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Speaker 1: Liz Hiccox lives in Newport, Rhode Island, in a postcard

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Speaker 1: perfect New England cottage by the water, with her husband Brian,

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Speaker 1: and a black lab named Salty. She's an athlete. On

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Speaker 1: any given weekend, you'll probably find her on her bike

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Speaker 1: training for her next Iron Man. She's been a runner

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Speaker 1: for decades, finishing the New York City Marathon a dozen times,

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Speaker 1: but she didn't get on a racing bike until two

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Speaker 1: thousand and fifteen, after she said she'd do this three

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Speaker 1: day charity ride for breast cancer survivors. I had a

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Speaker 1: very good friend who was a young survivor. She was

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Speaker 1: a mom of about thirty seven, two young kids, who

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Speaker 1: was diagnosed in her early thirties. And she would come

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Speaker 1: to me and asked for a donation. Every year she

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Speaker 1: would do this ride and I would write a check.

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Speaker 1: And then one year her friend couldn't participate, and I said, well,

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Speaker 1: when's the ride And she said some thirty days as well,

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Speaker 1: I'll do it. And she said you have a bike,

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Speaker 1: and I said no. She borrowed her friends, crashed at

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Speaker 1: the first stop side and I came to I had

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Speaker 1: no idea how to shift or anything. I remember riding

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Speaker 1: to a hill and found some guy in stretchy shorts

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Speaker 1: and said, could you please help me figure out to

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Speaker 1: shift this? I don't know how to do this. So

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Speaker 1: I went out and trained every day for thirty days.

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Speaker 1: She was hooked on both the bike and the organization.

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Speaker 1: She met women who said making the ride was the

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Speaker 1: goal that had gotten them through chemo. She saw how

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Speaker 1: they drew strength from this shared accomplishment, even if they

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Speaker 1: could only make it a few miles. The whole experience

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Speaker 1: was honestly life changing. And I said to Brian and said,

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Speaker 1: you've got to do this. This was a really important event.

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Speaker 1: And I couldn't feel more strongly that you know, you

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Speaker 1: need to take part in it. And then the next

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Speaker 1: year he did. In late September two thousen, a streak

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Speaker 1: of tendonitis sidelined her for the Breast Cancer Ride, so

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Speaker 1: she volunteered to help at the rest stops, where women

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Speaker 1: would take breaks for water and snacks. Everyone's patting each

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Speaker 1: on their backs, saying you got this. This is incredible.

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Speaker 1: People are singing and cheering, you know, saying, oh my gosh,

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Speaker 1: you know that was so hard or that was so easy.

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Speaker 1: As the day was winding down, another cyclist came up

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Speaker 1: to Liz and asked her a favor. There's a young

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Speaker 1: woman that's coming in and she's at the end of

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Speaker 1: the pack and she's missed all of the photographers and

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Speaker 1: it's her first ride, and we'd really like to get

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Speaker 1: her picture. Would you mind snapping a picture for her?

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Speaker 1: Can I remember? She said? She has a pink sock

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Speaker 1: and she has a green sock on. The woman said

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Speaker 1: the writer's name was Sarah, and she had recently been

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Speaker 1: diagnosed with stage four breast cancer and that she hadn't

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Speaker 1: even told her husband yet. Her husband was away overseas.

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Speaker 1: He was a pilot, and she had gotten the news

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Speaker 1: while he was away on this particular trip. During this event,

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Speaker 1: she had gotten the news that her cancer had progressed,

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Speaker 1: and she just didn't know how she was going to

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Speaker 1: tell him. Liz felt for Sarah. About twenty minutes later,

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Speaker 1: a woman with mis match box came riding by. She

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Speaker 1: had flown past me and gone into the rest stop,

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Speaker 1: and I said, oh my gosh, you must be Sarah.

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Speaker 1: I said, can you need me a favor? I said,

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Speaker 1: can you go back out, turn around and ride back

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Speaker 1: in because I had one job, and I was to

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Speaker 1: get your picture, and she laughed, and she did, and

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Speaker 1: she she came back in and I snapped her photo,

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Speaker 1: and I said, what's your number? I'm going to text

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Speaker 1: it to you. As the months passed, their friendship grew,

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Speaker 1: with message exchanges quickly ballooning from one a day to

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Speaker 1: sometimes a hundred or more. Sarah did have a way

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Speaker 1: of quickly turning a casual text feed into an emotional avalanche.

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Speaker 1: The following spring, Sarah told Liz there was a more

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Speaker 1: immediate threat to her life even than cancer, a stalker,

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Speaker 1: someone obsessed with her good looking husband. She said that

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Speaker 1: she was smitten with her husband and that she was

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Speaker 1: sending him messages saying that after Sarah was gone, they'd

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Speaker 1: be together, and she was saying to Sarah, You're not

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Speaker 1: pretty enough for him. This hit Liz hard. She had

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Speaker 1: told Sarah that when she was nineteen, a classmate of

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Speaker 1: hers had been killed by a stalker. Over the course

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Speaker 1: of the next forty eight hours or so, Sarah would

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Speaker 1: tell me, I'm at the gym. Oh my gosh, she's outside.

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Speaker 1: She's I can see her parked out there. She's looking

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Speaker 1: at me. She even sent Liz a video when she

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Speaker 1: was trying to dodge her. She's wearing a scarf wrapped

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Speaker 1: around her head and glistening with sweat while she's at

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Speaker 1: the gym. Sarah's out of breath, but her voice is confident,

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Speaker 1: even defiant. I'm not gonna let her take this away

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Speaker 1: from me. I'm bigger than that. So for forty eight hours,

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Speaker 1: she had me wrapped in this web of drama of

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Speaker 1: high intensity with this stalker who was now attacking my friend,

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Speaker 1: who I thought was already under attack of a terminal illness.

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Speaker 1: I couldn't breathe, my chest was heavy. The next day,

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Speaker 1: Sarah told Liz she wanted to face time with her.

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Speaker 1: As she walked out of a Walmart and she said, Liz,

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Speaker 1: she's there. I said, what do you mean? And says,

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Speaker 1: she's there between the cars by my car. What do

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Speaker 1: I do? I said, you need to run into the store.

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Speaker 1: And so she ran into the store and she said,

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Speaker 1: oh my god, she has a gun. The phone went

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Speaker 1: dead for more than a minute, with Liz frantic on

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Speaker 1: the other end. Then she got a text and she

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Speaker 1: said they got her. Seven people were shot. She said,

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Speaker 1: I took a bullet in the knee. Sarah told Liz.

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Speaker 1: She was in an ambulance. A couple of days later,

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Speaker 1: to get more details about the shooting, Liz's husband Brian

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Speaker 1: called up a friend in law enforcement, a guy named Tom,

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Speaker 1: And as I'm talking on the phone, I said, oh wait,

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Speaker 1: you know what, I've never actually googled Sarah's name. I

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Speaker 1: should probably do that. He typed Sarah de Lashman into

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Speaker 1: this search. Barn I said, Holy sh it, Tom, I'm

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Speaker 1: Laura Beale. You're listening to Sympathy Pains. This is episode

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Speaker 1: three Liz. Liz and Brian are one of those couples

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Speaker 1: who actually found true love in a bar, in the

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Speaker 1: biggest pickup bar you could ever meet, in Wellington, Florida.

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Speaker 1: It was April of two thousand five. Liz is an equestrian,

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Speaker 1: and she was in Florida competing at a horse show.

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Speaker 1: I was leaving to go home to Rhode Island the

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Speaker 1: next day, literally less than twelve hours later, and he

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Speaker 1: had just arrived in Florida. He was the only guy

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Speaker 1: there that you know, probably had a pickup truck and

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Speaker 1: a yellow lab and I was definitely the only girl

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Speaker 1: there in a baseball hat and jeans. He um vaguely

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Speaker 1: reminded me of Kenny Chesney, and that was a good

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Speaker 1: thing at that point in my life. She was a

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Speaker 1: New York City native who had left the city for

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Speaker 1: good after nine eleven. He was working in Florida for

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Speaker 1: Merrill Lynch. He came up for a couple of dates

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Speaker 1: in Newport and he said, you know what, I can

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Speaker 1: really live here. And then literally after three dates, I

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Speaker 1: said to him, you can. You can be my boyfriend

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Speaker 1: if you want, but you have to move here, and

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Speaker 1: he did. They married after dating for about a year

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Speaker 1: and a half and ended up founding a financial services

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Speaker 1: business together in Rhode Island. Every winter, they relocate to

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Speaker 1: a rented bungalow in Florida, just a mile from shore

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Speaker 1: on the Intercoastal Waterway. You pretty much wake up every

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Speaker 1: day and I love our life. Back in the fall

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Speaker 1: of two thousand and eighteen, after the bike ride where

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Speaker 1: she met Sarah, Liz started noticing Sarah's posts on the

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Speaker 1: organization's private Facebook group, pictures of herself sitting in what

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Speaker 1: looked like um hospital bed with tubes running and taped

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Speaker 1: her shirt, wearing a cancer scarf with you know, a

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Speaker 1: thumbs up or so. A lot of times She would

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Speaker 1: have headphones on and she would say, you know, getting

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Speaker 1: getting the juice today, looking for prayers and support, you know,

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Speaker 1: going in for a scan today, you know, wish me luck.

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Speaker 1: They touched me because I knew of her as a

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Speaker 1: young mom whose husband was away, who was battling stage

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Speaker 1: four cancer, and I felt completely helpless. It's something that

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Speaker 1: spoke to me. For several weeks after the bike ride,

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Speaker 1: Liz would write messages of support under the photos. Christmas

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Speaker 1: time came. One day in December, Liz pulled a handful

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Speaker 1: of holiday envelopes out of her mailbox and found a

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Speaker 1: card from Sarah, a photo card of perhaps nine photos

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Speaker 1: a little girl with one of those giant bows on

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Speaker 1: her head, and she had little white socks on and

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Speaker 1: black Patton white or black Patent leather shoes, like little

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Speaker 1: girl shoes. And that was the Christmas card from Sarah

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Speaker 1: James and Bindy, her fourteen month old daughter. And I thought,

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Speaker 1: oh cute when I saved it. And shortly thereafter, probably

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Speaker 1: literally days later, Brian and I left for Florida for

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Speaker 1: the winter. We pack up our house, we head down south,

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Speaker 1: we take our office, we take our dog, and we

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Speaker 1: literally kind of move our work home life for a

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Speaker 1: couple of months during the winter. In January, Liz got

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Speaker 1: a message from Sarah through Facebook Messenger. It said her

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Speaker 1: cancer had progressed and she had tumors in her liver

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Speaker 1: and brain. After that, Liz and Sarah began exchanging notes

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Speaker 1: almost every day. As soon as someone messages me, I

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Speaker 1: feel like I have to get right back to them

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Speaker 1: where they're going to be insulted or hurt in some way,

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Speaker 1: so you know, I would respond, which would prompt another

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Speaker 1: response from her, And lots of conversations and dare's her

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Speaker 1: need to get more regular at this point, and we

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Speaker 1: were just talking about life and her chemo and her treatment.

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Speaker 1: Weeks of message exchanges drew them closer as Sarah underwent

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Speaker 1: grueling treatments. Liz wrote encouragement, you got this, and she

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Speaker 1: started calling Sarah's sister friend, trying to make her feel loved.

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Speaker 1: In February of two thousand nineteen, Sarah said she was

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Speaker 1: going to be in southern Florida that she worked as

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Speaker 1: a flight attendant, which allowed her easy travel. She wanted

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Speaker 1: to visit Liz and Brian, saying I'm going to take

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Speaker 1: a chance here and I'm going to drive up and

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Speaker 1: I'm going to see you. And part of me was like, wow,

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Speaker 1: you know she trust me enough. That's that's really great.

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Speaker 1: This woman who is, you know, fighting for her life

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Speaker 1: every day, values me and trusts me enough and us

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Speaker 1: to come visit us. And I was a little nervous

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Speaker 1: about that, excited and honestly honored, and at that point

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Speaker 1: it kind of became my duty to make sure she

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Speaker 1: had a wonderful experience. And I had to say to her.

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Speaker 1: I said, Sarah, you know, we have a very small

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Speaker 1: cottage here. It's just one bedroom. We don't even have

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Speaker 1: a couch. But Liz's mother, Maggie, a Florida retiree, lived nearby.

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Speaker 1: It was the main reason they headed south every year.

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Speaker 1: So she calls me up and I picked up the phone. Hello.

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Speaker 1: She asked me if she could have a friend of hers,

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Speaker 1: who she met on this spike ride, come and spend

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Speaker 1: the weekend with us, because after rule, she doesn't have

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Speaker 1: enough room in her place. She said, Mom, Sarah is

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Speaker 1: final stage cancer. And as soon as I heard that,

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Speaker 1: my heart dropped, my stomach left and it was like, Elizabeth, fine,

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Speaker 1: she can't come, Okay, no problem. So that's where Sarah stayed,

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Speaker 1: she wanted to do a try etheln and she wanted

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Speaker 1: to be like my daughter Elizabeth. We thought we were

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Speaker 1: going to give her a life changing experience in a weekend.

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Speaker 1: Liz hadn't seen Sarah in person since the bike ride

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Speaker 1: where they met. She arrived wearing a scarf around her

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Speaker 1: head and a wig. Brian, Liz, and Sarah spent the

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Speaker 1: next day cycling around Jupiter Island, a perfect Florida winter

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Speaker 1: day with a warm sun and an ocean breeze. Sarah

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Speaker 1: seemed to struggle but made the ride. We went back

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Speaker 1: to our house, the cottage, and she went back to

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Speaker 1: my parents house where she was going to go home,

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Speaker 1: you know, shower up, get ready for dinner. I think

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Speaker 1: she said she needed to take a nap and call

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Speaker 1: her husband, etcetera. By now, my mother is completely enchanted

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Speaker 1: with her, and I think at this point Sarah is

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Speaker 1: already calling her mom. My mother is one of the

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Speaker 1: kindest people on this earth and is getting up in

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Speaker 1: the morning before Sarah rides and making sure she has

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Speaker 1: a full breakfast. That evening, Brian and Liz stopped and

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Speaker 1: bought fresh fish. Brian made tacos for dinner. Afterwards, they

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Speaker 1: sat in their backyard at the water's edge, under the

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Speaker 1: shade of a bishop wood tree. It's a really peaceful place.

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Speaker 1: There's a hammock there, and Sarah sat in the hammock

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Speaker 1: and she said, this is now my happy place. Remember

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Speaker 1: giving her a margarite to thinking, oh my gosh, is

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Speaker 1: this okay? Can I do this? And candidly I needed

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Speaker 1: that margharita myself so much because this dress was so

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Speaker 1: great about you have someone's life in your hands. You know,

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Speaker 1: this woman is battling a terminal illness, and here I

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Speaker 1: am giving her a margharita. Is it okay? They sipped

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Speaker 1: their cocktails and talked about life and death. Remember, she

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Speaker 1: said to me, I don't want to be forgotten. I

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Speaker 1: was sitting in kind of beach chair and I looked

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Speaker 1: over at the one of the palm trees that's by

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Speaker 1: the water, and I thought, my goodness forgotten. Like just

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Speaker 1: imagine being a young mom, a wife and thinking two

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Speaker 1: years from now people might not remember me. That just

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Speaker 1: really got me. Monday morning came time for Sarah to leave.

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Speaker 1: Liz and Brian had to work. As Sarah left, they

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Speaker 1: stood in front of the house and pose for pictures,

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Speaker 1: the three of them and the dog. We all had

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Speaker 1: our arms around each other, you know, we literally hugged

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Speaker 1: her like we didn't know if we were going to

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Speaker 1: see her again. It was very emotional. I remember her tears. Yeah, Um,

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Speaker 1: she started to cry, and I mean, I know Lizzie did,

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Speaker 1: and I would have had a at least a tear drop.

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Speaker 1: Sarah got in her rented car and drove off. We

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Speaker 1: are just honestly exhausted from caring about her, from talking,

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Speaker 1: from crying, worrying, and we sat in the backyard and

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Speaker 1: oh my gosh, I'm just exhausted. And then around five

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Speaker 1: pm that evening we got a text, a text from

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Speaker 1: her saying, guess what, guys, my flight was canceled. I'm

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Speaker 1: coming back. We can have fish tacos again. And honestly,

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Speaker 1: at that moment, I looked at Brian and I was like,

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Speaker 1: oh my gosh, I don't know if if I can.

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Speaker 1: I don't find the energy, you know, but what we

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Speaker 1: have to do this. Sarah stayed the extra night. The

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Speaker 1: next weekend. Liz's mom was doing a triathlon that week.

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Speaker 1: Brian got a text from Sarah saying, Hey, I'd like

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Speaker 1: to come down this weekend to cheer on Mom. And

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Speaker 1: you know, I said, I fully understand. I mean, obviously

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Speaker 1: Mom has given you a lot to Sarah and and

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Speaker 1: I thought that was very nice. It was probably what

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Speaker 1: six o'clock or so in the morning on the day

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Speaker 1: of the race, and I knew that Sarah was on

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Speaker 1: her way, but he didn't mention anything to live or

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Speaker 1: her mom. He wanted Sarah's second visit to be a surprise.

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Speaker 1: I remember putting my mom's bike helmet on her, like

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Speaker 1: dropping it on her, and I just thought the irony,

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Speaker 1: like here I am putting my mom's bike helmet on,

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Speaker 1: like she's my kid, you know, she's seventy seven years old.

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Speaker 1: And someone topped me on the shoulder from behind me

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Speaker 1: and lo and behold, who's there but Sarah. Sarah had

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Speaker 1: flown in the night before, stayed in a hotel in

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Speaker 1: Fort Lauderdale, and drove up from Fort Laiderdale to Stewart

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Speaker 1: to be there at six o'clock in the morning to

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Speaker 1: be at my first triathlon. Elizabeth had made T shirts

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Speaker 1: for me, and on the back of the T shirt

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Speaker 1: it said te Meg's te for Team Meg's, m Ags

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Speaker 1: for Maggie and you know, who also had the same

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Speaker 1: T shirt Sarah. Maggie was touched. She must really adore

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Speaker 1: Elizabeth to do something like that, and she doesn't think

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Speaker 1: too badly of me either. Is just you know, hey,

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Speaker 1: I can't even get my husband to get up at

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Speaker 1: six in the morning to go to Marathon's with me.

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Speaker 1: So there was another Sarah weekend the bike's Hammock Tacos.

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Speaker 1: We just took her out solely on the boat to

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Speaker 1: see the flying Fish that Saturday night. Sitting on the

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Speaker 1: couch with Maggie's Chihuahua Pedro in her lap, Sarah calmly

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Speaker 1: talked about a stalker that was after her. He felt

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Speaker 1: sorry for this girl with the stalk rafter and dying

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Speaker 1: a cancer and with the wig and this and all that,

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Speaker 1: and all she was trying to do was do a

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Speaker 1: triathlon before she died. Sensing that Sarah was working her

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Speaker 1: way deeper into the family, Brian made it clear to

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Speaker 1: Sarah that she absolutely could not come for a third

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Speaker 1: weekend in a row. My father was coming in for

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Speaker 1: a visit with his his girlfriend at the time, and

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Speaker 1: next weekend, just you can't, you can't come, you know,

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Speaker 1: not that we've been making plans for it, but just

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Speaker 1: like we can't have a a surprise, but this was Sarah.

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Speaker 1: Sarah was full of surprises. The last weekend in February

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Speaker 1: two thou nineteen was a family gathering for Liz and Brian.

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Speaker 1: Brian's dad was visiting. They went fishing in the boat

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Speaker 1: that anchors just off their backyard. They caught a tuna

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Speaker 1: and came back to the dock. I just put the

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Speaker 1: fish down, and that's when she walked in the backyard

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Speaker 1: and I'll just never forget the hi guys. And I

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Speaker 1: looked up and I sare and I did not say

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Speaker 1: a word. I just kind of walked past her. I

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Speaker 1: walked to the house and I took a moment, and

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Speaker 1: Lizzie came in a minute or so later, and she

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Speaker 1: kind of yelled at me, and she said, you you

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Speaker 1: can't be rude like that, and I said, I'll be fine.

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Speaker 1: I just I just need a minute. She was not

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Speaker 1: welcome for the weekend, but I'm not gonna say anything.

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Speaker 1: And so she spent the weekend you know, with me

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Speaker 1: and my father and us, and she crashed our family

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Speaker 1: reunion in every way. But they made the best of it.

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Speaker 1: And by this time she's gotten to be one of

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Speaker 1: the family. Pago looks for a When Sarah pulled up

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Speaker 1: to the house, Maggie noticed something different about her rental car.

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Speaker 1: It had a bike rack and strapped to it. It

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Speaker 1: was a beautiful bike. It looked like it was brand new.

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Speaker 1: I think it was maroon, and they're not cheap, these

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Speaker 1: marathon bikes. Brian and Liz made it clear in the

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Speaker 1: starkest of terms that she could not come back for

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Speaker 1: yet another weekend, telling her as much as I would

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Speaker 1: love to see you next weekend, I really need to focus.

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Speaker 1: I haven't seen any of my friends or family. I

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00:19:55,640 --> 00:19:59,359
Speaker 1: haven't been able to do any work. I have my

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00:19:59,400 --> 00:20:02,800
Speaker 1: own races. I needed trade for next weekend. I need

335
00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:07,080
Speaker 1: just to catch up. I've been the worst friend. I

336
00:20:07,119 --> 00:20:10,840
Speaker 1: haven't seen my parents alone. They told Sarah they had

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00:20:10,880 --> 00:20:14,920
Speaker 1: plans a good friend was getting married. I've missed all

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00:20:14,960 --> 00:20:18,480
Speaker 1: of the bridal things that my dear friend needs me

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00:20:18,520 --> 00:20:21,719
Speaker 1: to do. I need this weekend to myself. But Sarah

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00:20:21,880 --> 00:20:27,080
Speaker 1: burrowed into Lizz's life anyway. It was early March two

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00:20:27,080 --> 00:20:31,360
Speaker 1: thousand nineteen when Liz first started getting messages about her stalker.

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00:20:31,800 --> 00:20:35,000
Speaker 1: Sarah wrote, I'm hiding in the bathtub. I cam afraid

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Speaker 1: to leave my house. And then from Sarah's husband James,

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Speaker 1: messaging me when she's not saying she's having a panic attack.

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00:20:43,320 --> 00:20:45,800
Speaker 1: You're the only person that can talk to her. She'll

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00:20:45,840 --> 00:20:49,959
Speaker 1: only listen to you. For two days, Liz was sucked

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00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:54,199
Speaker 1: into the vortex of Sarah in trouble, culminating with the

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Speaker 1: shooting at an Illinois Walmart. I'm absolutely exhausted because been

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Speaker 1: forty eight hours of the stalker chasing her, following her,

350
00:21:05,640 --> 00:21:09,199
Speaker 1: threatening her, and now you know, chasing her down to

351
00:21:09,240 --> 00:21:12,320
Speaker 1: the walmart and showing up with a gun after her

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Speaker 1: and there's shots fired. I'm exhausted. I just can't even

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Speaker 1: believe what just happened. But something about it struck Brian

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Speaker 1: as off. We are starting to, of course, look for

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Speaker 1: any record of a shooting at at a Walmart in

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Speaker 1: you know, in Illinois, where seven people are shy like

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00:21:31,840 --> 00:21:35,159
Speaker 1: you're going to see something in the news, and nothing

358
00:21:35,200 --> 00:21:37,480
Speaker 1: was in the news, and we found that to be strange.

359
00:21:37,960 --> 00:21:41,400
Speaker 1: Sarah had an explanation. She said the FBI was trying

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Speaker 1: to keep it quiet that they had told her to

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00:21:43,640 --> 00:21:46,600
Speaker 1: go to the store to lure the stalker out. What

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Speaker 1: she didn't know was that Liz and Brian had a

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00:21:49,480 --> 00:21:55,439
Speaker 1: friend with FBI connections. Their friend Tom, our friend, openly laughed.

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00:21:55,480 --> 00:21:58,200
Speaker 1: He's like, that's not how it works. He made a

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00:21:58,240 --> 00:22:01,399
Speaker 1: quick call to the local station there and they said, no,

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00:22:01,480 --> 00:22:04,000
Speaker 1: there's there hasn't been a shooting here, you know, maybe

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Speaker 1: maybe not ever. And that is when Brian began to

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00:22:07,520 --> 00:22:11,119
Speaker 1: ask a question, a question that many people had asked

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Speaker 1: before him and would ask later. Who is Sarah Delashman.

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Speaker 1: It was March seventh, two. Brian Hickocks was on his

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Speaker 1: phone in the backyard pacing. After learning from his law

372
00:22:34,720 --> 00:22:38,439
Speaker 1: enforcement friend that there had been no Walmart shooting, Brian

373
00:22:38,560 --> 00:22:41,760
Speaker 1: googled Sarah's name on his phone. He clicked on the

374
00:22:41,840 --> 00:22:45,920
Speaker 1: first hit. The first article that came up was that

375
00:22:46,560 --> 00:22:49,639
Speaker 1: there's a record of Sarah losing her nursing license in

376
00:22:49,640 --> 00:22:53,399
Speaker 1: the state of Virginia. The document was from almost five

377
00:22:53,480 --> 00:22:59,679
Speaker 1: years earlier, dated July two, fourteen. Sarah was living in Virginia.

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00:23:00,320 --> 00:23:02,960
Speaker 1: That's where she met Naomi, the college student who tried

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Speaker 1: to support her through miscarriages and an abusive boyfriend. The

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00:23:07,040 --> 00:23:10,960
Speaker 1: Virginian Nursing Board was pulling Sara's license because they learned

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00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:12,960
Speaker 1: that she had lost her license in the state of

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Speaker 1: Oklahoma earlier that year. Document said that Sara was working

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Speaker 1: as a nurse in the neonatal Intensive Care unit at

384
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Speaker 1: Oklahoma University Medical Center in the fall of two thousand twelve.

385
00:23:25,640 --> 00:23:28,840
Speaker 1: During that time, over a period of about four months,

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00:23:28,880 --> 00:23:31,800
Speaker 1: she started stuffing pillows under her clothes so she would

387
00:23:31,800 --> 00:23:34,959
Speaker 1: look pregnant. She showed her co workers copies of an

388
00:23:35,040 --> 00:23:39,120
Speaker 1: ultrasound of twins, and then at some point she said

389
00:23:39,160 --> 00:23:42,359
Speaker 1: she had delivered the twins prematurely and they had died.

390
00:23:43,600 --> 00:23:46,879
Speaker 1: The report also said it was the second time she

391
00:23:46,960 --> 00:23:50,720
Speaker 1: had faked a pregnancy as a nurse. In her testimony

392
00:23:50,720 --> 00:23:53,199
Speaker 1: to the nursing board, she said she pretended to be

393
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Speaker 1: pregnant to make friends, that she had seen how much

394
00:23:56,480 --> 00:24:00,439
Speaker 1: support women got when they lost a baby. Faced with

395
00:24:00,480 --> 00:24:03,399
Speaker 1: the discipline that could result from a formal hearing, she

396
00:24:03,560 --> 00:24:09,000
Speaker 1: surrendered her Oklahoma nursing license on May two, fourteen. If

397
00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:11,960
Speaker 1: she wanted to get her license back, the board recommended

398
00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:18,040
Speaker 1: a psychiatric evaluation. Standing under the bishop Wood tree, staring

399
00:24:18,080 --> 00:24:22,000
Speaker 1: at his phone, Brian was astonished. I walked back into

400
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Speaker 1: the house and I said, Lizzie do not contact her again.

401
00:24:25,080 --> 00:24:27,560
Speaker 1: I don't know really what's up. But she's not who

402
00:24:27,600 --> 00:24:30,679
Speaker 1: she says she is, and we don't need to be

403
00:24:30,680 --> 00:24:34,720
Speaker 1: communicating with her. I don't believe that the shooting actually happened.

404
00:24:34,760 --> 00:24:38,000
Speaker 1: I don't think that you know, anything happened. She looked

405
00:24:38,000 --> 00:24:41,000
Speaker 1: at him with a confused stare that said, what are

406
00:24:41,040 --> 00:24:45,520
Speaker 1: you talking about? It was not really even even to

407
00:24:45,600 --> 00:24:48,959
Speaker 1: process it. I was still literally in shock for probably

408
00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:52,760
Speaker 1: forty eight hours after that. I mean I was on empty.

409
00:24:53,840 --> 00:24:57,520
Speaker 1: I had had, you know, four days of really heavy,

410
00:24:57,720 --> 00:25:03,080
Speaker 1: exhausting emotion. Then Brian remembered the text with James, Sarah's

411
00:25:03,080 --> 00:25:07,280
Speaker 1: supposed husband. They had been corresponding since Sarah's second visit.

412
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Speaker 1: But I had already been thinking that James was not real.

413
00:25:10,480 --> 00:25:12,760
Speaker 1: You know, it was three weekends in a row that

414
00:25:12,800 --> 00:25:15,560
Speaker 1: she was coming down to Florida like that. You know,

415
00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:18,480
Speaker 1: you want to leave a legacy for your daughter. You

416
00:25:18,520 --> 00:25:21,760
Speaker 1: wouldn't be wanting to leave your daughter first. He tried

417
00:25:21,760 --> 00:25:24,919
Speaker 1: an oblique approach. Sarah had told Liz and Brian that

418
00:25:24,960 --> 00:25:28,200
Speaker 1: her husband was an mm A fighter, So Brian sent

419
00:25:28,280 --> 00:25:31,960
Speaker 1: a message to James, Hey, I'm a big fan of UFC.

420
00:25:32,400 --> 00:25:35,280
Speaker 1: How do I find your fights. When that didn't get

421
00:25:35,280 --> 00:25:38,360
Speaker 1: a response, he just said out right, I said, hey, man,

422
00:25:38,520 --> 00:25:40,040
Speaker 1: I need you to give me a call right now.

423
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Speaker 1: James of course never answered. James was Sarah, Sarah was James.

424
00:25:46,960 --> 00:25:52,040
Speaker 1: Nothing was real. They realized they needed to break the

425
00:25:52,040 --> 00:25:56,040
Speaker 1: news to Liz's mom. It was certainly a hard call

426
00:25:56,200 --> 00:25:58,400
Speaker 1: to have to make. You need to make sure that

427
00:25:58,480 --> 00:26:02,640
Speaker 1: the security guards take her off the list. I was like,

428
00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:05,560
Speaker 1: oh my god, we'd better change the code or in

429
00:26:05,560 --> 00:26:09,560
Speaker 1: a garage. I thought that maybe she just might try

430
00:26:09,600 --> 00:26:12,639
Speaker 1: to break in the house and do something. At this point,

431
00:26:12,760 --> 00:26:15,560
Speaker 1: it's like, who's not to say, she's going to open

432
00:26:15,600 --> 00:26:18,760
Speaker 1: the door and walk in and kill us. Snippets of

433
00:26:18,840 --> 00:26:22,639
Speaker 1: conversations that once seemed benign, at least in the context

434
00:26:22,680 --> 00:26:26,880
Speaker 1: of her stalker, now took on new importance, like how

435
00:26:26,920 --> 00:26:29,840
Speaker 1: to cut break lines, how to make a death look

436
00:26:29,880 --> 00:26:32,399
Speaker 1: like an accident, how to hide a body. Those are

437
00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:36,000
Speaker 1: not things that normally come to someone's thoughts. So the

438
00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:38,760
Speaker 1: fact that she had these thoughts and shared them with us, like, wow,

439
00:26:38,760 --> 00:26:40,920
Speaker 1: these are things that are on her mind. She told

440
00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:43,000
Speaker 1: us one day when she was claiming to have a daughter,

441
00:26:43,040 --> 00:26:46,400
Speaker 1: that she dropped off a childcare at the y. She said,

442
00:26:46,440 --> 00:26:48,480
Speaker 1: you know, it's to be so easy for anyone to

443
00:26:48,520 --> 00:26:51,000
Speaker 1: steal a toddler. Here she goes, I show up and

444
00:26:51,040 --> 00:26:53,199
Speaker 1: I pick up my daughter, and you know, the sixteen

445
00:26:53,240 --> 00:26:55,560
Speaker 1: year old girl doesn't even look up from her iPad.

446
00:26:56,080 --> 00:26:58,639
Speaker 1: Any of these children could be stolen at a moment's notice.

447
00:26:59,160 --> 00:27:02,679
Speaker 1: That was really a ring. They call the police, not

448
00:27:02,840 --> 00:27:06,360
Speaker 1: really knowing who else to call. They grew more fearful.

449
00:27:07,160 --> 00:27:09,480
Speaker 1: Officers warned us to be you know, you can get

450
00:27:09,480 --> 00:27:12,600
Speaker 1: a level of protection so that we will know if

451
00:27:12,600 --> 00:27:15,200
Speaker 1: she leaves the state. Again, no one knew at that point,

452
00:27:15,320 --> 00:27:19,800
Speaker 1: no one knew. I was terrified. Brian began frantically scouring

453
00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:22,440
Speaker 1: the internet, trying to find out as much as he could,

454
00:27:23,320 --> 00:27:26,520
Speaker 1: And that's when Brian got really busy, just messaging everyone

455
00:27:26,560 --> 00:27:30,720
Speaker 1: he can possibly fine. Brian began turning up multiple Facebook

456
00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:35,000
Speaker 1: profiles with variations on her name and different photos. He

457
00:27:35,080 --> 00:27:38,080
Speaker 1: hunted through the comments and tags for people who knew her.

458
00:27:38,800 --> 00:27:41,560
Speaker 1: One of them turned out to be her aunt. Brian

459
00:27:41,640 --> 00:27:45,760
Speaker 1: sent her a message. She responded to my my messenger

460
00:27:46,560 --> 00:27:49,000
Speaker 1: my message saying yes, I'm I'm her aunt and I'd

461
00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:51,160
Speaker 1: like to know what she's up to. It was definitely

462
00:27:51,200 --> 00:27:54,480
Speaker 1: a what she's up to? Here we go again. This

463
00:27:54,560 --> 00:28:02,880
Speaker 1: is not the first time. Liz gave Sarah's aunt a call.

464
00:28:03,200 --> 00:28:07,520
Speaker 1: She was really distraught actually to hear the news. Said

465
00:28:07,560 --> 00:28:09,919
Speaker 1: that she'd been at it for years and that the

466
00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:12,720
Speaker 1: family was really torn apart about it. She told us

467
00:28:12,720 --> 00:28:16,240
Speaker 1: about Aaron in California and that was really upsetting. She

468
00:28:16,320 --> 00:28:20,919
Speaker 1: told them Sarah didn't have cancer, never had cancer, and

469
00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:23,720
Speaker 1: she didn't have a child either, and it was also

470
00:28:23,840 --> 00:28:28,000
Speaker 1: very concerning. You know, the pictures of the baby, it's

471
00:28:28,040 --> 00:28:32,280
Speaker 1: the same baby in different situations, different you know, different poses,

472
00:28:32,280 --> 00:28:35,720
Speaker 1: definitely different environments. The baby is a mystery and it

473
00:28:35,760 --> 00:28:38,800
Speaker 1: seems to be the same baby in every picture. Sarah's

474
00:28:38,800 --> 00:28:41,920
Speaker 1: aunt told them what had happened in Texas at Camp Summit.

475
00:28:42,640 --> 00:28:45,280
Speaker 1: I called the camp as well, and the girl that

476
00:28:45,320 --> 00:28:48,360
Speaker 1: answered the phone um again. I said, my name is

477
00:28:48,440 --> 00:28:51,120
Speaker 1: you know, Brian, and this is what's going on. It

478
00:28:51,240 --> 00:28:55,000
Speaker 1: might sound a little bit strange, and she actually laughed

479
00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:57,600
Speaker 1: to herself. She said that we were just in training

480
00:28:57,640 --> 00:29:01,040
Speaker 1: on this yesterday. And as Brian and searched for more

481
00:29:01,120 --> 00:29:04,720
Speaker 1: information on Camp Summit, he found one other person tagged

482
00:29:04,720 --> 00:29:09,240
Speaker 1: in Sarah's pictures Bethany Turner. He sent Bethany a message

483
00:29:09,240 --> 00:29:14,360
Speaker 1: over Facebook saying, here's what's been going on in our lives,

484
00:29:14,800 --> 00:29:17,560
Speaker 1: and this is what we've been told and we understand

485
00:29:17,560 --> 00:29:19,239
Speaker 1: it not to be true, and you know what has

486
00:29:19,280 --> 00:29:23,680
Speaker 1: your experience been. The next morning Bethany saw the message.

487
00:29:23,720 --> 00:29:26,840
Speaker 1: She recoiled at the sight of Sarah's dame. I was

488
00:29:26,880 --> 00:29:29,120
Speaker 1: brushing my daughter's teeth and looked down and saw something

489
00:29:29,120 --> 00:29:31,360
Speaker 1: on my phone and I threw the phone down on

490
00:29:31,400 --> 00:29:34,840
Speaker 1: the counter and I was like, nope, not doing that.

491
00:29:35,320 --> 00:29:38,479
Speaker 1: She thought it was Sarah herself. I wasn't sure if

492
00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:40,760
Speaker 1: it was her trying to catfish me, and I finally

493
00:29:40,840 --> 00:29:42,440
Speaker 1: landed on you know what, maybe I just need to

494
00:29:42,440 --> 00:29:45,720
Speaker 1: google this guy and see who he is, because if

495
00:29:45,760 --> 00:29:49,960
Speaker 1: it's not Sarah, then it's someone that Sarah's hurt. It

496
00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:52,200
Speaker 1: was early in the morning, I remember that, maybe five

497
00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:54,760
Speaker 1: thirty or so where I I heard the messager go

498
00:29:54,920 --> 00:29:58,480
Speaker 1: off and then normally I might sleep through that kind

499
00:29:58,480 --> 00:30:01,720
Speaker 1: of thing, but not at that one time. And she

500
00:30:01,840 --> 00:30:08,960
Speaker 1: said something not dismissive, but maybe questioning who I was

501
00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:11,480
Speaker 1: or or you know what happened, And it didn't take

502
00:30:11,760 --> 00:30:13,640
Speaker 1: more than a couple of minutes, I guess for her

503
00:30:13,640 --> 00:30:15,280
Speaker 1: to say, okay, you know, I'd be up for a

504
00:30:15,400 --> 00:30:18,560
Speaker 1: for a phone call. That call would be the first

505
00:30:18,640 --> 00:30:24,760
Speaker 1: of many. Brian and Liz soon learned that Sarah was

506
00:30:24,800 --> 00:30:27,360
Speaker 1: back in Florida. They had helped her train for a

507
00:30:27,400 --> 00:30:30,800
Speaker 1: triathlon and she was actually going to do it. The

508
00:30:30,880 --> 00:30:33,760
Speaker 1: event was just a couple of miles away, and at

509
00:30:33,800 --> 00:30:37,080
Speaker 1: that moment, I was never more scared. Do you remember

510
00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:40,800
Speaker 1: Alf Hitchcock movies where your hair standing on the head, Because,

511
00:30:40,840 --> 00:30:43,280
Speaker 1: oh my god, that woman is going to open the doorway.

512
00:30:43,320 --> 00:30:45,360
Speaker 1: You're in the bathtub, in the shower, and she's got

513
00:30:45,360 --> 00:30:47,800
Speaker 1: a knife. She's liable to do anything. If she could

514
00:30:47,840 --> 00:30:51,800
Speaker 1: do what she did. Liz and Brian couldn't believe she

515
00:30:51,880 --> 00:30:55,600
Speaker 1: was back in Florida, almost in their backyard. They decided

516
00:30:55,640 --> 00:30:58,320
Speaker 1: to go to the race, putting on hoodies and sunglasses

517
00:30:58,360 --> 00:31:01,680
Speaker 1: and ducking behind palm trees waiting for her to go by.

518
00:31:02,120 --> 00:31:05,680
Speaker 1: Once they saw her, their jaws dropped. She was wearing

519
00:31:05,720 --> 00:31:10,480
Speaker 1: all new gear, new helmets, new sunglasses, new shoes, everything,

520
00:31:10,880 --> 00:31:14,600
Speaker 1: everything that's identical to mine, everything, And I was so

521
00:31:14,760 --> 00:31:19,040
Speaker 1: unbelievably freaked out. It was really creepy, and you know,

522
00:31:19,200 --> 00:31:21,680
Speaker 1: everything right down to the sunglasses and the way she

523
00:31:21,760 --> 00:31:25,360
Speaker 1: did her hair. There were so many facets to the

524
00:31:25,400 --> 00:31:28,240
Speaker 1: emotions that we had. You know, one is, you know,

525
00:31:28,320 --> 00:31:29,960
Speaker 1: you're piste off, as Brian said, you know we've just

526
00:31:30,040 --> 00:31:33,960
Speaker 1: been completely taken advantage of. One is humiliated, and you know,

527
00:31:34,160 --> 00:31:37,480
Speaker 1: one is fearful, you know, fearful for our safety because

528
00:31:37,520 --> 00:31:41,320
Speaker 1: we didn't know you know, where she draws the line.

529
00:31:41,920 --> 00:31:46,000
Speaker 1: And then over the course of a few days, we

530
00:31:46,080 --> 00:31:51,400
Speaker 1: also developed a compassion. How can we turn this into

531
00:31:52,480 --> 00:31:57,400
Speaker 1: something productive? How can we make our horrible experience have

532
00:31:57,600 --> 00:32:01,800
Speaker 1: a good ending, you know, for her right if she

533
00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:03,920
Speaker 1: really is sick and unable to get help, certainly for

534
00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:07,120
Speaker 1: all the potential victims, all the former victims. You know,

535
00:32:07,160 --> 00:32:10,320
Speaker 1: how can we just fix this? The police had told

536
00:32:10,320 --> 00:32:13,720
Speaker 1: them there was nothing law enforcement could do. It's not

537
00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:16,000
Speaker 1: a crime to fake cancer. Like we feel terrible about

538
00:32:16,040 --> 00:32:19,600
Speaker 1: what happened to you, but what she's doing isn't a crime,

539
00:32:19,760 --> 00:32:23,360
Speaker 1: and that just didn't sit with us. Liz also felt

540
00:32:23,440 --> 00:32:26,800
Speaker 1: for Sarah's aunt. She was very kind. She told me

541
00:32:26,840 --> 00:32:30,640
Speaker 1: the family was just you know, at wits end. This

542
00:32:30,840 --> 00:32:34,400
Speaker 1: is you know, wrecked them in so many ways. I thought,

543
00:32:34,400 --> 00:32:38,959
Speaker 1: if there were mandated help treatment that might help in

544
00:32:39,040 --> 00:32:41,080
Speaker 1: some way, and that was our thoughts was that if

545
00:32:41,080 --> 00:32:43,080
Speaker 1: the family can't afford to do it, we've got to

546
00:32:43,120 --> 00:32:45,320
Speaker 1: find a way to get this done. They didn't want

547
00:32:45,320 --> 00:32:47,800
Speaker 1: to go to her employer because then, you know, her

548
00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:50,040
Speaker 1: aunt had told me if she lost her job that

549
00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:52,600
Speaker 1: the family will lose the house. I couldn't afford to

550
00:32:52,600 --> 00:32:55,720
Speaker 1: pay for any kind of extended treatment for her, but

551
00:32:55,920 --> 00:33:03,960
Speaker 1: I knew that this television personality offered people help, and

552
00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:08,200
Speaker 1: I thought, wow, I'll just call Dr Phil Dr Phil

553
00:33:09,400 --> 00:33:14,000
Speaker 1: today on an all new Dr Phil that Dr Phil.

554
00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:17,280
Speaker 1: I went his website and it says do you want

555
00:33:17,320 --> 00:33:18,840
Speaker 1: to be on the show, and it said tell us

556
00:33:18,880 --> 00:33:21,000
Speaker 1: your story. You know, if we're interested, will give you

557
00:33:21,040 --> 00:33:23,160
Speaker 1: a call. So I wrote a pretty pretty detailed story

558
00:33:23,160 --> 00:33:26,080
Speaker 1: about what was going on, and they asked Bethany if

559
00:33:26,160 --> 00:33:28,880
Speaker 1: she would join them. I don't think I'd ever watched

560
00:33:28,880 --> 00:33:31,400
Speaker 1: a Dr Phil episode in my life, but she didn't

561
00:33:31,440 --> 00:33:34,600
Speaker 1: want Sarah to hurt anyone else. Ever, since she had

562
00:33:34,720 --> 00:33:37,960
Speaker 1: learned about Sarah walking out of Camp Summit, I knew

563
00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:39,560
Speaker 1: that at some point it was going to resurface, because

564
00:33:39,560 --> 00:33:41,080
Speaker 1: I knew she was doing it other places. If I

565
00:33:41,080 --> 00:33:44,800
Speaker 1: can google her and find trails of her from Oklahoma

566
00:33:44,920 --> 00:33:48,520
Speaker 1: to Texas to Illinois to out east. I mean, there

567
00:33:48,600 --> 00:33:50,560
Speaker 1: was no way she was going to stop. I just

568
00:33:50,560 --> 00:33:52,440
Speaker 1: didn't have the capacity at that point to deal with it.

569
00:33:53,200 --> 00:33:54,760
Speaker 1: I told them, I said, we've got to get this

570
00:33:54,840 --> 00:33:58,440
Speaker 1: out on a broader scale. This needs to be a

571
00:33:58,520 --> 00:34:00,920
Speaker 1: viral story, because otherwise is We're just going to end

572
00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:05,520
Speaker 1: up chasing Sarah from town to town from nonprofit and nonprofit.

573
00:34:05,920 --> 00:34:09,600
Speaker 1: Bethany agreed that national television might be the only way

574
00:34:09,640 --> 00:34:12,520
Speaker 1: that they could get help for Sarah and maybe keep

575
00:34:12,560 --> 00:34:16,080
Speaker 1: her from hurting anyone else. And along the way they

576
00:34:16,120 --> 00:34:19,680
Speaker 1: found one more woman who was ready to join them.

577
00:34:19,840 --> 00:34:21,600
Speaker 1: I said, hey, how do you know her? And she said,

578
00:34:21,600 --> 00:34:24,879
Speaker 1: I've been tracking her for twenty years, And eventually they

579
00:34:24,960 --> 00:34:30,000
Speaker 1: found the one person who could finally stop Sarah. I

580
00:34:30,040 --> 00:34:34,360
Speaker 1: think my reaction was probably the same as as most

581
00:34:34,360 --> 00:34:37,640
Speaker 1: people that first hear about this case. There's just kind

582
00:34:37,640 --> 00:34:42,520
Speaker 1: of disbelief about what happened. That's on the next episode

583
00:34:42,760 --> 00:34:50,960
Speaker 1: of Sympathy Pains. Sympathy Pains is a production of Neon

584
00:34:51,080 --> 00:34:54,360
Speaker 1: hum Media and I Heart Radio. I'm Your host Laura

585
00:34:54,400 --> 00:34:58,440
Speaker 1: Beale I wrote and reported the episodes. Natalie Wrinn is

586
00:34:58,480 --> 00:35:02,879
Speaker 1: the lead producer or editor is Katherine st. Louis. Associate

587
00:35:02,880 --> 00:35:07,720
Speaker 1: producer is Rufaro Mazzarua. Our executive producer is Jonathan Hirsch.

588
00:35:08,200 --> 00:35:13,120
Speaker 1: Samantha Allison is our production manager. Fact checker is Jacqueline Colletti.

589
00:35:13,760 --> 00:35:17,360
Speaker 1: Jesse Perlstein composed the theme song and music heard throughout

590
00:35:17,360 --> 00:35:20,840
Speaker 1: the series. Additional tracks are by Blue Dot Sessions and

591
00:35:20,920 --> 00:35:25,400
Speaker 1: Epidemic Sound. Scott Somerville is our engineer and sound designer.

592
00:35:25,840 --> 00:35:30,440
Speaker 1: Special thanks to Stephanie Serrano from I Heart Radio. Special

593
00:35:30,440 --> 00:35:34,759
Speaker 1: thanks to Carrie Lieberman and Bethan Macaluso. Executive producer at

594
00:35:34,760 --> 00:35:36,760
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio is Dylan Fagan