Speaker 1: Pushkin. Hey, it's Jake. I hope you enjoyed our season
Speaker 1: The Truth about Sarah. We'll be having a live event
Speaker 1: later this year. It's going to be a conversation between
Speaker 1: me and my co host Jess McHugh, and we want
Speaker 1: to hear from you too. What questions do you have
Speaker 1: for us about this season? Send your questions to deep
Speaker 1: Cover at Pushkin dot fm. That's deep Cover All one
Speaker 1: word at Pushkin dot fm and stay tuned for more
Speaker 1: details on this event.
Speaker 2: Previously on deep Cover. I liked her. I liked her
Speaker 2: a lot. She worked really hard and she was really humble.
Speaker 2: Sarah says that she's going to have to have her
Speaker 2: leg amputated, and I was blown away. She tells me that, like,
Speaker 2: she just got diagnosed with stage four lung cancer.
Speaker 3: Could you help me understand why? It says that you're
Speaker 3: a corporal here and she's like, I was sexually assaulted
Speaker 3: on ship by the commanding officer. The DoD ID number
Speaker 3: for this D two fourteen belongs to a corporal so
Speaker 3: and so, and it's a guy. Then fifty percent of
Speaker 3: this document is altered.
Speaker 1: Long before Sarah ever traveled out to Montana, long before
Speaker 1: she met dex Or Tom or Natalie. She had a
Speaker 1: life in Rhode Island. That's where she grew up, where
Speaker 1: she went to high school, where she had made a
Speaker 1: home for herself. Rhode Island is tiny. It's the small
Speaker 1: estate in the nation. People like to say, in Rhode Island,
Speaker 1: you can't go anywhere without bumping into someone you know. Now,
Speaker 1: in such a small place, it seems like it'd be
Speaker 1: hard for anyone to keep secrets. But that didn't seem
Speaker 1: to stop Sarah Kavanaugh.
Speaker 2: Sarah passed herself off as a veteran, specifically a former
Speaker 2: US Marine who'd served in Iraq and Afghanistan, who'd been injured,
Speaker 2: a decorated war hero. But none of this was true.
Speaker 2: Was a story she told about herself, the sprawling lie
Speaker 2: she lived for six whole years. You might think that
Speaker 2: to pull this off, she played safe, avoid attention, like
Speaker 2: not advertise the lie, because that'd be a great way
Speaker 2: to get caught. Seems logical, right, Instead she did this.
Speaker 4: Rhode Island is celebrating a national Purple Heart Day, and
Speaker 4: there will be a heartfelt tribute for the brave women
Speaker 4: and men who have been awarded this special medal. Here
Speaker 4: to tell us all about it is a purple Heart
Speaker 4: veteran Sarah Kavanaugh. Sarah, if you can tell us a
Speaker 4: little bit about yourself, and you were awarded a purple Heart.
Speaker 2: Yes, so, I served in the Marine Corps for about
Speaker 2: eleven years. That was given at purple Heart for action
Speaker 2: to Afghanistan. This is Sarah giving an interview on the
Speaker 2: local news. She's speaking about the state's new Purple Heart Trail,
Speaker 2: a network of roads dedicated to veterans who were injured
Speaker 2: or killed in service. Yeah, it really is an honor
Speaker 2: to be a part of this.
Speaker 5: Being able to recognize it and be the voice for
Speaker 5: other Purple Heart veterans who may not be comfortable is
Speaker 5: really an honor.
Speaker 1: Just a few days after this interview aired, Sarah attended
Speaker 1: a dedication ceremony for the new Purple Heart Trail. I've
Speaker 1: seen a photo of this event. Sarah wore a Marine
Speaker 1: Corps uniform, pressed neat, immaculate metals gleaming. A sharp white
Speaker 1: cap framed her face, her eyes kind of hidden under
Speaker 1: the visor. She stood alongside the governor and made a
Speaker 1: speech about patriotism and sacrifice. Sarah told the assembled crowd,
Speaker 1: no one earns a purple heart alone. I earned mine
Speaker 1: amongst eleven other marines. She added, I have long been
Speaker 1: one of those veterans, the ones who wished to fly
Speaker 1: under the radar, who merely did what was asked.
Speaker 2: So yes, Sarah really did this. She stood next to
Speaker 2: the governor and talked about the meaning of the purple heart,
Speaker 2: a purple heart by the way that she bought online.
Speaker 2: Part of me wonders, if you're Sarah, why agree to
Speaker 2: do this? Because Sarah grew up in Rhode Island and
Speaker 2: still had family there, classmates from high school, people who
Speaker 2: knew full well that she was no war hero. And
Speaker 2: if any of them had seen her making this speech
Speaker 2: or watched her on the local news, they could have
Speaker 2: started asking questions, and Sarah's lies could have unraveled so easily.
Speaker 1: But Sarah's lies survived, thrived, in fact, even as she
Speaker 1: took risks, reckless risks, risks that seemed destined to backfire,
Speaker 1: especially within the tiny context of Rhode Island. But Sarah,
Speaker 1: she navigated well in small spaces, and as the walls
Speaker 1: closed in, they just keep getting smaller. I'm Jake Halburn
Speaker 1: and I'm Jess Mchughe, and this is Deep Cover Season
Speaker 1: six The Truth About Sarah, Episode two, The Poster Child.
Speaker 1: Sarah's lies didn't just happen overnight, but slowly, over the
Speaker 1: course of many years, she gradually won people over, won
Speaker 1: their trust, won their admiration, and far as we can tell,
Speaker 1: all of this really started back in twenty sixteen with
Speaker 1: this guy.
Speaker 6: So people may forget my name, but though, oh hey,
Speaker 6: do you know Dave. Dave, Oh, the guy with a
Speaker 6: handlebar mustache. Oh yeah, I know him.
Speaker 1: That's Dave Ainslie. He's an Army vet served over twenty years,
Speaker 1: including time in Iraq, where he earned a purple heart
Speaker 1: and a bronze star. In the army, Dave always had
Speaker 1: to keep a close shave, so when he finally got out,
Speaker 1: he returned home to Rhode Island.
Speaker 6: And I was like, I'm gonna try this facial hair thing.
Speaker 6: So I had everything from mutton chops to a goatee
Speaker 6: to well, let's try a handlebar mustache.
Speaker 1: And that look worked for him. Came like his calling card,
Speaker 1: as he put it, so that if you lived anywhere
Speaker 1: near his town in Rhode Island, you knew that Dave
Speaker 1: the guy with the handlebar mustache. He was the dude
Speaker 1: in charge. Of the local VFW post one point fifty two.
Speaker 2: DFW, by the way, stands for Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Speaker 2: It's kind of like a club for veterans where they
Speaker 2: can kick back, swap stories, and support each other. Dave
Speaker 2: was the commander of this post and his ongoing goal
Speaker 2: was to modernize the place. He says, when he first
Speaker 2: arrived in twenty ten, the vibe was kind of like
Speaker 2: what you might expect, as he put it, smokey bar,
Speaker 2: bunch of old guys. Dave loved those old guys, but
Speaker 2: he also wanted to open up the doors create an
Speaker 2: environment where any and all veterans would feel welcome, especially
Speaker 2: the younger generation. So he upped their game on social media,
Speaker 2: focused on doing community service, and he set the tone
Speaker 2: with his welcoming personality. Then in twenty sixteen, he meets
Speaker 2: Sarah Kavanaugh and apparently she was struggling.
Speaker 6: She explained to me that she just got out of
Speaker 6: the Marine Corps and she needed help with some car
Speaker 6: payments because she was waiting for VA disability to kick in.
Speaker 2: In other words, Sarah said there'd been some kind of
Speaker 2: delay that she was supposed to be getting financial support
Speaker 2: from the VA. The Department of Veterans Affairs, but there
Speaker 2: was a hold up. Indeed, he understood this kind of thing.
Speaker 6: So we've all been there before. The VA is great organization,
Speaker 6: but not always perfect. We wanted to help her.
Speaker 1: So many of the charities that help veterans in the
Speaker 1: US operate just like this. They try to compensate for
Speaker 1: all the government's inefficiencies and shortcomings, and they do this
Speaker 1: by jumping in and helping veterans right away when they
Speaker 1: need it most. And here was Dave trying to do
Speaker 1: exactly that.
Speaker 6: So I said, hey, we're getting ready for the Veterans
Speaker 6: State Parade. Meet us over there.
Speaker 1: They were gathering in a parking lot when Sarah shows
Speaker 1: up to join them. It's all pretty informal except for
Speaker 1: one bit of paperwork.
Speaker 6: I said, I need to verify that you're a veteran.
Speaker 6: So she showed me what every service member gets when
Speaker 6: they leave the service. A two fourteen.
Speaker 1: Add two fourteen. It's actually a very important document in
Speaker 1: the story. You may recall us talking about it in
Speaker 1: the last episode. It's the official military discharge paper explaining
Speaker 1: how and when someone left the service, and it's what
Speaker 1: proves that Sarah is apparently a veteran.
Speaker 6: I looked at it. I said, yep, okay, you're a veteran.
Speaker 6: Thank you very much. And I was actually excited to
Speaker 6: have her because here is a younger veteran and she
Speaker 6: seemed very genuine and she's like, Okay, I'm going to,
Speaker 6: you know, be a part of this organization. I'm going
Speaker 6: to be a part of this now.
Speaker 1: So right there on the spot in the parking lot,
Speaker 1: with Sarah standing there, Dave calls for a vote.
Speaker 6: It was a voice vote. Okay, here's this veteran. Here's
Speaker 6: her proof. She wants to become a member of our post.
Speaker 6: She needs help. Here's story. Can we give her the
Speaker 6: eight hundred and whatever dollars it was that she needed
Speaker 6: all in Favorsay, I eyes have it. Okay, hey, we're
Speaker 6: in the parade. You want to march with us?
Speaker 5: Sure?
Speaker 1: And like that, Sarah was marching in the annual Veterans
Speaker 1: Day parade. I've seen a video of this parade from
Speaker 1: a different year, but the mood is timeless. People are
Speaker 1: waving flags, the members of a local high school band
Speaker 1: are playing their drums and trombones. Veterans are walking down
Speaker 1: West Main Street together waving the Boy Scouts are there too,
Speaker 1: marching past the package store and the antique dealer and
Speaker 1: the quilting shop. It's classic America and right there in
Speaker 1: the middle of it all was Sarah Kavanaugh, the newest
Speaker 1: member of Post one P fifty two.
Speaker 2: As far as Dave concerned, the day was a win.
Speaker 2: Win got to help vet need and he also got
Speaker 2: a new member, a fresh face, and a woman too.
Speaker 6: I was excited to have a female veteran be part
Speaker 6: of our organization because that helps open us our organization
Speaker 6: up to another demographic.
Speaker 2: And it wasn't just that Sarah was a woman. She
Speaker 2: had a great energy about her. She seemed to embody
Speaker 2: the new, younger VFW that Dave wanted to build.
Speaker 6: She was the post A child because she was pretty blonde. Um,
Speaker 6: she was openly a lesbian, and again that is an
Speaker 6: aspect of people who have served that doesn't get represented
Speaker 6: well you know what I mean. So she was the
Speaker 6: post A child for lack of a better term.
Speaker 2: Not to mention, she was also a wounded combat veteran.
Speaker 2: This didn't come out right away or in a super
Speaker 2: public manner. She would make references to her injuries and
Speaker 2: later to the medals that she'd won. Eventually, she showed
Speaker 2: up to VFW meetings with purple heart license plates, and
Speaker 2: she seemed remarkably resilient.
Speaker 6: I liked her story that she was a survivor and
Speaker 6: that she served as a beacon of hope for other
Speaker 6: veterans who could have been in that same place.
Speaker 2: When folks actually talked to Sarah, she was relatable, even
Speaker 2: to the other veterans, the old school guys.
Speaker 6: She could talk to these other veterans and the other
Speaker 6: veterans were like, Okay, yeah, I'm going to put aside
Speaker 6: all these other aspects that I may not agree with
Speaker 6: about her sexual preference, but I'm going to recognize that
Speaker 6: she served.
Speaker 1: A few months after she joined the VFW, Sarah got
Speaker 1: engaged to a woman named Nicole. Nicole was originally from
Speaker 1: New Mexico. She was very sporty, an avid hiker, played softball,
Speaker 1: love the beach. The two of them seemed like a
Speaker 1: great match, and of course Sarah's veteran buddy's rally to celebrate.
Speaker 6: I think she asked me to organize the bachelorette party.
Speaker 6: To be honest with you, sometimes I can be a
Speaker 6: little gregarious, so it goes with the yeah, it goes
Speaker 6: with a handle all mustache. So what we did was
Speaker 6: we first met at a German American club up in Batucket,
Speaker 6: had a couple of beers there.
Speaker 1: Dave invited a bunch of VFW members, including an old
Speaker 1: Vietnam Vet. They all enjoyed a few bruskies together.
Speaker 6: And then we went down to Providence. We got a
Speaker 6: hotel suite, we did some shots, and then we all
Speaker 6: put TWU two's on just because you attitude two on.
Speaker 2: Yes I did, because you're just sort of you're a
Speaker 2: big dude.
Speaker 6: Yes I am.
Speaker 1: And for the record, these were rainbow colored two twos.
Speaker 1: Once they were all two tuned up, it was picture time.
Speaker 6: So outside of the hotel, we all posed like army men,
Speaker 6: you know, like one person's on their knees and one
Speaker 6: person's like pointing and everything else. So we all posed
Speaker 6: like army green men. Then we went to a holl
Speaker 6: oft the Moon type bar where the dueling pianos and
Speaker 6: we were all singing songs. And then we all went
Speaker 6: uh to a gay bar.
Speaker 1: And there it was a modern day VFW celebrating in
Speaker 1: two twos. It was the sort of VFW that Dave
Speaker 1: had envisioned and it seemed that Sarah had played a
Speaker 1: key role in making it happen. And the real proof
Speaker 1: of this, the crowning proof, was that a few years later,
Speaker 1: when Dave stepped down as commander of the post, it
Speaker 1: was Sarah who took over. She became the next commander,
Speaker 1: and then she really was the poster child of Post
Speaker 1: one p. Fifty two.
Speaker 2: Inside the VFW, there was an understanding that the awards
Speaker 2: Sarah had won, the sacrifices she'd made, were fundamentally about service,
Speaker 2: about doing her job, about having the backs of her
Speaker 2: fellow marines. But in the civilian world, her acts of
Speaker 2: valor made her something of a hero for people who'd
Speaker 2: never seen a battlefield. Heroes were the stuff of Hollywood movies,
Speaker 2: people you praised and admired. They certainly weren't people whose
Speaker 2: credentials you questioned, And in the absence of that kind
Speaker 2: of scrutiny, Sarah could truly be that storybook hero, perfect
Speaker 2: blend of valor, tragedy and triumph. That's who Sarah was.
Speaker 2: At her gym place called training for Warriors in Rhode Island.
Speaker 2: We're going to take a deep dive here into the
Speaker 2: world of her gym because if you've been wondering why
Speaker 2: would Sarah do any of this, why would she take
Speaker 2: such risks? What was in it for her? Well, the
Speaker 2: story of her gym offers some very interesting answers. One
Speaker 2: afternoon last fall, I sat down with one of the
Speaker 2: Jim's most passionate members.
Speaker 5: My name is Michelle. I'm from East Greenwich, Rhode Island,
Speaker 5: and I teach fitness classes.
Speaker 2: Do you have a favorite class to teach?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 5: Yeah, the boot camps by far Slam the rope, slam
Speaker 5: the balls, get that aggression out. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Michelle is in her early sixties with spiky blonde hair.
Speaker 2: She reminds me a lot of the moms from where
Speaker 2: I grew up outside of Boston. When you first meet
Speaker 2: her her at it, it is kind of what the
Speaker 2: hell do you want? Then she'll invite you into her
Speaker 2: home and make you a peanut butter ball and you're in.
Speaker 1: Michelle and Sarah met at the gym. Sarah presented herself
Speaker 1: as a veteran, unemployed and struggling with some injuries. There
Speaker 1: were even a few times that Sarah wore these clunky
Speaker 1: hearing aids that looked like they were from the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 1: Because she was partially deaf, or so she claimed to Michelle.
Speaker 1: One day, Sarah was getting ready to start her workout,
Speaker 1: Michelle noticed that Sarah's sneakers were untied.
Speaker 5: And I was like, oh, your your shoes are untied,
Speaker 5: and so she's like, oh, I can't. I'm not able
Speaker 5: to tie them, and uncle, sit down, girl, we're tying
Speaker 5: those bad boys up.
Speaker 1: So Michelle's words, she became the primary shoe tire. On
Speaker 1: many occasions, Michelle got down on her hands and knees
Speaker 1: just tied Sarah's shoes because Sarah didn't have the dexterity
Speaker 1: in her fingers to do it herself.
Speaker 5: I just looked at her and said, just because you
Speaker 5: ask for help doesn't mean you're helpless. Like, ask for
Speaker 5: someone to help you, don't be silly. And that's sort
Speaker 5: of the way I live my life. You just do you.
Speaker 5: If you want help, ask for it. If you don't
Speaker 5: want help, don't ask for it. And if you tell
Speaker 5: me to keep a secret, I'm going to keep a secret.
Speaker 1: Sarah would eventually tell Michelle a great many secrets about
Speaker 1: herself and her tragic past, secrets that would draw Michelle
Speaker 1: deep into Sarah's world.
Speaker 2: Michelle, along with other members of the gym, came to
Speaker 2: believe that Sarah was suffering from PTSD. Some days, out
Speaker 2: of nowhere, she'd drop into the fetal position. Once, when
Speaker 2: someone was taking pictures, Sarah was triggered. She told Michelle,
Speaker 2: you see a camera, I see a gun. Michelle stepped
Speaker 2: in and asked the person taking the pictures to move.
Speaker 2: This kind of thing. It became a habit for Michelle.
Speaker 5: Would kind of quietly make sure that when she was
Speaker 5: in our environment at the gym, she was protected.
Speaker 2: Sarah had other triggers too. Any surprises or loud noises
Speaker 2: could make her jump literally, which is a real symptom
Speaker 2: of PTSD for vets and for Sarah. Kids were also
Speaker 2: a problem. Yeah. Kids. She told Michelle that she avoided
Speaker 2: them and there was a reason.
Speaker 5: She had told me that she had shot and killed
Speaker 5: a twelve year old boy that was the enemy, and
Speaker 5: she felt she had a lot of guilt related to
Speaker 5: that and a lot of trauma related to that, where
Speaker 5: she would wake up picturing herself shooting that young man
Speaker 5: and just reliving that episode over and over again.
Speaker 2: At this point in the interview with Michelle, my jaw
Speaker 2: was on the floor, because of course this isn't true.
Speaker 2: It's another fictional story Sarah told. But of all the
Speaker 2: lies I'd heard Sarah tell, that one stands out. If
Speaker 2: Sarah was going to make something up about killing someone
Speaker 2: in combat, why say it was a child. It just
Speaker 2: seems so bizarre, the kind of thing that would actually
Speaker 2: put people off from her. But maybe it's because it's
Speaker 2: the kind of story that really does not invite questions.
Speaker 2: Michelle grew attached to Sarah, and their friendship really deepened
Speaker 2: as they started spending time together outside of the gym.
Speaker 2: They'd go for weekly walks in the woods and meet
Speaker 2: for crapes. In those moments, Sarah opened up even more
Speaker 2: about her past. She said she'd been hit by an
Speaker 2: IED blast in Iraq, that she developed a traumatic brain
Speaker 2: injury and damaged her lungs. All of this came out
Speaker 2: piece by peace, one walk at a time, and despite
Speaker 2: all she was facing, Sarah remained resilient, upbeat. Even her
Speaker 2: nickname at the gym was actually Sunshine.
Speaker 5: She was very likable, she was very charismatic, and then
Speaker 5: on top of it, she was a veteran and badass
Speaker 5: and had these injuries and she was coming back from them.
Speaker 2: But a few years into Sarah and Michelle's friendship, Sarah's
Speaker 2: health took a decisive turn for the worse. During their
Speaker 2: walks in the woods, she couldn't catch her breath. Sometimes
Speaker 2: she needs stop altogether. And one day Sarah tells Michelle why.
Speaker 5: She's like, well, I found out why I'm short of breath.
Speaker 5: I have terminal cancer. I have burn pit cancer, lung cancer.
Speaker 5: So now I'm thinking, shoot, she has no depth perception,
Speaker 5: she's deaf in one ear, she has tactile efficiencies, she
Speaker 5: has steel plates in her shoulders, she's got a rod
Speaker 5: in her leg, she's got PTSD, and now she's got
Speaker 5: burn pit cancer. I'm like, how much more can one
Speaker 5: person handle in their life?
Speaker 2: The gym rallied to help Sarah. They raised thousands of dollars.
Speaker 2: They cooked her meals and peanut butter balls. One couple
Speaker 2: even got her brand new hearing aids. Whatever Sarah said
Speaker 2: she needed, the gym community tried to give it to her.
Speaker 1: And all of this was more than just a pet
Speaker 1: charity was a moment that seemed to clarify what this
Speaker 1: community was all about. It wasn't just someplace where you
Speaker 1: did burpies and crunches. It was a place where people
Speaker 1: showed up each day with and for one another, a
Speaker 1: place where when someone was struggling a hero, someone who'd
Speaker 1: served and suffered and still mustered a little bit of sunshine,
Speaker 1: then damn it, you did something about it. Rallied not
Speaker 1: just because it was the right thing to do, but
Speaker 1: because it was an affirmation of who this community was.
Speaker 1: It almost seemed like Sarah, with her needs, provided something
Speaker 1: that the gym itself needed to.
Speaker 2: The gym buddies showered Sarah with many gifts, and perhaps
Speaker 2: the greatest of these was a wedding. Here's how it
Speaker 2: went down. Sarah told people at the gym that she
Speaker 2: was engaged to Nicole, and their main problem was that
Speaker 2: they couldn't find a wedding venue. But there was this
Speaker 2: couple from the gym, Kate and Mark Feudy. They're in
Speaker 2: their mid fifties. Both had worked at Duncan Donuts headquarters
Speaker 2: where they met and fell in love. That's a New
Speaker 2: Englander's dream, if you ask me. They often took Sarah
Speaker 2: out for dinner, let her use their pool as part
Speaker 2: of her physical therapy. It became really close, almost like
Speaker 2: a set of surrogate parents, Kate and Mark, also have
Speaker 2: a place up in Vermont. Kay told us that one
Speaker 2: day Sarah just kind of dropped the hint, told them.
Speaker 7: Well, we want to get married. We just we can't
Speaker 7: afford it, but we really want. And she almost like
Speaker 7: it's almost like she knew that we had. We said, well,
Speaker 7: you know, if you're willing to go to the Northeast Kingdom,
Speaker 7: we could see what we could do. You know, if
Speaker 7: you wanted to have a wedding, a backyard wedding, you know,
Speaker 7: a small backyard wedding, we have a place up there.
Speaker 2: They're underselling it, but gorgeous farmhouse originally built in eighteen
Speaker 2: fifty one, kind of classic Vermont charm.
Speaker 7: I said to them, like, we have so much like
Speaker 7: farmhouse decor. I go, you should just don't waste money
Speaker 7: on anything for the wedding, just use stuff from around
Speaker 7: the house, you know.
Speaker 2: So problem solved, right, Sarah and Nicole now had a
Speaker 2: picture perfect venue for free. But for Sarah, there was
Speaker 2: actually potential for disaster still lurking. In an act of
Speaker 2: true boldness, Sarah had created a guest list that included
Speaker 2: both people who believed her to be a war hero,
Speaker 2: and people who knew damn well that she wasn't one.
Speaker 2: You had her buddies from the gym in the VFW,
Speaker 2: and then you had people like her own parents who
Speaker 2: knew she'd never served a day in her life. And
Speaker 2: if people started mingling and chatting, as wedding guests tend
Speaker 2: to do, Sarah's lie would quickly be outed. Sarah's saving grace,
Speaker 2: her insurance policy, if you will, hinged on yet another lie,
Speaker 2: which she'd set in motion months before.
Speaker 1: It all started. One night when Sarah arrived unannounced at
Speaker 1: Kate and house.
Speaker 7: She showed up in a panic at our house, you know,
Speaker 7: knocked on the door. I let her in. I was like,
Speaker 7: what's up, Oh my gosh, what are you doing? You
Speaker 7: know I needed to just stop by because I just
Speaker 7: bought my paperwork in the mail. Do you guys want
Speaker 7: to read it?
Speaker 1: The paperwork, which she hands to them, looks like an
Speaker 1: official military document, with Sarah's account of a sexual assault
Speaker 1: that Sarah claimed happened while she was in the military.
Speaker 1: According to Sarah, the military had covered up the whole
Speaker 1: thing and punished Sarah for it. Now she had the
Speaker 1: paperwork detailing the whole ordeal, and it was clear that
Speaker 1: Sarah wanted them to read it right then and there.
Speaker 1: Kate didn't know what to say.
Speaker 7: I said, I go, oh, Sarah, I'm like, that's really private,
Speaker 7: you know, I'm not I don't know. And she goes, well,
Speaker 7: you know, I can't talk to my mom about any
Speaker 7: of this stuff because she can't handle it. She just
Speaker 7: can't handle any of this stuff. Kate, and I know
Speaker 7: you guys can handle it.
Speaker 1: Mark and Kate thought it was odd that Sarah was
Speaker 1: sharing this paperwork with them. They hadn't asked for corroboration,
Speaker 1: but they felt Sarah's need to have someone be with
Speaker 1: her in this moment. So Kate sits with Sarah on
Speaker 1: the couch as Mark reads the report.
Speaker 8: Here's Mark, I couldn't believe what I was reading. What
Speaker 8: this guy did to her and how he beat her
Speaker 8: to the point where she was passed out, crushed her face,
Speaker 8: her cheekbones. I mean, it was it was horrific. And
Speaker 8: did I believe it? Of course I believed. I was
Speaker 8: reading it, and she's sharing this with me, so of
Speaker 8: course I believed it. You know, it was just it
Speaker 8: was very emotional to know that this this woman who's
Speaker 8: sitting right here has gone through this horrific event in
Speaker 8: her life. I could cry thinking about it right now.
Speaker 1: As the wedding date approached, Sarah pulled Mark and Kate
Speaker 1: aside and asked them for a favor.
Speaker 7: Would you guys mind not mention anything about the military
Speaker 7: at all to my parents? She was very specific, I
Speaker 7: don't want to.
Speaker 8: Ruin my day.
Speaker 1: Mark and Kate they understood why Sarah had made this request.
Speaker 1: They both remembered so vividly that night when Sarah showed
Speaker 1: up at their door, when she showed them the paperwork
Speaker 1: with all the details about the sexual assault and how
Speaker 1: she was sharing it with them because her own family
Speaker 1: couldn't deal with it. According to Sarah, that whole incident
Speaker 1: was still extremely traumatic for her parents, so much so
Speaker 1: that any mention of the military at all would upset them.
Speaker 1: Sarah explained, they don't like to.
Speaker 7: Talk about it, and if you don't mind, please don't
Speaker 7: mention anything.
Speaker 1: Sarah quietly made a similar request to others as well.
Speaker 1: She will decide Dave, her buddy from the VFW, the
Speaker 1: guy with the handlebar mustache. She mentioned that her father
Speaker 1: was a former general, and then she warned.
Speaker 6: Whatever you do. Don't talk to my dad about my
Speaker 6: service because it's the source object and I want to
Speaker 6: have the wedding. Nice didn't go well. I don't want
Speaker 6: any drama.
Speaker 2: They have their wedding. Mark and Kate played the role
Speaker 2: of wedding coordinators. Basically, Mark actually cut down a birch
Speaker 2: tree so we could build a pergola for Sarah and
Speaker 2: Nicole to get married under. They set up the benches
Speaker 2: in the backyard and draped tool over the pergola as
Speaker 2: an altar. The wedding colors were blue and gold, the
Speaker 2: Marine Corps colors. The veterans might appreciate this understated touch,
Speaker 2: but it wouldn't tip off anyone else. And there were
Speaker 2: sunflowers Sarah's favorite, in maple syrup buckets along the aisles.
Speaker 2: And sure, people talked and chatted and joked and laughed
Speaker 2: like they do at weddings when things start to get rowdy.
Speaker 2: But somehow Sarah's world stayed separate, or just separate enough
Speaker 2: that her lies hell. And if this seems hard to believe,
Speaker 2: it is this moment, this wedding was something that Jake
Speaker 2: and I were both obsessed with. How was it that
Speaker 2: no one's drunk uncle asked Sarah about her time in
Speaker 2: Iraq that no cousins started chatting too much to the
Speaker 2: VFW guys and figured out sarah charade. But none of
Speaker 2: this happened. It was a pretty perfect summer wedding. Sarah
Speaker 2: emerged from it unscathed. She lived those two lives for
Speaker 2: another three and a half years until January of twenty
Speaker 2: twenty two. That's when Charity started getting suspicious of Sarah's
Speaker 2: claims and reached out to the authorities to investigate. Rumors
Speaker 2: started circulating that Sarah was an impostor. Word quickly got
Speaker 2: back to Dave that the commander of his VFW post
Speaker 2: might be a fraud, and right away Dave picks up
Speaker 2: the phone.
Speaker 6: I contacted Sarah and I said, hey, what's going on,
Speaker 6: Like I'm hearing this, and she says, yes, some people
Speaker 6: are coming after me. And then she started crying and
Speaker 6: she's like, whatever you do, don't believe them that they're
Speaker 6: trying to mar or you know, disparage me or do whatever.
Speaker 6: I'm like, well, okay, is there anything you need, Like
Speaker 6: can we help out?
Speaker 2: And she says no, just.
Speaker 6: Don't worry about it. I'm dealing with it.
Speaker 2: But the rumors kept going online. There was chatter people
Speaker 2: speculating questioning Sarah's credentials started to snowball.
Speaker 1: As all of this was unfolding. Initially, wasn't too worried because.
Speaker 6: I have the proof that says she's a service member.
Speaker 1: And that proof was the DD two fourteen, Sarah's discharge
Speaker 1: papers from the military, the document that Sarah first presented
Speaker 1: to Dave at the parade six years earlier when she
Speaker 1: first joined his VFW post. And now after hearing these
Speaker 1: rumors in this story from Sarah, Dave is like.
Speaker 6: Hmm, I don't know what's going on, So I'm going
Speaker 6: to get this proof. And then so I call up
Speaker 6: the person a records keeper, and I say, hey, I
Speaker 6: need a copy of her DD form two fourteen. He said, ooh,
Speaker 6: she just left my house two hours ago. She came
Speaker 6: here to the house to come get it.
Speaker 1: What's your reaction When he says that to you.
Speaker 6: That's when I start thinking something's not right here.
Speaker 1: Definitely not right. And Dave's proof had just vanished because
Speaker 1: apparently Sarah was one step ahead of him.
Speaker 9: Next time on deep Cover, I've always been told I'm
Speaker 9: a really good listener, right and I maximized that while
Speaker 9: I was lying right, people when you create space, people
Speaker 9: fill that space.
Speaker 1: Deep Cover The Truth About Sarah was produced by Amy
Speaker 1: Gaines McQuaid and Tally Emlin, Additional production support by Sonya Gerwit.
Speaker 2: Our show is edited by Karen Chakerjee. Our executive producer
Speaker 2: is Jacob Smith, mastering by Jake Gorsky.
Speaker 1: Original scoring in our theme were composed by Luis Gara.
Speaker 1: Our show art was designed by Sean Carney, fact checking
Speaker 1: by Anica Robbins.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to Sarah Nis, Izzy Carter, Daphne Chen, Jake
Speaker 2: Flanagan and Greta Cone. Additional thanks to Vicki Merrick, I'm
Speaker 2: Jess McHugh.
Speaker 1: And I'm Jake Halpern. My co host, Jess McHugh is
Speaker 1: currently researching a book on female con artists.