13:05.716 --> 0:13:06.916 been injured in Iraq. 0:13:07.596 --> 0:13:10.996 She said they hit an id and she got hit 0:13:11.036 --> 0:13:12.796 with the door that got blown in and a hitter 0:13:12.916 --> 0:13:15.116 and the hit. She wasn't really limping this because this 0:13:15.156 --> 0:13:17.356 wasn't a brand new injury. This is something that happened 0:13:17.396 --> 0:13:18.956 a long time ago, so it was more like a 0:13:19.036 --> 0:13:19.796 chronic thing. 0:13:20.676 --> 0:13:23.796 Sam had worked with trauma patients before, so when Sarah 0:13:23.836 --> 0:13:27.916 didn't want to show Sam her scar, she didn't push. Plus, 0:13:28.316 --> 0:13:31.596 she already knew a little about Sarah's supposed military past 0:13:32.076 --> 0:13:36.276 because one of Sarah's Jim buddies had connected them. Sarah 0:13:36.276 --> 0:13:39.516 got into a routine of twice weekly pt with Sam, 0:13:40.116 --> 0:13:44.076 and eventually the Wounded Warrior Project started paying for it. 0:13:44.916 --> 0:13:48.956 Sarah was part of their Independence Program. It's super selective 0:13:48.996 --> 0:13:53.556 program for the most severely wounded veterans, usually people with 0:13:53.596 --> 0:13:58.956 traumatic brain injuries, which Sarah claimed she had. Over many 0:13:58.996 --> 0:14:02.076 months of these weekly appointments, these two women became friends. 0:14:02.636 --> 0:14:06.996 They talk about nature, gardening, or books they both love reading. 0:14:07.876 --> 0:14:10.956 They also talked about more in smith things. Sam was 0:14:10.996 --> 0:14:13.996 recently divorced, and Sarah told her in that way she 0:14:14.076 --> 0:14:17.556 does so well, I get it. My marriage isn't working 0:14:17.556 --> 0:14:22.996 out either. Yeah, that's right. Sarah told Sam that she 0:14:23.196 --> 0:14:25.436 was also getting divorced. 0:14:26.316 --> 0:14:28.316 It was less than a year after they got married 0:14:28.556 --> 0:14:32.836 that she said that just the marriage wasn't working out 0:14:32.916 --> 0:14:38.436 and did they were separated, but she also said they 0:14:38.436 --> 0:14:39.836 did have an open marriage. 0:14:40.356 --> 0:14:43.316 None of this was true, at least not according to 0:14:43.356 --> 0:14:47.596 Sarah's wife, Nicole. At the time, they were still living together, 0:14:48.236 --> 0:14:53.396 still married, and not in an open marriage. But that's 0:14:53.436 --> 0:14:57.476 not what she told Sam. This, by the way, is 0:14:57.516 --> 0:15:00.956 also classic Sarah, as we've learned, and it's a pattern 0:15:00.996 --> 0:15:04.756 I've seen with women scammers in general. They often find 0:15:04.836 --> 0:15:08.956 emotional common ground with victims, even when that shared trauma 0:15:09.276 --> 0:15:12.516 is totally made up. And it worked. 0:15:14.196 --> 0:15:20.236 I think, like anything, basically, just you spend more time 0:15:20.276 --> 0:15:23.156 with someone and then you just appreciate who that person is, 0:15:23.316 --> 0:15:25.756 and then you find yourself wanting to spend more and 0:15:25.796 --> 0:15:28.676 more time. We just like enjoyed our time together and 0:15:28.716 --> 0:15:30.036 then it just turned into more. 0:15:31.236 --> 0:15:35.236 And by more, Sam means Sam and Sarah went from 0:15:35.276 --> 0:15:39.196 having a professional relationship to a friendship to a love 0:15:39.236 --> 0:15:42.836 affair one that was really romantic. Started going on a 0:15:42.836 --> 0:15:43.796 ton of trips together. 0:15:45.476 --> 0:15:50.716 Let's see, we went to Florida, we went to Vail, 0:15:50.996 --> 0:15:55.676 we went to the Bahamas, so we went to California, 0:15:57.716 --> 0:16:00.756 and then like you know, little driving around New England 0:16:00.836 --> 0:16:03.556 type stuff, and it wasn't just a fling. 0:16:03.996 --> 0:16:07.316 Their lives became really entwined. Much of this I actually 0:16:07.396 --> 0:16:11.196 learned from other interviews. Sarah would talk about Sam as 0:16:11.236 --> 0:16:14.716 her partner so much that it got really confusing for 0:16:14.876 --> 0:16:18.636 us as we reported this. There were times I would 0:16:18.676 --> 0:16:21.596 talk to someone for this story and they'd mentioned Sarah's 0:16:21.596 --> 0:16:25.356 significant other, and I had to double check, who did 0:16:25.396 --> 0:16:29.316 you think was Sarah's wife? A woman named Sam or 0:16:29.316 --> 0:16:35.036 a woman named Nicole. Oftentimes people said Sam Sarah was 0:16:35.076 --> 0:16:37.796 living a full on double life with Sam, a second 0:16:37.876 --> 0:16:40.756 double life because she was still living with her actual 0:16:40.796 --> 0:16:45.076 wife at the time, Nicole. Still, Sarah found a way 0:16:45.116 --> 0:16:48.036 to spend lots of time with Sam. In fact, Sarah 0:16:48.076 --> 0:16:52.236 and Sam would socialize with Sarah's VFW pals. Sam met 0:16:52.276 --> 0:16:56.196 Sarah's mom and a brother. Sarah told Sam she was 0:16:56.236 --> 0:16:59.396 really close with her five siblings and talked about them 0:16:59.476 --> 0:17:00.076 all the time. 0:17:00.796 --> 0:17:02.916 She told me that she had a twin who was 0:17:02.956 --> 0:17:05.876 also marine and died in combat, and then she had 0:17:05.916 --> 0:17:09.676 two older brothers and they were all like in the military. Yeah, 0:17:09.716 --> 0:17:11.796 and she said that her dad was a two star general. 0:17:12.556 --> 0:17:15.476 Sarah would show Sam pictures of her five brothers with 0:17:15.516 --> 0:17:21.396 their wives and kids, Brody, Joel, Oliver. She'd tell her 0:17:21.436 --> 0:17:23.836 about their marriage spats, or what they were dealing with 0:17:23.916 --> 0:17:28.476 at work, about their childhood growing up in Georgia. One 0:17:28.516 --> 0:17:33.676 brother in particular was worrying Sarah Joel. She told Sam 0:17:33.796 --> 0:17:36.636 that he was also a VET who now did private 0:17:36.756 --> 0:17:37.956 military contracting. 0:17:39.316 --> 0:17:41.276 He decided that he was going to do this mission 0:17:41.836 --> 0:17:45.076 because they would make a lot of money for these missions. 0:17:45.716 --> 0:17:48.676 Sarah told Sam that while Joel was on this mission, 0:17:49.036 --> 0:17:52.556 he got shot and ended up in a coma, and 0:17:52.596 --> 0:17:55.516 that her mom flew to the Middle East to bring 0:17:55.596 --> 0:18:00.036 him back to the US, but the doctors couldn't revive him. 0:18:00.556 --> 0:18:06.076 They told Sarah that he would never wake up. One day, 0:18:06.156 --> 0:18:09.956 Sarah tells Sam, I need to fly to Georgia now. 0:18:10.916 --> 0:18:12.716 I have to be the one to take him off 0:18:12.756 --> 0:18:13.916 of life support. 0:18:16.356 --> 0:18:17.916 I said, I'll go with you, and this is gonna 0:18:17.916 --> 0:18:19.796 be a really hard thing. I'll go with you. You know, 0:18:19.916 --> 0:18:21.636 we can fly down there and you know I can 0:18:21.676 --> 0:18:23.636 support you. And She's like, no, no, it's fine, I'll do it. 0:18:23.676 --> 0:18:25.436 And she called me at two o'clock in the morning. 0:18:25.636 --> 0:18:27.276 I'll never freak. She called me at two o'clock in 0:18:27.316 --> 0:18:33.196 the morning and said that it's done and he was gone. 0:18:33.516 --> 0:18:38.116 Sam was devastated for Sarah. Here was this woman dealing 0:18:38.156 --> 0:18:43.116 with all of these injuries and now this, and just 0:18:43.156 --> 0:18:45.676 to zoom out for a second because it can be 0:18:45.796 --> 0:18:49.516 easy to get lost in Sarah's world. The people in 0:18:49.556 --> 0:18:53.676 those photos that Sarah shared, they were real people with 0:18:53.836 --> 0:18:57.396 real lives of their own. They just weren't Sarah's brothers. 0:18:58.596 --> 0:19:02.116 This version of Sarah, the person with the big military 0:19:02.156 --> 0:19:06.716 family from Georgia, it's someone only a few people saw. 0:19:07.676 --> 0:19:10.796 And my take is that. But maybe it's because she 0:19:10.836 --> 0:19:14.836 couldn't really let Sam into her family life, because her 0:19:14.876 --> 0:19:18.396 whole family had watched her Mary Nicole, they'd been to 0:19:18.436 --> 0:19:22.996 the home that she and Cole still shared. But I 0:19:22.996 --> 0:19:27.836 think it's deeper than that. Sarah seems to have understood 0:19:27.836 --> 0:19:33.236 something fundamental. Tragedy brings us together, whether it's a friendship 0:19:33.636 --> 0:19:37.476 or a romantic partnership. Being vulnerable enough with another person 0:19:37.636 --> 0:19:40.236 to let them help you through a crisis, stand by 0:19:40.236 --> 0:19:42.836 you at a funeral or a hospital bed. This is 0:19:42.836 --> 0:19:47.236 where real intimacy is created, and Sarah seems to have 0:19:47.276 --> 0:19:55.156 taken this idea and just run with it. Same of course, 0:19:55.596 --> 0:19:58.476 didn't know any of this at the time. She continued 0:19:58.476 --> 0:20:02.396 bringing Sarah deeper into her world, her real world. 0:20:03.196 --> 0:20:05.356 She was very very meshed into my life. She knew 0:20:05.396 --> 0:20:06.916 my family intimately. 0:20:07.916 --> 0:20:11.476 Sam's mother has been battle stage three ovarian cancer for years. 0:20:11.916 --> 0:20:14.036 So while Sam drove her mother up to Boston for 0:20:14.116 --> 0:20:17.956 treatment at Dana Farber, Sarah would help out. She'd help 0:20:17.996 --> 0:20:20.756 Sam's kids with their homework, plan meals for the family, 0:20:21.436 --> 0:20:25.716 walk her mother's dog, and get this. While Sam was 0:20:25.756 --> 0:20:28.836 taking care of her mother's illness, holding her hand through chemo, 0:20:29.556 --> 0:20:32.156 she was also doing the same for Sarah. Sarah had 0:20:32.156 --> 0:20:35.356 told her the cancer lie too, said she had lung cancer. 0:20:36.236 --> 0:20:41.436 Sarah told Sam, I'm terrified, overwhelmed with medical results. I 0:20:41.516 --> 0:20:46.516 just can't take any more bad news. So Sam started 0:20:46.516 --> 0:20:50.396 receiving Sarah's test results, and then she would be the 0:20:50.436 --> 0:20:56.316 one to relay those results to Sarah more than once. 0:20:56.596 --> 0:21:01.036 Sam remembers sitting anxiously in her pet practice, refreshing her email, 0:21:01.476 --> 0:21:02.796 waiting for results to come in. 0:21:03.876 --> 0:21:07.636 I remember crying in my practice, getting bad, bad news, 0:21:08.116 --> 0:21:10.396 But then I remember getting really great news and then 0:21:10.476 --> 0:21:12.836 being able to tell her and that kind of stuff. 0:21:12.876 --> 0:21:14.916 It was a big rollercoaster. 0:21:15.076 --> 0:21:15.636 It's awful. 0:21:16.396 --> 0:21:20.316 It was awful. Yeah, there was a lot of emotional 0:21:20.476 --> 0:21:23.076 strife on my part, you know, a lot. 0:21:24.116 --> 0:21:28.236 As both Sarah's partner and her caregiver. Sam was in 0:21:28.276 --> 0:21:39.036 Sarah's world twice over totally enmeshed. Fast forward to January 0:21:39.116 --> 0:21:43.396 twenty twenty two, the moment when everything started to spiral 0:21:43.436 --> 0:21:47.956 out of control. News was getting around that Sarah may 0:21:47.996 --> 0:21:51.876 have lied about a great many things, including her service 0:21:51.876 --> 0:21:56.036 in the Marines, her medals, possibly even her claims of 0:21:56.076 --> 0:22:02.156 having cancer. When the news first reached Sam, she was 0:22:02.196 --> 0:22:05.596 in total disbelief. She'd seen a pile of proof over 0:22:05.636 --> 0:22:09.716 the years, her enrollment in the Wounded Warrior Independent Program, 0:22:10.356 --> 0:22:13.836 years of blood work that she'd received directly from the VA. 0:22:15.116 --> 0:22:17.236 Sam was trying to wrap her head around this, so 0:22:17.276 --> 0:22:19.796 she hopped on the phone with one of Sarah's VFW buddies, 0:22:20.156 --> 0:22:22.836 a guy named Justin. Had gotten to know each other 0:22:22.876 --> 0:22:25.196 over the years. She wanted his perspective. 0:22:26.116 --> 0:22:26.956 Can you believe this? 0:22:26.956 --> 0:22:27.636 This is crazy. 0:22:27.676 --> 0:22:30.396 Someone's making this up, you know, Like, why would they 0:22:30.396 --> 0:22:32.076 do this? Why would they make this up about her? 0:22:32.116 --> 0:22:36.436 This is insane, Sam told Justin. 0:22:37.116 --> 0:22:41.796 I've seen years of medical documents, even her cancer diagnosis. 0:22:42.516 --> 0:22:47.356 There's no way Sarah's lying. How would someone even make 0:22:47.396 --> 0:22:51.796 that up? More after the break. 0:23:01.716 --> 0:23:04.516 While Jess was meeting with Sam, I was just a 0:23:04.556 --> 0:23:08.236 few miles away meeting with Justin. He's the guy that 0:23:08.396 --> 0:23:11.436 Sam called to get a reality check. When the rumors 0:23:11.476 --> 0:23:15.796 first started, Justin was one of Sarah's buddies from the VFW, 0:23:16.556 --> 0:23:20.636 and initially, like Sam, he was very much in disbelief. 0:23:21.516 --> 0:23:26.196 Even now, knowing everything he knows about Sarah, Justin still 0:23:26.276 --> 0:23:29.196 struggles to wrap his head around everything that happened. 0:23:30.236 --> 0:23:33.876 I'll be honest, I was a little hesitant to kind 0:23:33.876 --> 0:23:37.996 of relive this, but I think now we're going to 0:23:38.036 --> 0:23:42.156 tell a story, I think it needs to be told fully, 0:23:42.196 --> 0:23:43.756 and so that's that's why I'm here. 0:23:44.716 --> 0:23:48.236 Justin is in his early fifties. He's fit, he looks 0:23:48.236 --> 0:23:50.356 like he could be part of a marketing campaign for 0:23:50.516 --> 0:23:55.556 Peloton or something, and he has this really disarming, gentle 0:23:55.636 --> 0:23:58.716 energy about him. Feels like an old soul to me. 0:24:00.236 --> 0:24:02.796 I wanted to talk to Justin for a whole bunch 0:24:02.836 --> 0:24:08.676 of reasons, but mainly because Justin's story. It's really compelling 0:24:08.676 --> 0:24:12.396 in its own right, which is probably why Sarah was 0:24:12.476 --> 0:24:16.916 drawn to it. Justin spent most of his career as 0:24:16.916 --> 0:24:20.676 an officer in the Navy as an aviator, and when 0:24:20.676 --> 0:24:23.356 he looks back on his life on all the dangers, 0:24:23.636 --> 0:24:27.036 all the near misses, all those moments that quietly changed 0:24:27.036 --> 0:24:30.316 the course of things. He often thinks back to two 0:24:30.356 --> 0:24:33.076 thousand and eight, when he was in his mid thirties 0:24:33.556 --> 0:24:38.196 stationed in Iraq, and what he remembers is the fog. 0:24:39.116 --> 0:24:42.276 The fog came every night, thick and heavy with the wind. 0:24:43.356 --> 0:24:47.116 It got so bad some nights they could barely breathe 0:24:47.156 --> 0:24:49.876 this fog. It would stay with Justin in the years 0:24:49.916 --> 0:24:52.996 to come in ways that he could never have foreseen. 0:24:53.556 --> 0:24:56.516 It would lead him right into the haze of Sarah 0:24:56.596 --> 0:25:02.356 Kavanaugh's deceptions. The fog in Iraq. It started like this. 0:25:03.476 --> 0:25:06.796 We weren't on a base called Taji, which is outside 0:25:06.796 --> 0:25:11.716 of Baghdad, and we're we lived. We had this kind 0:25:11.756 --> 0:25:15.596 of compound area. It was about fifty yards from a 0:25:15.596 --> 0:25:20.996 burn pit. And at night the wind would shift and 0:25:21.076 --> 0:25:25.796 our whole living area was enveloped in what was a fog. 0:25:25.836 --> 0:25:28.236 You couldn't you. You could barely see in front of you, 0:25:29.116 --> 0:25:31.636 a fog of what smelt like burning plastic. Every night. 0:25:33.156 --> 0:25:36.756 This fog that Justin's talking about, it's really a miasma 0:25:36.796 --> 0:25:40.676 of smoke and fumes. It came from a burn pit, 0:25:41.076 --> 0:25:44.276 which is how the military disposed of waste in both 0:25:44.316 --> 0:25:46.436 Iraq and Afghanistan. 0:25:47.636 --> 0:25:50.356 Like, when you eat, there's no there's not there's no 0:25:50.436 --> 0:25:52.796 water to do dishes. So when you go eat, everything 0:25:52.876 --> 0:25:56.756 is off plastic and that all gets thrown away. They 0:25:56.796 --> 0:25:59.636 dig a big pit. They throw all this stuff, plastic, 0:25:59.876 --> 0:26:03.516 medical waste, batteries, whatever, into this giant pit. They throw 0:26:03.716 --> 0:26:05.436 jet fuel on it and they light it on fire. 0:26:07.156 --> 0:26:10.916 Justin was responsible for nearly five HUND service members. Their 0:26:10.956 --> 0:26:14.476