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Speaker 1: Pushkin. Hey, it's Jake. I hope you enjoyed our season

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Speaker 1: The Truth About Sarah. We'll be having a live event

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Speaker 1: later this year. It's going to be a conversation between

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Speaker 1: me and my co host Jess McHugh, and we want

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Speaker 1: to hear from you too. What questions do you have

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Speaker 1: for us about this season? Send your questions to deep

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Speaker 1: Cover at Pushkin dot fm. That's deep Cover All one

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Speaker 1: word at Pushkin dot fm and stay tuned for more

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Speaker 1: details on this event.

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Speaker 2: Hey, I am just recording here is it in the

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Speaker 2: car outside your English department? And I just got this

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Speaker 2: letter which was sent to me by Sarah Kavanaugh.

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Speaker 3: Okay, October twelve, twenty twenty four. Dear Jake, thank you

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Speaker 3: for sending me the articles and book that you've written.

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Speaker 3: You have a distinct style when imposing questions that really

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Speaker 3: makes one think about the messages between the lines.

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Speaker 4: Jess and I have spoken twice and emailed several times

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Speaker 4: to talk about my actions and the consequences. It is

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Speaker 4: important to me that you know I know and knew

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Speaker 4: several months before my arrest what I was doing was wrong.

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Speaker 4: I could not have imagined the laws I was breaking,

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Speaker 4: but know now that I was always guilty. What is

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Speaker 4: your opinion about my crime? I asked this, because no

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Speaker 4: matter who we are, we bring biases, and I'd like

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Speaker 4: to know what you are bringing to the conversation. Also,

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Speaker 4: I have not always thought about others before myself, and

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Speaker 4: will always be deliberately sensitive to other people for the

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Speaker 4: rest of my life. I'm looking forward to meeting you,

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Speaker 4: even if it's virtually Sincerely, Sarah.

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Speaker 1: This letter that I just read you. It's written on

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Speaker 1: lined paper, the kind I used in grade school, and

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Speaker 1: the penmanship is flawless. When I read it for the

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Speaker 1: first time, I was in my car outside my classroom

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Speaker 1: at the university where I teach, and I found myself

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Speaker 1: just sitting there reading and rereading this letter. What is

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Speaker 1: your opinion about my crime?

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Speaker 5: She asked.

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Speaker 1: Now that was interesting to me. It was almost like,

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Speaker 1: right from the jump, this woman, Sarah Kavanaugh, had flipped

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Speaker 1: the script like she was interviewing me, and then there

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Speaker 1: was this line, I'd like to know what you were

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Speaker 1: bringing to the conversation. Funny because we weren't even having

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Speaker 1: a conversation yet. But looking back, I understand now that

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Speaker 1: the conversation had already started and she was already sussing

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Speaker 1: me out, tuning in to me and Sarah. She's really

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Speaker 1: really good at that. I know that now. Months before

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Speaker 1: I got that letter, I got a call from my

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Speaker 1: friend Jess McHugh. She's my co host this season. Jess

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Speaker 1: is a journalist and an author. In fact, you may

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Speaker 1: have noticed in Sarah's letter she makes a reference to Jess,

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Speaker 1: and that's because Jess is the one who found this story.

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Speaker 6: I first heard about Sarah when I read a few

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Speaker 6: articles about her online, just snippets, really, But what I

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Speaker 6: read about her was so bizarre, so unusual, I had

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Speaker 6: a million questions, so I tracked her down. We started

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Speaker 6: sending emails, talking on the phone, getting to know each other,

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Speaker 6: and right from the start she felt familiar to me.

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Speaker 6: We have a few things in common. Actually we're about

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Speaker 6: the same age, both from small towns in New England.

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Speaker 6: But also, I've become a bit of an expert on

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Speaker 6: women like her. I've spent years digging into historical research,

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Speaker 6: reviewing court documents, and immersing myself in the world of

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Speaker 6: women who managed to live multiple lives. Found so much

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Speaker 6: that I'm now writing a book about it all. So yeah,

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Speaker 6: Sarah felt familiar to me, but in the most unsettling way.

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Speaker 6: I clearly remember one of the first things I wrote

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Speaker 6: to her after reading those headlines. I told her, I

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Speaker 6: suspect that there is so much more to your story.

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Speaker 6: I had no way of knowing just how true that

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Speaker 6: would turn out to be.

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Speaker 1: There's so much that we've learned since we first started

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Speaker 1: talking to Sarah jelous that she's told us, and we've

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Speaker 1: spent the last eight months trying to figure out how

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Speaker 1: much of her story is true and what, if anything,

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Speaker 1: we could trust, because this story is all about trust.

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Speaker 1: It's about what it means to know someone or think

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Speaker 1: you know someone, and what happens when reality itself seems

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Speaker 1: to dissolve. I'm Jake Colbern and I'm Jess McHugh and

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Speaker 1: this is deep Cover, Season six, The Truth About Sarah,

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Speaker 1: Episode one, The Warrior.

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Speaker 6: One of the first people we interviewed for this story

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Speaker 6: was Catherine Dexter. She goes by des Des initially met

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Speaker 6: Sarah Cavanaugh in the mountains in Montana at a retreat

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Speaker 6: for veterans.

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Speaker 7: You got to see the sunrise and you got to

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Speaker 7: see mountains and the air was like amazing, and crisped

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Speaker 7: and smelled a little bit like a campfire.

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Speaker 8: So you woke up every.

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Speaker 7: Single morning and you saw these mountains and they were beautiful,

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Speaker 7: and you were just like awestruck because you were like,

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Speaker 7: why don't I live here? And that's where you were

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Speaker 7: drinking your coffee at five am.

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Speaker 6: Dex had served in the Marines as military police in

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Speaker 6: Japan a couple other bases. When she got out, she

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Speaker 6: felt a bit lost.

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Speaker 7: So I had kind of kind of steered away from

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Speaker 7: the veteran community when I got out, and I was

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Speaker 7: really really isolated. So that was one of the big

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Speaker 7: things that I struggled with because I had dealt with

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Speaker 7: a lot of life transitions.

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Speaker 6: The retreat was organized by a nonprofit called Patrol Base

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Speaker 6: Abate also known as pb Abate. Founder started the organization

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Speaker 6: because he was concerned about the mental health of veterans

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Speaker 6: and their difficulties readjusting to civilian life, and this was

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Speaker 6: kind of the exact crossroads Decks was at. So she

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Speaker 6: applied to go on one of their all expense paid

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Speaker 6: trips to Montana, and that's how she ended up drinking

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Speaker 6: her coffee in Big Sky Country with all these other

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Speaker 6: vets and meeting Sarah what were your.

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Speaker 8: First impressions of her At the time, I liked her.

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Speaker 8: I liked her a lot.

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Speaker 7: It's all in the context of like what I know

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Speaker 7: about her now, But back then I liked her because

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Speaker 7: she put out, because she worked really hard, and she

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Speaker 7: was really homeble, and she didn't walk around saying, oh,

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Speaker 7: I'm a woman and I was in combat. She was

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Speaker 7: injured and everybody knew it, but she was still running.

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Speaker 1: Part of the ethos of this retreat was you didn't

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Speaker 1: brag about the past, focused on now, and you exercised

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Speaker 1: a lot. The whole point of this retreat was actually

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Speaker 1: strength building. The Vets built a platform that became their

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Speaker 1: outdoor gym. They lifted weights here, did squats, deadlifts, power cleans,

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Speaker 1: and apparently they were also carrying giant slabs of rock

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Speaker 1: up a mountain.

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Speaker 8: Come on, oh shit, leyam push that woman.

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Speaker 1: You can hear saying push it. That's Sarah Kavanaugh. We

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Speaker 1: found this video of her on YouTube from this same retreat.

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Speaker 1: She's in a sweaty gray tank top, has on these

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Speaker 1: mirrored sunglasses and leather work woman's gloves. She has blonde

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Speaker 1: hair and a runners build, slim and athletics and that

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Speaker 1: soft inspirational music that's in there because this is a

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Speaker 1: promotional video for Patrol Base of Bate, And in that

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Speaker 1: video we see Sarah giving an interview with the wild

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Speaker 1: Mountains of Montana in the background.

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Speaker 9: Because there's such an open discussion about what's really happening

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Speaker 9: to veterans, right, you know, what are we going through?

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Speaker 9: How can we, you know, refit and refresh the skills

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Speaker 9: we have and the skills we learned while we were

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Speaker 9: serving and apply them to our lives and make our

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Speaker 9: lives better now. I think I was expecting just to

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Speaker 9: come together and have some fun and work out, but

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Speaker 9: it was so much more than that.

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Speaker 6: The person who started these retreats was concerned about all

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Speaker 6: the challenges that vet's face as they transitioned back to

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Speaker 6: civilian life, and he wanted this time in the woods

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Speaker 6: to be healing transfer me even.

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Speaker 9: And to the veterans who are coming out here, be

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Speaker 9: ready to talk and not talk out loud. But maybe

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Speaker 9: you need to talk to yourself, Maybe you need to

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Speaker 9: hear what other people are saying and process that and

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Speaker 9: come back to yourself and work through some things.

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Speaker 10: And I think that's happening here.

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Speaker 8: It definitely is.

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Speaker 9: But I think if you can at least be prepared

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Speaker 9: to do the work, I think you'll.

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Speaker 6: Get a lot out of it. Beck says that on

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Speaker 6: this retreat there were just a few female vets. It

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Speaker 6: was her, Sarah, and another former marine named Natalie. The

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Speaker 6: three of them worked out together.

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Speaker 11: Dex has this way of like she calls it, gassing

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Speaker 11: you up, of like being your biggest cheerleader, and so

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Speaker 11: she'll be like, man, look at those guns.

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Speaker 8: Natalie.

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Speaker 1: That's Natalie Markham. She was a clarinetist in the Marine

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Speaker 1: Corps band, a self described band nerd. At the time

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Speaker 1: of the retreat, Natalie was struggling. She owned a CrossFit

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Speaker 1: gym that had been hit hard during the pandemic and

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Speaker 1: she was worried that it might go bust. So for

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Speaker 1: her to be here in Montana doing something she loved

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Speaker 1: under the open sky with new friends, it was like

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Speaker 1: she could breathe. She asked someone to take a picture

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Speaker 1: of her with Dex and Sarah to commemorate the moment.

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Speaker 12: The three of us are lined up and being female

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Speaker 12: and in the military, like do you stand tough?

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Speaker 8: Do you stand feminine?

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Speaker 12: And then you know we're in a strength retreat, so

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Speaker 12: we should take one that looks kind of cute, but

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Speaker 12: then we should take one that looks kind of tough,

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Speaker 12: and so will flex, and Dex is always one to

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Speaker 12: be like, oh, we have to flex.

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Speaker 1: In the picture, the three of them are standing against

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Speaker 1: the backdrop of the mountains, all flexing, biceps and triceps bulging.

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Speaker 1: Natalie and Sarah are smiling, Dex is all business, serious

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Speaker 1: as can be, and looking at the photo, I could

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Speaker 1: kind of feel their energy. I'd never guess they just met.

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Speaker 1: They look like they could be sisters, joking, competing, giving

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Speaker 1: each other shit, like the Three Musketeers or something. Dex

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Speaker 1: told us that this kind of camaraderie is not a given.

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Speaker 7: When you're a woman in the military, the competition among

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Speaker 7: other women is really intense. A lot of the time.

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Speaker 7: You're all trying to be the best, not just be

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Speaker 7: the best woman, but you're trying to be the best

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Speaker 7: so that the men think you're the best, because that's

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Speaker 7: what matters. And you know, men are the ones who

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Speaker 7: are always in charge of you. It's their opinion that

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Speaker 7: gets you promoted. So if you're falling short, I mean,

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Speaker 7: you're already doing one thing wrong because you're a woman,

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Speaker 7: so it's like you can't do two things wrong.

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Speaker 1: Dex was especially impressed with Sarah. She was somehow doing

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Speaker 1: all these really intense workouts while also dealing with what

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Speaker 1: seemed like a pretty serious leg in.

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Speaker 7: She also was taking injections of some kind, some type

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Speaker 7: of medication for her hip, and she was like telling us, like,

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Speaker 7: if she doesn't, you know, put this shot in her hip,

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Speaker 7: like her leg goes numb.

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Speaker 1: Because Sarah was so modest, because she didn't boast or

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Speaker 1: advertise about who she was and what she'd done, there

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Speaker 1: was an air of mystery about her. Sarah said she

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Speaker 1: was a crypto linguist. She'd served in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Speaker 1: She came from a military family. Her brother had been

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Speaker 1: a marine too. He was killed in combat and buried

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Speaker 1: at Arlington Cemetery. In private moments, Sarah began to open

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Speaker 1: up two decks.

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Speaker 7: She told me that she had been in a convoy

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Speaker 7: and her vehicle was hit by nid you know, the

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Speaker 7: humby blew up the door from the humphy like crushed

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Speaker 7: her hip, and somehow she was able to like get

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Speaker 7: out of the humby.

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Speaker 1: As Sarah told it, her hip never healed properly from

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Speaker 1: the knee down. Her leg was basically dying. But that's

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Speaker 1: not all.

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Speaker 7: Will sitting in the tent, she's about to leave or

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Speaker 7: we're talking, and she tells me that, like, she just

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Speaker 7: got diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. And I like

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Speaker 7: remembered this because she cried because I got up to

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Speaker 7: give her a hug.

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Speaker 6: So just a recap. Here's this woman, Sarah, who at

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Speaker 6: the time was just thirty years old, already a decorated

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Speaker 6: war veteran, strong, modest, whietly brave, sprinting down these mountain

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Speaker 6: trails and giving herself these injections to stem the pain.

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Speaker 6: And on top of it all, she also has stage

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Speaker 6: four lung cancer. Dex had to coax it out of

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Speaker 6: her because Sarah's story came out in dribs and drabs,

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Speaker 6: and it got more tragic incrementally, like a kettle on

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Speaker 6: a stove that heats up slowly until all of a

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Speaker 6: sudden it starts to boil. So the retreat in Montana

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Speaker 6: comes to an end, and the three Musketeers say goodbye

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Speaker 6: to one another, but they stay in touch. And this,

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Speaker 6: by the way, is exactly the goal of this program.

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Speaker 6: Veterans forming real bonds that last long after the campfire

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Speaker 6: goes out. A few months after the Montana Retreat, in

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Speaker 6: December of twenty twenty one, Dex happened to be in

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Speaker 6: Virginia visiting Arlington National Cemetery and suddenly Dex remembers that

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Speaker 6: Sarah's brother was a Marine who was killed in action.

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Speaker 6: So she sends Sarah a text and says she'd like

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Speaker 6: to lay a wreath at his grave. Within minutes, Sarah

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Speaker 6: texts back with a plot number. But when Dex gets

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Speaker 6: to the grave, she notices that this marine he has

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Speaker 6: a different last name than Sarah's, and when she looks

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Speaker 6: up his obituary, she sees that they're not even the

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Speaker 6: same race. When she sends Sarah a picture of the grave, though,

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Speaker 6: Sarah confirms that yes, this is him.

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Speaker 7: So I'm thinking, if he's not her actual physical brother,

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Speaker 7: I don't think she mentioned ever having an adopted brother,

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Speaker 7: And then I'm thinking maybe she just meant brother, like

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Speaker 7: in the colloquial where all Marines were brothers typeway, and

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Speaker 7: I was like, maybe that's it.

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Speaker 6: You can hear Dex trying to make sense of this,

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Speaker 6: but she said she didn't ask Sarah too many questions

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Speaker 6: about it.

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Speaker 7: That's kind of like if you had a friend that

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Speaker 7: told you that she'd had a miscarriage, the very last

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Speaker 7: thing that you're going to do to that friend while

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Speaker 7: she's crying about losing a baby is ask heurage that

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Speaker 7: actually happened. Like this is so insensitive. So I was

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Speaker 7: not going to ask this woman these questions because I

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Speaker 7: didn't want to be insensitive because we were friends.

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Speaker 6: So Dex just didn't say anything. Besides, at this point,

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Speaker 6: Sarah was fighting lung cancer and from time to time

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Speaker 6: she'd mentioned to Dex that her medical bills were piling up.

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Speaker 6: Now the VA wasn't covering everything, Dex wanted to help,

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Speaker 6: even from far away. That's when she heard about this

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Speaker 6: charity called Hunter seven. Hunter seven helps veterans who struggle

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Speaker 6: to pay their medical bills. The reality is many veterans

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Speaker 6: face huge gaps in the healthcare. The VA provides a

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Speaker 6: long wait time denied claims, and charities like Hunter seven

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Speaker 6: come in as a stopgap. So Dex tells Sarah she

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Speaker 6: should apply for financial assistance. At first, Sarah seemed reluctant.

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Speaker 6: Maybe she was just underwater with everything she had going on,

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Speaker 6: so Dex offered to step in and submit an application

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Speaker 6: for Sarah.

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Speaker 7: I was like, this is what I would do for

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Speaker 7: my friends, like especially a friend who's like struggling at

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Speaker 7: this level. I was like, I understood really clearly, like

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Speaker 7: having a million things going on and all of them

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Speaker 7: feeling very intent. So I was like, let me help

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Speaker 7: you out because I have a minute, and it's no

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Speaker 7: skin off my back to send an email.

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Speaker 6: She couldn't know this then, but this simple act of

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Speaker 6: kindness would set something in motion, something that would forever

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Speaker 6: alter the way Decks saw Sarah.

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Speaker 1: Remember Natalie, the third Musketeer from the Montana Retreat, the clarinetist. Yeah, well,

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Speaker 1: Natalie also stayed in touch with Sarah. In fact, right

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Speaker 1: around the time that Dex was visiting the cemetery in Arlington,

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Speaker 1: Natalie and Sarah were actually hanging out in person. A

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Speaker 1: bunch of vets, including a few from the Montana Retreat,

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Speaker 1: gathered at a CrossFit gym in California to have a

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Speaker 1: little competition. Well not so little, even for Natalie. It

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Speaker 1: was a lot.

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Speaker 11: There was one workout every hour on the hour for

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Speaker 11: eight hours. Just the grueling nature of eight hours worth

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Speaker 11: of workouts is enough to make most people go yeah, no,

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Speaker 11: I'm not doing that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty insane. This was like an ultra marathon for weightlifters.

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Speaker 1: They broke down into teams of two. Now, at this point,

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Speaker 1: Natalie didn't know about Sarah's cancer her and this is

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Speaker 1: because Sarah had never told her. She just confided this

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Speaker 1: to Decks, which, as we've come to learn, is kind

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Speaker 1: of how Sarah operated. She shared details about her life

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Speaker 1: one on one in these small private moments, and so

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Speaker 1: the secrets remained compartmentalized. Natalie was aware that Sarah had

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Speaker 1: some issue with her leg, but that was about all.

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Speaker 1: Then in the middle of the competition, during one of

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Speaker 1: the breaks, they're all kind of just sitting around resting, Natalie,

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Speaker 1: her teammate, Sarah, her teammate.

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Speaker 11: All four of us are sitting on the floor together

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Speaker 11: and Sarah says.

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Speaker 8: That she's going to have to have her leg amputated.

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Speaker 11: And I was blown away, Like, you are in the

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Speaker 11: middle of doing an eight hour workout and you you

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Speaker 11: have to have your leg amputated.

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Speaker 8: It was absolutely unfathomable to me.

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Speaker 11: But I distinctly remember her saying, if I'm gonna have

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Speaker 11: to have my leg amputated, then I'm gonna make this bitch,

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Speaker 11: give me every last ounce of what it's got to give.

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Speaker 1: Natalie is looking at Sarah's leg and it's trembling, and

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Speaker 1: she thinks to herself, you are like.

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Speaker 11: A whole other level of badass ory than I have

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Speaker 11: ever known.

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Speaker 1: And the proof was Sarah's team then goes on to

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Speaker 1: beat Natalie's team in the competition, and Natalie she's in awe.

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Speaker 1: The two women went to another retreat together not long

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Speaker 1: after this, and it seemed like Sarah's leg was in

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Speaker 1: bad shape.

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Speaker 11: We did one workout where Sarah was having a really

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Speaker 11: hard time and like at the end of the workout,

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Speaker 11: her leg was shaking so badly, and she's like, Natalie,

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Speaker 11: will you please help me?

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Speaker 8: Can you please help me? Stretch?

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Speaker 11: I took her shaking leg and placed it up on

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Speaker 11: my shoulder and am holding her quad in one hand

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Speaker 11: and her foot up here and kind of leaning in

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Speaker 11: and I'm talking her through, like breathe into the muscle,

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Speaker 11: like take some breast exhale slowly, picture your leg relaxing,

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Speaker 11: and just remember her like having this moment of her

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Speaker 11: leg finally relaxing, and this is the leg that she's

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Speaker 11: supposed to have amputated and feeling some sense of gratitude

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Speaker 11: that I could help somebody in that situation to have

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Speaker 11: some kind of relief.

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Speaker 1: Looking back, Natalie still recalls the intensity of this moment

351
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Speaker 1: with Sarah, the tenseness of her hamstring, the trend and

352
00:23:09,476 --> 00:23:13,836
Speaker 1: her muscles, the pain on Sarah's face. It all seems

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Speaker 1: so real. In the coming weeks, Natalie texted Sarah about

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Speaker 1: the amputation to see if it had been scheduled, and

355
00:23:24,516 --> 00:23:28,916
Speaker 1: Sarah eventually gave her a date, January twenty sixth. The

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00:23:29,036 --> 00:23:32,436
Speaker 1: date sticks in Natalie's mind. She keeps thinking about it

357
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Speaker 1: as it draws closer, and then the night before the surgery,

358
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Speaker 1: Natalie can't sleep. She just keeps thinking about Sarah.

359
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Speaker 11: And like, I'm so genuinely worried about her that in

360
00:23:45,356 --> 00:23:46,796
Speaker 11: the middle of the night, I wake up and I

361
00:23:46,876 --> 00:23:49,156
Speaker 11: the first thing I think of is I must be

362
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Speaker 11: waking up because I've got to pray for Sarah.

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00:23:52,276 --> 00:23:55,036
Speaker 8: I should text her and let her know that I'm praying.

364
00:23:55,076 --> 00:23:57,436
Speaker 8: And so I text out my prayer to her and

365
00:23:57,476 --> 00:23:58,276
Speaker 8: send it to her.

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Speaker 1: I asked Natalie to read me that text.

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Speaker 8: January twenty sixth, twenty twenty two. A prayer for you

368
00:24:06,276 --> 00:24:10,236
Speaker 8: today is what I wrote, God, thank you for Sarah.

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00:24:10,716 --> 00:24:16,996
Speaker 8: Thank you for her intelligence, kindness, humor, bravery, courage, and

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Speaker 8: service to the United States, and for her gift of friendship.

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Speaker 8: I pray that you will give her and her family

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Speaker 8: a deep sense of peace today, even as she is

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Speaker 8: under anesthesia, though she already has such a deep sense

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Speaker 8: of drive and determination, Pour into her an extra dose

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Speaker 8: of perseverance and purpose. Heal her body Lord from this

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Speaker 8: and all illness and disease.

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Speaker 1: Did she write anything back?

378
00:24:48,236 --> 00:24:50,996
Speaker 8: She wrote, thank you so much. I can't tell you

379
00:24:51,036 --> 00:24:51,956
Speaker 8: what this means to me.

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00:24:55,196 --> 00:24:59,236
Speaker 1: The next day, Natalie shot Sarah another text to see

381
00:24:59,276 --> 00:25:04,516
Speaker 1: how the surgery went, and Sarah explained that they had

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Speaker 1: to call off the amputation.

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Speaker 11: She said that when she was going into her surgery

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Speaker 11: that her blood pressure had dropped and they couldn't They

385
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Speaker 11: weren't able to perform the surgery because of that, and

386
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Speaker 11: I remember thinking at the time.

387
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Speaker 8: Like, that's really weird. You would think that if you're

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Speaker 8: going to go have your.

389
00:25:26,116 --> 00:25:30,236
Speaker 11: Leg cut off, that your blood pressure would be sky high.

390
00:25:30,676 --> 00:25:33,436
Speaker 11: The next day, I was like trying to reach out

391
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Speaker 11: to her, but thinking that she's still in the hospital

392
00:25:36,876 --> 00:25:38,716
Speaker 11: and it's in the middle.

393
00:25:38,476 --> 00:25:40,516
Speaker 8: Of me trying to get a hold of her.

394
00:25:41,076 --> 00:25:45,916
Speaker 11: Then I receive a message from Tom through WhatsApp.

395
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Speaker 1: That guy, she mentions Tom, that's Tom Schumann. He's the

396
00:25:51,316 --> 00:25:55,236
Speaker 1: founder of Patrol Base ABATA, the nonprofit that organized those

397
00:25:55,236 --> 00:26:00,116
Speaker 1: retreats up in Montana. Tom also knew Sarah, and now

398
00:26:00,396 --> 00:26:02,996
Speaker 1: he was texting with an urgent message.

399
00:26:03,156 --> 00:26:07,116
Speaker 8: And he's like, Hey, Sarah is not who she says

400
00:26:07,116 --> 00:26:07,476
Speaker 8: she is.

401
00:26:09,316 --> 00:26:12,156
Speaker 1: Tom says that Sarah has been lying about a number

402
00:26:12,236 --> 00:26:14,716
Speaker 1: of things, and that she may have lied about her

403
00:26:14,716 --> 00:26:19,276
Speaker 1: military service. Natalie didn't know who or what to believe.

404
00:26:20,316 --> 00:26:24,556
Speaker 11: I specifically asked Tom like how do you know this?

405
00:26:24,916 --> 00:26:27,476
Speaker 11: Because now I'm questioning him like why would you even

406
00:26:27,516 --> 00:26:29,796
Speaker 11: say something like that, Like how do you?

407
00:26:29,836 --> 00:26:30,196
Speaker 5: How do you?

408
00:26:30,516 --> 00:26:31,556
Speaker 8: How do you know for sure?

409
00:26:33,156 --> 00:26:36,956
Speaker 1: But it turns out Tom had his reasons. In the

410
00:26:36,996 --> 00:26:39,956
Speaker 1: weeks leading up to this moment, he'd been digging into

411
00:26:39,956 --> 00:26:44,716
Speaker 1: Sarah's story and he discovered a few red flags, some

412
00:26:44,836 --> 00:26:48,516
Speaker 1: things that just didn't add up. More on that.

413
00:26:49,116 --> 00:27:08,356
Speaker 6: After the break, Tom Schumann first met Sarah Kavanaugh in

414
00:27:08,396 --> 00:27:12,356
Speaker 6: the snowy mountains of Boulder, Colorado, at a Patrol Base

415
00:27:12,396 --> 00:27:13,436
Speaker 6: of Bate retreat.

416
00:27:17,036 --> 00:27:20,876
Speaker 5: We're staying in a canvas tence. It was an intimate

417
00:27:20,916 --> 00:27:24,156
Speaker 5: setting where we're spending all day night, which is a

418
00:27:24,156 --> 00:27:27,916
Speaker 5: small group of people. We connected over our intellectual and

419
00:27:28,036 --> 00:27:33,556
Speaker 5: academic and literature interests, had read the same books, talking

420
00:27:33,556 --> 00:27:37,676
Speaker 5: about the same authors. Pretty immediately we started hitting it off.

421
00:27:38,836 --> 00:27:41,276
Speaker 6: This retreat was similar to the one in Montana we

422
00:27:41,356 --> 00:27:47,036
Speaker 6: told you about. Hang out, workout, talk, connect. That was

423
00:27:47,076 --> 00:27:50,956
Speaker 6: the goal. That's why Tom founded Pibiabaate in the first place.

424
00:27:51,716 --> 00:27:55,116
Speaker 6: He's a marine and when he returned from his tours overseas,

425
00:27:55,636 --> 00:27:58,836
Speaker 6: he watched his comrade struggle. He told us three of

426
00:27:58,876 --> 00:28:01,876
Speaker 6: his fellow marines died by suicide over the course of

427
00:28:01,916 --> 00:28:05,796
Speaker 6: one month, and that is what led him to start Pibiabaate.

428
00:28:07,156 --> 00:28:10,076
Speaker 6: In Colorado, Tom and s started to get to know

429
00:28:10,116 --> 00:28:13,636
Speaker 6: each other. Sarah told him she was a professor, which

430
00:28:13,636 --> 00:28:17,116
Speaker 6: appealed to him. Tom himself taught literature at the US

431
00:28:17,196 --> 00:28:20,556
Speaker 6: Naval Academy. Sarah also told him that she had a

432
00:28:20,676 --> 00:28:24,356
Speaker 6: kid who just crashed her pickup truck. She seemed down

433
00:28:24,356 --> 00:28:26,356
Speaker 6: to earth and genuine.

434
00:28:26,676 --> 00:28:29,556
Speaker 5: Within the first twenty four hours, I felt like we

435
00:28:29,916 --> 00:28:34,716
Speaker 5: had bonded, and then throughout the weekend there were a

436
00:28:34,716 --> 00:28:38,956
Speaker 5: couple of experiences that solidified that bond and strengthen it.

437
00:28:40,116 --> 00:28:42,236
Speaker 6: On the last day of this retreat, a guy named

438
00:28:42,236 --> 00:28:46,396
Speaker 6: Brian Shantash led them on an adventure workout. Shantash is

439
00:28:46,436 --> 00:28:49,876
Speaker 6: a former marine and a leadership guru famed for his

440
00:28:49,916 --> 00:28:54,716
Speaker 6: wilderness programs, and his workouts have a reputation for pushing

441
00:28:54,756 --> 00:28:59,436
Speaker 6: people to their limits. So everyone, even Tom, was nervous.

442
00:28:59,876 --> 00:29:01,676
Speaker 6: They were told to break down into teams of two.

443
00:29:02,196 --> 00:29:03,796
Speaker 6: Sarah and Tom partnered up.

444
00:29:04,636 --> 00:29:08,876
Speaker 5: And one of the things that you had to do

445
00:29:09,316 --> 00:29:15,956
Speaker 5: was drag a weighted sled up the mountain and back.

446
00:29:16,516 --> 00:29:20,436
Speaker 5: A couple different times. You dragged this on a mile loop.

447
00:29:21,516 --> 00:29:24,676
Speaker 6: They get to it, they start pushing this weighted sled

448
00:29:24,956 --> 00:29:27,316
Speaker 6: up the mountain and then back down the mountain on

449
00:29:27,396 --> 00:29:31,716
Speaker 6: this mile long loop, again and again and again. And

450
00:29:31,876 --> 00:29:36,076
Speaker 6: remember this is the Rockies in December, so it's freezing

451
00:29:36,756 --> 00:29:39,196
Speaker 6: and the wind is whipping them as they trudge through.

452
00:29:40,596 --> 00:29:43,956
Speaker 5: I just really respected this, this gal who was apparently

453
00:29:44,196 --> 00:29:48,716
Speaker 5: very valorous in combat, still dealing with her injuries from combat,

454
00:29:49,796 --> 00:29:51,916
Speaker 5: toughing it out on the side of the mountain, and

455
00:29:51,956 --> 00:29:55,756
Speaker 5: so I admired that she was being what I felt like,

456
00:29:55,796 --> 00:29:58,516
Speaker 5: pretty courageous through the event.

457
00:29:59,796 --> 00:30:03,236
Speaker 6: Tom's not a very effusive guy, so this is basically

458
00:30:03,276 --> 00:30:06,076
Speaker 6: his version of gushing. He didn't know about all of

459
00:30:06,076 --> 00:30:10,756
Speaker 6: Sarah's health issues, the cancer and the leg amputa. Sarah

460
00:30:10,796 --> 00:30:13,876
Speaker 6: had never told him about this, though he would soon

461
00:30:13,916 --> 00:30:14,676
Speaker 6: find out.

462
00:30:24,596 --> 00:30:28,276
Speaker 1: Within a few weeks. Tom hears about Sarah's cancer, then

463
00:30:28,636 --> 00:30:30,716
Speaker 1: he feels like he's got to do something.

464
00:30:31,396 --> 00:30:35,796
Speaker 5: I am a guy of action. I reached out to

465
00:30:35,836 --> 00:30:38,196
Speaker 5: her and I said, hey, I didn't know you were sick.

466
00:30:38,436 --> 00:30:40,756
Speaker 5: We should meet soon to see if I can I

467
00:30:40,796 --> 00:30:42,996
Speaker 5: can help, if there's anything that I can do.

468
00:30:44,556 --> 00:30:47,676
Speaker 1: At the time, Tom lived in Rhode Island, where Sarah

469
00:30:47,716 --> 00:30:51,356
Speaker 1: also lived, so they met up for coffee and talked

470
00:30:51,356 --> 00:30:55,276
Speaker 1: for hours. He learned how she'd seen combat in Afghanistan,

471
00:30:55,876 --> 00:30:58,756
Speaker 1: how our convoy was blown up, and how she'd been

472
00:30:58,836 --> 00:31:02,796
Speaker 1: seriously hurt in the blast, and how despite it all,

473
00:31:02,956 --> 00:31:05,276
Speaker 1: she still managed to save some of the guys in

474
00:31:05,316 --> 00:31:09,116
Speaker 1: her patrol, dragging them to safety even with her own

475
00:31:09,156 --> 00:31:12,076
Speaker 1: crushed hip. How she got in a Bronze Star for

476
00:31:12,116 --> 00:31:16,876
Speaker 1: her bravery, and now she had cancer in her lungs

477
00:31:17,236 --> 00:31:19,676
Speaker 1: because of the toxic chemicals and that explosion.

478
00:31:20,676 --> 00:31:27,156
Speaker 5: It seemed incurable, that it was terminal. The VA wasn't

479
00:31:27,196 --> 00:31:32,836
Speaker 5: helping because she couldn't prove that the cancer was combat related.

480
00:31:33,236 --> 00:31:39,556
Speaker 5: I was just like, goodness, gracious, like everything that you've

481
00:31:39,676 --> 00:31:46,076
Speaker 5: been through, from your injuries to the cancer, to gonna

482
00:31:46,076 --> 00:31:51,476
Speaker 5: lose your leg, the amount of tragedy that in trauma,

483
00:31:51,556 --> 00:31:55,116
Speaker 5: and I just resolved in that moment like I am

484
00:31:55,156 --> 00:31:59,476
Speaker 5: gonna do everything that I can do to help you.

485
00:31:59,596 --> 00:32:02,916
Speaker 5: And what do you need? And she needed employment. She

486
00:32:02,916 --> 00:32:04,316
Speaker 5: said she didn't have a very good job.

487
00:32:05,356 --> 00:32:07,716
Speaker 1: She told Tom that her plan had been to get

488
00:32:07,716 --> 00:32:11,596
Speaker 1: a PhD in English literature. She'd even been accepted into

489
00:32:11,636 --> 00:32:15,876
Speaker 1: a program at Johns Hopkins, but then the VIA delivered

490
00:32:15,916 --> 00:32:19,116
Speaker 1: some shattering news. They told her that she couldn't use

491
00:32:19,116 --> 00:32:24,036
Speaker 1: her GI bill why because her life expectancy was shorter

492
00:32:24,156 --> 00:32:26,596
Speaker 1: than the time it would take to finish the program.

493
00:32:27,476 --> 00:32:32,196
Speaker 1: It was devastating, all of it. Tom, being a guy

494
00:32:32,236 --> 00:32:35,876
Speaker 1: of action, was like, maybe I can create a salaried

495
00:32:35,916 --> 00:32:39,876
Speaker 1: position for you at Patrol Basabat. At the time, the

496
00:32:39,996 --> 00:32:44,676
Speaker 1: organization was run entirely by volunteers. There were no paid positions,

497
00:32:45,356 --> 00:32:50,476
Speaker 1: but the organization did have donors, some with deep pockets,

498
00:32:50,796 --> 00:32:53,516
Speaker 1: and Tom thought maybe one of them would be willing

499
00:32:53,556 --> 00:32:56,596
Speaker 1: to pay for this tom even had a particular donor

500
00:32:56,636 --> 00:32:59,356
Speaker 1: in mind, a woman who lived up in New Hampshire.

501
00:33:00,676 --> 00:33:02,396
Speaker 6: So he wants to get all his ducks in a row.

502
00:33:02,876 --> 00:33:05,476
Speaker 6: He asks Sarah for a copy of her DD two fourteen.

503
00:33:06,076 --> 00:33:10,196
Speaker 6: That's the official military discharge paper that all service members receive,

504
00:33:10,716 --> 00:33:14,316
Speaker 6: explaining how and when they left the service. Sarah sends

505
00:33:14,356 --> 00:33:17,356
Speaker 6: him the paperwork. He says he remembers vividly the moment

506
00:33:17,396 --> 00:33:20,636
Speaker 6: he received it. He was sitting in his car in

507
00:33:20,636 --> 00:33:23,956
Speaker 6: a parking lot about to get a haircut. He starts

508
00:33:23,996 --> 00:33:27,876
Speaker 6: scanning through the documents on his phone and something catches

509
00:33:27,916 --> 00:33:32,196
Speaker 6: his eye. The D two fourteen says Sarah retired as

510
00:33:32,196 --> 00:33:36,236
Speaker 6: a corporal, which is weird because she'd made it all

511
00:33:36,316 --> 00:33:39,516
Speaker 6: the way up to staff sergeant. In fact, he'd seen

512
00:33:39,556 --> 00:33:42,876
Speaker 6: a picture of her with the staff sergeant insignia. So

513
00:33:42,916 --> 00:33:43,556
Speaker 6: he calls her.

514
00:33:43,516 --> 00:33:49,436
Speaker 5: Up and so I just said, hey, Sarah, I'm going

515
00:33:51,196 --> 00:33:57,356
Speaker 5: to New Hampshire tomorrow to ask for sixty thousand dollars.

516
00:33:58,436 --> 00:34:01,596
Speaker 5: Before I do that, could you help me understand why

517
00:34:01,636 --> 00:34:03,916
Speaker 5: it says that you're a corporal here. And she's like, well,

518
00:34:03,916 --> 00:34:07,876
Speaker 5: I didn't really want to get into all that, but

519
00:34:08,916 --> 00:34:13,316
Speaker 5: I was sexually assaulted on ship by the commanding officer.

520
00:34:13,796 --> 00:34:18,316
Speaker 5: He had pulled the gun during the sexual assault, and

521
00:34:18,916 --> 00:34:23,756
Speaker 5: I'm the one who got punished for reporting him. I said, like,

522
00:34:23,836 --> 00:34:31,356
Speaker 5: I'm sorry to hear that, but I am now incredulous

523
00:34:31,716 --> 00:34:33,236
Speaker 5: about all this.

524
00:34:34,396 --> 00:34:38,236
Speaker 6: Suddenly, Sarah's whole story, with all its drama and all

525
00:34:38,236 --> 00:34:42,716
Speaker 6: its heroics, is feeling very shaky. Tom knew he needed

526
00:34:42,756 --> 00:34:45,236
Speaker 6: back up, so he reached out to a friend who

527
00:34:45,236 --> 00:34:49,556
Speaker 6: had access to personnel records. The friend, he punches in

528
00:34:49,756 --> 00:34:53,956
Speaker 6: Sarah's DoD number, the military equivalent of a Social Security number,

529
00:34:54,596 --> 00:34:57,996
Speaker 6: does some more digging. That friend gets back to Tom

530
00:34:58,196 --> 00:35:00,796
Speaker 6: with what he's found, and.

531
00:35:00,716 --> 00:35:04,716
Speaker 5: He said, the Dodd number for this D two fourteen

532
00:35:04,836 --> 00:35:10,516
Speaker 5: belongs to a corporal so and so, and it's a guy.

533
00:35:11,356 --> 00:35:15,236
Speaker 5: And he's like, fifty percent of this document is his record.

534
00:35:15,996 --> 00:35:19,196
Speaker 5: Then fifty percent of this document is altered.

535
00:35:20,676 --> 00:35:24,436
Speaker 6: It looks like she'd taken someone else's records and doctorate them,

536
00:35:25,076 --> 00:35:28,516
Speaker 6: inserting her own name and other details. And this, by

537
00:35:28,556 --> 00:35:31,756
Speaker 6: the way, it's not a small thing. This isn't forging

538
00:35:31,756 --> 00:35:34,196
Speaker 6: your mom's name on a sick note. This is a

539
00:35:34,276 --> 00:35:38,516
Speaker 6: huge deal, felony level huge. Tom is in a state

540
00:35:38,556 --> 00:35:39,356
Speaker 6: of shock.

541
00:35:39,996 --> 00:35:45,956
Speaker 5: That's like, uh yeah, that was I mean that that

542
00:35:46,076 --> 00:35:52,436
Speaker 5: was it. Like at that point, I'm like, I've been bamboozled, hoodwinked.

543
00:35:54,196 --> 00:35:55,756
Speaker 6: Tom goes home and tells his wife.

544
00:35:56,356 --> 00:35:58,436
Speaker 8: His wife, she's pissed.

545
00:35:59,116 --> 00:36:01,556
Speaker 6: She knows how hard Tom has been working for this woman,

546
00:36:02,156 --> 00:36:04,796
Speaker 6: trying to help her, and now she seems to be

547
00:36:04,836 --> 00:36:10,476
Speaker 6: a fraud. She's like, not my watch. So she goes

548
00:36:10,516 --> 00:36:14,796
Speaker 6: over in person and reports this whole thing to NCIS.

549
00:36:15,476 --> 00:36:18,956
Speaker 6: That's the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Maybe you've seen the

550
00:36:18,996 --> 00:36:22,516
Speaker 6: TV show. They're the badass investigators for the US Navy

551
00:36:22,596 --> 00:36:26,876
Speaker 6: and Marine Corps. Anyway, the NCIS folks, they're like, okay,

552
00:36:27,356 --> 00:36:28,156
Speaker 6: we'll look into this.

553
00:36:29,556 --> 00:36:35,356
Speaker 1: Around this same time, something else very important happens. Remember

554
00:36:35,396 --> 00:36:39,036
Speaker 1: how Dex, the friend from the Montana Retreat, tried to

555
00:36:39,036 --> 00:36:42,116
Speaker 1: help Sarah with her medical bills, how she contacted a

556
00:36:42,236 --> 00:36:47,436
Speaker 1: charity called Hunter seven. Well, that charity had also started

557
00:36:47,436 --> 00:36:52,236
Speaker 1: digging into Sarah's backstory, and what they discovered prompted them

558
00:36:52,276 --> 00:36:59,156
Speaker 1: to alert both Tom and the FBI. But what no

559
00:36:59,196 --> 00:37:04,436
Speaker 1: one realized, not Tom or Dex or NCIS or even

560
00:37:04,476 --> 00:37:09,276
Speaker 1: the FBI, was just how deep this deception went. None

561
00:37:09,356 --> 00:37:13,676
Speaker 1: of them could begin to fathom it lies tend to

562
00:37:13,716 --> 00:37:18,276
Speaker 1: be fragile, temperamental things. Small ones may flourish, but the

563
00:37:18,316 --> 00:37:22,636
Speaker 1: big ones die, wilting under their own weight. Except in

564
00:37:22,676 --> 00:37:26,676
Speaker 1: this case, the bigger it grew, the more real it became.

565
00:37:30,916 --> 00:37:34,836
Speaker 6: This season is about a betrayal writ large, a deception

566
00:37:35,036 --> 00:37:37,636
Speaker 6: that played out over the course of more than six years,

567
00:37:38,436 --> 00:37:43,796
Speaker 6: not just in Montana, but in Colorado and Texas and Tennessee,

568
00:37:43,796 --> 00:37:45,516
Speaker 6: California and Rhode Island too.

569
00:37:48,516 --> 00:37:53,076
Speaker 1: To this day, much of this story is shrouded in mystery.

570
00:37:53,156 --> 00:37:57,556
Speaker 1: There's no detailed public record of what really happened. What's more,

571
00:37:57,956 --> 00:37:59,716
Speaker 1: most of the people caught up in all of this

572
00:38:00,196 --> 00:38:04,556
Speaker 1: haven't spoken publicly or even to each other, so the

573
00:38:04,636 --> 00:38:09,956
Speaker 1: story itself remains compartmentalized, like room was in a mansion

574
00:38:10,356 --> 00:38:15,556
Speaker 1: with no doors between them. Jess and I have spent

575
00:38:15,636 --> 00:38:18,516
Speaker 1: the last year or so finding our way into these

576
00:38:18,596 --> 00:38:26,316
Speaker 1: rooms and listening coming up this season on Deep Cover.

577
00:38:27,276 --> 00:38:30,556
Speaker 7: I remember sitting on her couch and like me like

578
00:38:30,676 --> 00:38:33,716
Speaker 7: telling her, asking her is this real?

579
00:38:33,796 --> 00:38:34,316
Speaker 8: Is this real?

580
00:38:34,396 --> 00:38:35,556
Speaker 5: Is this real? Is this real?

581
00:38:36,196 --> 00:38:39,836
Speaker 7: I was like, wait, wait, were you ever in the military.

582
00:38:40,236 --> 00:38:42,516
Speaker 13: I just couldn't brought my head around what kind of

583
00:38:42,516 --> 00:38:46,316
Speaker 13: person would do that to another person, especially that was

584
00:38:47,716 --> 00:38:53,436
Speaker 13: you knew was sick, that was getting treatment, that was

585
00:38:53,916 --> 00:38:54,876
Speaker 13: you know, dying.

586
00:38:56,316 --> 00:38:58,876
Speaker 3: I've seen a lot of stuff over thirty years, and

587
00:38:59,236 --> 00:39:02,356
Speaker 3: this ranks right up there in the pantheon of Rhode

588
00:39:02,356 --> 00:39:04,196
Speaker 3: Island fraudsters.

589
00:39:05,916 --> 00:39:08,116
Speaker 8: Can you introduce yourself.

590
00:39:09,316 --> 00:39:13,556
Speaker 10: Kavanaugh, and I'm originally from Rhode Island. I can see

591
00:39:14,996 --> 00:39:18,156
Speaker 10: where in some ways it can fit this aspect of

592
00:39:18,316 --> 00:39:24,516
Speaker 10: like this huge plan to get all this money, like

593
00:39:24,596 --> 00:39:33,636
Speaker 10: this master plan or something, but I never thought about

594
00:39:33,676 --> 00:39:34,116
Speaker 10: it like that.

595
00:39:55,076 --> 00:39:58,476
Speaker 1: Deep Cover The Truth About Sarah was produced by Amy

596
00:39:58,516 --> 00:40:04,716
Speaker 1: Gaines McQuaid and Tally Emlyn. Additional production support by Sonya Gerwick.

597
00:40:05,876 --> 00:40:09,796
Speaker 6: Our show is edited by Karen Chakerjee. Our executs producer

598
00:40:09,876 --> 00:40:13,116
Speaker 6: is Jacob Smith, mastering by Jake Gorsky.

599
00:40:13,916 --> 00:40:17,436
Speaker 1: Original scoring in our theme were composed by Luis Gara.

600
00:40:18,036 --> 00:40:21,876
Speaker 1: Our show art was designed by Sean Carney. Fact checking

601
00:40:21,956 --> 00:40:23,156
Speaker 1: by Aka Robbins.

602
00:40:24,316 --> 00:40:28,716
Speaker 6: Special thanks to Sarah Nix, Izzy Carter, Daphne Chen, Jake

603
00:40:28,756 --> 00:40:32,956
Speaker 6: Flanagan and Greta Cone. Additional thanks to Vicky Merrick.

604
00:40:33,876 --> 00:40:52,676
Speaker 1: I'm Jess McHugh and I'm Jake Halpert. My co host

605
00:40:52,836 --> 00:40:57,276
Speaker 1: Jess McHugh is currently researching a book on female con artists,