From Deep Cover: The Poster Child

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Speaker 2 Previously, on deep cover.

Speaker 3 I liked her. I liked her a lot.

Speaker 7 She worked really hard and she was really humble.

Speaker 2 Sarah says

Speaker 1 that she's going to have to have her leg amputated.

Speaker 2 And I was blown away.

Speaker 2 She tells me that, like,

Speaker 2 she just got diagnosed with stage four lung cancer.

Speaker 3 Can you help me understand? Why it says that you're a corporal here? And she's like, I was sexually assaulted on ship by the commanding officer.

Speaker 3 The DOD ID number

Speaker 3 for this DD-214 belongs to a

Speaker 3 corporal so-and-so,

Speaker 3 and it's a guy. Then, 50% of this document is altered.

Speaker 3 Long before Sarah ever traveled out to Montana, long before she met Dex or Tom or Natalie, she had a life in Rhode Island.

Speaker 3 That's where she grew up, where she went to high school, where she had made a home for herself.

Speaker 3 Rhode Island is tiny. It's the smallest state in the nation.
People like to say in Rhode Island, you can't go anywhere without bumping into someone you know.

Speaker 3 Now, in such a small place, it seems like it'd be hard for anyone to keep secrets. But that didn't seem to stop Sarah Kavanaugh.

Speaker 2 Sarah passed herself off as a veteran. Specifically, a former U.S.
Marine who'd served in Iraq and Afghanistan, who'd been injured. A decorated war hero.

Speaker 2 But none of this was true.

Speaker 2 was a story she told about herself, a sprawling lie she lived for six whole years.

Speaker 2 You might think that to pull this off, she played safe, avoid attention, like not advertise the lie because that'd be a great way to get caught. Seems logical, right?

Speaker 2 Instead, she did this.

Speaker 9 Rhode Island is celebrating National Purple Heart Day, and there will be a heartfelt tribute for the brave women and men who have been awarded this special medal.

Speaker 9 Here to tell us all about it is a Purple Heart veteran, Sarah Kavanaugh. Sarah, if you can tell us a little bit about yourself and you were awarded a Purple Heart.

Speaker 10 Yes, so I served in the Marine Corps for about 11 years. I was given a Purple Heart for actions in Afghanistan.

Speaker 2 This is Sarah giving an interview on the local news. She's speaking about the state's new Purple Heart Trail, a network of roads dedicated to veterans who were injured or killed in service.

Speaker 10 Yeah, it really is an honor to be a part of this. Being able to recognize it and be the voice for other Purple Heart veterans who may not be comfortable is really an honor.

Speaker 3 Just a few days after this interview aired, Sarah attended a dedication ceremony for the new Purple Heart Trail. I've seen a photo of this event.

Speaker 3 Sarah wore a Marine Corps uniform, pressed, neat, immaculate, medals gleaming, a sharp white cap framed her face, her eyes kind of hidden under the visor.

Speaker 3 She stood alongside the governor and made a speech about patriotism and sacrifice. Sarah told the assembled crowd, No one earns a purple heart alone.
I earned mine amongst 11 other Marines.

Speaker 3 She added, I have long been one of those veterans, the ones who wished to fly under the radar, who merely did what was asked.

Speaker 2 So, yes, Sarah really did this.

Speaker 2 She stood next to the governor and talked about the meaning of the Purple Heart. A purple heart, by the way, that she bought online.
Part of me wonders, if you're Sarah, why agree to do this?

Speaker 2 Because Sarah grew up in Rhode Island and still had family there, classmates from high school, people who knew full well that she was no war hero.

Speaker 2 And if any of them had seen her making this speech or watched her on the local news, they could have started asking questions. And Sarah's lies could have unraveled so easily.

Speaker 3 But Sarah's lies survived. Thrived, in fact, even as she took risks, reckless risks, risks that seemed destined to backfire, especially within the tiny context of Rhode Island.

Speaker 3 But Sarah, she navigated well in small spaces. And as the walls closed in, they just keep getting smaller.

Speaker 3 I'm Jake,

Speaker 2 and I'm Jess McHugh,

Speaker 3 and this is Deep Cover Season 6:

Speaker 3 The Truth About Sarah.

Speaker 3 Episode 2

Speaker 3 The Poster Child

Speaker 3 Sarah's lies didn't just happen overnight, but slowly over the course of many years. She gradually won people over, won their trust, won their admiration.

Speaker 3 And far as we can tell, all of this really started back in 2016 with this guy.

Speaker 3 So people may forget my name, but they'll, oh,

Speaker 3 hey, do you know Dave?

Speaker 3 Dave?

Speaker 4 Oh, the guy with the handlebar mustache.

Speaker 3 Oh, yeah, I know him.

Speaker 3 That's Dave Ainslie. He's an Army vet, served over 20 years, including time in Iraq, where he earned a purple heart and a bronze star.
In the Army, Dave always had to keep a close shave.

Speaker 3 So when he finally got out, he returned home to Rhode Island and

Speaker 3 I was like, I'm going to try this facial hair thing. So I had everything from mutton chops to a goatee to, well, let's try a handlebar mustache.
And that look worked for him.

Speaker 3 Came like his calling card, as he put it.

Speaker 3 So that if you lived anywhere near his town in Rhode Island, you knew that Dave, the guy with the handlebar mustache, he was the dude in charge of the local VFW Post-152.

Speaker 2 VFW, by the way, stands for Veterans of Foreign Wars. It's kind of like a club for veterans where they can kick back, swap stories, and support each other.

Speaker 2 Dave was the commander of this post, and his ongoing goal was to modernize the place. He says when he first arrived in 2010, the vibe was kind of like what you might expect.

Speaker 2 As he put it, smoky bar, bunch of old guys.

Speaker 2 Dave loved those old guys, but he also wanted to open up the doors, create an environment where any and all veterans would feel welcome, especially the younger generation.

Speaker 2 So he upped their game on social media. He focused on doing community service and he set the tone with his welcoming personality.

Speaker 2 Then in 2016, he meets Sarah Kavanaugh and apparently she was struggling.

Speaker 3 She explained to me that

Speaker 3 she just got out of the Marine Corps and she needed help with some car payments because she was waiting for VA disability to kick in.

Speaker 2 In other words, Sarah said there'd been some kind of delay, that she was supposed to be getting financial support from the VA, the Department of Veterans Affairs, but there was a holdup.

Speaker 2 And Dave, he understood this kind of thing.

Speaker 3 So we've all been there before.

Speaker 3 The VA is a great organization, but not always perfect.

Speaker 3 We wanted to help her.

Speaker 3 So many of the charities that help veterans in the U.S. operate just like this.
They try to compensate for all the government's inefficiencies and shortcomings.

Speaker 3 And they do this by jumping in and helping veterans right away when they need it most.

Speaker 3 And here was Dave trying to do exactly that. So I said, hey, we're getting ready for the Veterans Day Parade.
Meet us over there. They were gathering in a parking lot when Sarah shows up to join them.

Speaker 3 It's all pretty informal, except for one bit of paperwork.

Speaker 3 I said, I need to verify that you're a veteran, so she showed me what every service member gets when they leave the service, a DD Form 214.

Speaker 3 A DD214.

Speaker 3 It's actually a very important document in this story. You may recall us talking about it in the last episode.

Speaker 3 It's the official military discharge paper explaining how and when someone left the service. And it's what proves that Sarah is apparently a veteran.
I looked at it.

Speaker 3 I said, Yep, okay, you're a veteran. Thank you very much.
And I was actually excited to have her because here is a younger veteran, and

Speaker 3 she seemed very genuine. And she's like, okay, I'm going to, you know, be a part of this organization.
I'm going to be a part of this now.

Speaker 3 So, right there on the spot, in the parking lot, with Sarah standing there, Dave calls for a vote.

Speaker 3 It was a voice vote. Like, hey, here's this veteran.
Here's her proof.

Speaker 3 She wants to become a member of our post. She needs help.
Here's her story. Can we give her the $800, whatever dollars it was that she needed?

Speaker 3 All in favor say aye. Aye.
Ayes have it. Okay.
Hey, we're in the parade. You want to march with us? Sure.

Speaker 3 And like that, Sarah was marching in the annual Veterans Day parade.

Speaker 3 I've seen a video of this parade from a different year, but the mood is timeless. People are waving flags, the members of a local high school band are playing their drums and trombones.

Speaker 3 Veterans are walking down West Main Street together, waving. The Boy Scouts are there too, marching, past the package store and the antique dealer and the quilting shop.

Speaker 3 It's classic America. And right there, in the middle of it all, was Sarah Kavanaugh, the newest member of Post-152.

Speaker 2 As far as Dave was concerned, the day was a win-win. He got to help a vet in need, and he also got a new member, a fresh face, and a woman, too.

Speaker 3 I was excited to have a female veteran be part of our organization because

Speaker 2 that helps open us, our organization up to another demographic and it wasn't just that sarah was a woman she had a great energy about her she seemed to embody the new younger vfw that dave wanted to build

Speaker 3 she was the post a child because she was pretty blonde

Speaker 3 um

Speaker 3 She was openly a lesbian.

Speaker 3 And again,

Speaker 3 that is an aspect

Speaker 3 of people who have served that doesn't get represented well. You know what I mean? So she was the poster 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 public manner. She would make references to her injuries and later to the medals that she'd won.

Speaker 2 Eventually, she showed up to VFW meetings with Purple Heart license plates.

Speaker 2 And she seemed remarkably resilient.

Speaker 3 I liked her story,

Speaker 3 that she was a survivor, and that she served as a beacon of hope for other veterans who could have been in that same place.

Speaker 2 When folks actually talked to Sarah, she was relatable, even to the other veterans. the old school guys.

Speaker 3 She could talk to these other veterans and the other veterans were like, oh, okay, yeah, I'm going to put aside all these other aspects that I may not agree with about her sexual preference, but I'm going to recognize that she served.

Speaker 3 A few months after she joined the VFW, Sarah got engaged to a woman named Nicole. Nicole was originally from New Mexico.
She was very sporty, an avid hiker, played softball. loved the beach.

Speaker 3 The two of them seemed like a great match. And of course, Sarah's veteran buddies rallied to celebrate.

Speaker 3 I think she asked me to organize the bachelorette party, to be honest with you. Sometimes I can be a little gregarious.
So

Speaker 3 it goes with the handlebars. Yeah, it goes with the handlebar mustache.
So what we did was we

Speaker 3 first met at a German-American club up in Pawtucket, had a couple beers there. Dave invited a bunch of VFW members, including an old Vietnam vet.
They all enjoyed a few brewskis together.

Speaker 3 And then we went down to Providence. We got a hotel suite.
We did some shots. And then

Speaker 3 we all put tutus on. So just because you had a tutu on.
Yes, I did. Because you're just so that you're a big dude.
Yes, I am.

Speaker 3 And for the record, these were rainbow-colored tutus.

Speaker 3 Once they were all tutued up, it was picture time.

Speaker 3 So outside of the hotel, we all posed like army men. You you know, like one person's on their knees and one person's like pointing and everything else.
So we all posed like army green men.

Speaker 3 Then we went to a Howl of the Moon type bar where dueling pianos and we were all singing songs. And then we all went to a gay bar.

Speaker 3 And there it was.

Speaker 3 A modern day VFW celebrating in tutus.

Speaker 3 It was the sort of VFW that Dave had envisioned, and it seemed that Sarah had played a key role in making it happen.

Speaker 3 And the real proof of this, the crowning proof, was that a few years later, when Dave stepped down as commander of the post,

Speaker 3 it was Sarah who took over. She became the next commander.

Speaker 3 And then she really was the poster child of Post 152.

Speaker 4 In today's super competitive business environment, the edge goes to those who push harder, move faster, and level up every tool in their arsenal. T-Mobile knows all about that.

Speaker 4 They're now the best network, according to the experts at OOCLA Speed Test, and they're using that network to launch Supermobile, the first and only business plan to combine intelligent performance, built-in security, and seamless satellite coverage.

Speaker 4 With Supermobile, your performance, security, and coverage are supercharged. With a network that adapts in real time, your business stays operating at peak capacity even in times of high demand.

Speaker 4 With built-in security on the first nationwide 5G advanced network, you keep private data private for you, your team, your clients.

Speaker 4 And with seamless coverage from the world's largest satellite-to-mobile constellation, your whole team can text and stay updated even when they're off the grid. That's your business, supercharged.

Speaker 4 Learn more at supermobile.com. Seamless coverage with compatible devices in most outdoor areas in the U.S.
where you can see the sky.

Speaker 4 Best business plan based on a combination of advanced network performance, coverage layers, and security features. Best network based on analysis by OOCLA of Speed Test Intelligence Data 1H 2025.

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Speaker 7 Or maybe just stay aboard and indulge in a spa day, dining from Michelin-starred chefs and kayaking directly from the exclusive marina platform.

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Speaker 11 This is Sophie Cunningham from Show Me Something.

Speaker 12 Do you know the symptoms of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea or OSA in adults with obesity?

Speaker 8 They may be happening to you without you knowing.

Speaker 12 If anyone has ever said you snored loudly or if you spend your days fighting off excessive tiredness, irritability, and concentration issues, it may be due to OSA.

Speaker 8 OSA is a serious condition where your airway partially or completely collapses during sleep, which may cause breathing interruptions and oxygen deprivation.

Speaker 15 Learn more at don'tsleeponosa.com.

Speaker 8 This information is provided by Lilly, a medicine company.

Speaker 6 So, you're telling me that the AI that's meant to make everyone's job easier to manage just adds more to manage on top of the thousands of apps the IT department already manages.

Speaker 6 Funny how that works.

Speaker 6 Any business can add AI. IBM helps you scale and manage AI to change how you do business.
Let's create Smarter Business, IBM.

Speaker 2 Inside the VFW, there was an understanding that the awards Sarah had won, the sacrifices she'd made, were fundamentally about service, about doing her job, about having the backs of her fellow Marines.

Speaker 2 But in the civilian world, her acts of valor made her something of a hero.

Speaker 2 For people who'd never seen a battlefield, heroes were the stuff of Hollywood movies, people you praised and admired. They certainly weren't people whose credentials you questioned.

Speaker 2 And in the absence of that kind of scrutiny, Sarah could truly be that storybook hero. The perfect blend of valor, tragedy, and triumph.

Speaker 2 And that's who Sarah was

Speaker 2 at her gym, a place called Training for Warriors in Rhode Island. We're going to take a deep dive here into the world of her gym.
Because if you've been wondering, why would Sarah do any of this?

Speaker 2 Why would she take such risks? What was in it for her?

Speaker 2 Well, the story of her gym offers some very interesting answers.

Speaker 2 One afternoon last fall, I sat down with one of the gym's most passionate members.

Speaker 17 My name is Michelle. I'm from East Greenwich, Rhode Island, and I teach fitness classes.

Speaker 2 Do you have a favorite class to teach?

Speaker 17 Oh yeah, the boot camps.

Speaker 7 By far. Slam the rope, slam the balls, get that aggression out.

Speaker 17 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Michelle is in her early 60s with spiky blonde hair. She reminds me a lot of the moms from where I grew up outside of Boston.

Speaker 2 When you first meet her, her attitude is kind of, what the hell do you want? Then she'll invite you into her her home and make you a peanut butter ball, and you're in.

Speaker 3 Michelle and Sarah met at the gym. Sarah presented herself as a veteran, unemployed and struggling with some injuries.

Speaker 3 There were even a few times that Sarah wore these clunky hearing aids that looked like they were from the 1980s because she was partially deaf, or so she claimed to Michelle.

Speaker 3 One day, and Sarah was getting ready to start her workout, Michelle noticed that Sarah's sneakers were untied.

Speaker 17 And I was like, oh, your shoes are untied. And so she's like, oh, I can't, I'm not able to tie them.
And I'm like, well, sit down, girl. We're tying those bad boys up.

Speaker 3 So in Michelle's words, she became the primary shoe tire.

Speaker 3 On many occasions, Michelle got down on her hands and knees, just tied Sarah's shoes because Sarah didn't have the dexterity in her fingers to do it herself.

Speaker 17 I just looked at her and said, well, just because you ask for help doesn't mean you're helpless. Like ask for someone to help you.

Speaker 17 Don't be silly. And that's sort of my

Speaker 17 way I live my life. You just do you.
If you want help, ask for it. If you don't want help, don't ask for it.
And if you tell me to keep a secret, I'm going to keep a secret.

Speaker 3 Sarah would eventually tell Michelle a great many secrets about herself and her tragic past. Secrets that would draw Michelle deep into Sarah's world.

Speaker 2 Michelle, along with other members of the gym, came to believe that Sarah was suffering from PTSD.

Speaker 2 Some days out of nowhere, she'd drop into the fetal position. Once, when someone was taking pictures, Sarah was triggered.
She told Michelle, you see a camera, I see a gun.

Speaker 2 Michelle stepped in and asked the person taking the pictures to move. This kind of thing, it became a habit for Michelle.

Speaker 3 We would kind of quietly

Speaker 17 make sure that when she was in our environment at the gym, she was protected.

Speaker 2 Sarah had other triggers too. Any surprises or loud noises could make her jump, literally, which is a real symptom of PTSD for vets.
And for Sarah, kids were also a problem.

Speaker 2 Yeah, kids. She told Michelle that she avoided them, and there was a reason.

Speaker 17 She had told me that she had shot and killed a 12-year-old boy that was the

Speaker 17 enemy. And she felt she had a lot of guilt related to that and a lot of trauma related to that, where she would wake up picturing herself shooting that young man

Speaker 17 and just reliving that episode over and over again.

Speaker 2 At this point in the interview with Michelle, my jaw was on the floor. Because of course this isn't true.
It's another fictional story Sarah told.

Speaker 2 But of all the lies I'd heard Sarah tell, that one stands out. If Sarah was going to make something up about killing someone in combat, why say it was a child?

Speaker 2 It just seems so bizarre, the kind of thing that would actually put people off from her. But maybe it's because it's the kind of story that really does not invite questions.

Speaker 2 Michelle grew attached to Sarah, and their friendship really deepened as they started spending time together outside of the gym. They'd go for weekly walks in the woods and meet for crepes.

Speaker 2 In those moments, Sarah opened up even more about her past.

Speaker 2 She said she'd been hit by an IED blast in Iraq, that she'd developed a traumatic brain injury and damaged her lungs. All of this came out piece by piece, one walk at a time.

Speaker 2 And despite all she was facing, Sarah remained resilient, upbeat even.

Speaker 2 Her nickname at the gym was actually Sunshine.

Speaker 17 She was very likable. She was very charismatic.
And then on top of it, she was a veteran and badass 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 health took a decisive turn for the worse. During their walks in the woods, she couldn't catch her breath.

Speaker 2 Sometimes she'd need to stop altogether. And one day, Sarah tells Michelle why.

Speaker 17 She's like, well, I found out why I'm short of breath. I have terminal cancer.

Speaker 17 I have burned pit cancer, lung cancer. So now I'm thinking, shoot, she has no depth perception.
She's deaf in one ear. She...

Speaker 17 has tactile deficiencies. She has steel plates in her shoulders.
She's got a rod in her leg. She's got PTSD.
And now she's got burn pit cancer. I'm like, how much more can one person

Speaker 17 handle in their life?

Speaker 2 The gym rallied to help Sarah. They raised thousands of dollars.
They cooked her meals and peanut butter balls. One couple even got her brand new hearing aids.

Speaker 2 Whatever Sarah said she needed, the gym community tried to give it to her.

Speaker 3 And all of this was more than just a pet charity. It was a moment that seemed to clarify what this community was all about.
It wasn't just some place where you did burpees and crunches.

Speaker 3 It was a place where people showed up each day with and for one another.

Speaker 3 A place where when someone was struggling, a hero, someone who'd served and suffered and still mustered a little bit of sunshine, then damn it, you did something about it. You rallied.

Speaker 3 Not just because it was the right thing to do, but because it was an affirmation of who this community was.

Speaker 3 It almost seemed like Sarah, with her needs, provided something that the gym itself needed too.

Speaker 4 In today's super competitive business environment, the edge goes to those who push harder, move faster, and level up every tool in their arsenal. T-Mobile knows all about that.

Speaker 4 They're now the best network, according to the experts at an OOCLA speed test, and they're using that network to launch Supermobile, the first and only business plan to combine intelligent performance, built-in security, and seamless satellite coverage.

Speaker 4 With Supermobile, your performance, security, and coverage are supercharged. With a network that adapts in real time, your business stays operating at peak capacity even in times of high demand.

Speaker 4 With built-in security on the first nationwide 5G advanced network, you keep private data private for you, your team, your clients.

Speaker 4 And with seamless coverage from the world's largest satellite-to-mobile constellation, your whole team can text and stay updated even when they're off the grid. That's your business, supercharged.

Speaker 4 Learn more at supermobile.com. Seamless coverage with compatible devices in most outdoor areas in the U.S.
where you can see the sky.

Speaker 4 Best business plan based on a combination of advanced network performance, coverage layers, and security features. Best network based on analysis by Ookla of Speed Test Intelligence Data 1H 2025.

Speaker 7 Hi, it's Eva, and I think it's about time you discovered the world's first luxury hospitality brand at sea, the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection.

Speaker 7 Imagine setting sail on an all-inclusive voyage where every moment is entirely yours.

Speaker 7 Explore the Amalfi coasts, the islands of Thailand, or Alaska's glacial fjords and the lagoons of French Polynesia.

Speaker 7 Or maybe just stay aboard and indulge in a spa day, dining from Michelin-starred chefs and kayaking directly from the exclusive marina platform.

Speaker 7 There are so many possibilities and so much time to relax. Every journey, unlike the rest, the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection.
Learn more at RitzCarltonYacht Collection.com.

Speaker 11 This is Sophie Cunningham from Show Me Something.

Speaker 12 Do you know the symptoms of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea or OSA in adults with obesity?

Speaker 8 They may be happening to you without you knowing.

Speaker 12 If anyone has ever said you snored loudly or if you spend your days fighting off excessive tiredness, irritability, and concentration issues, it may be due to OSA.

Speaker 8 OSA is a serious condition where your airway partially or completely collapses during sleep, which may cause breathing interruptions and oxygen deprivation.

Speaker 14 Learn more at

Speaker 15 on osa.com.

Speaker 8 This information is provided by Lilly, a medicine company.

Speaker 6 So let me get this straight. Your company has data here, there, and everywhere.
But your AI can't use the data because it's here, there, and everywhere?

Speaker 6 Seems like something's missing. Every business has unique data.
IBM helps your AI access your data wherever it lives to change how you do business.

Speaker 6 Let's create Smarter Business, IBM.

Speaker 2 The gym buddies showered Sarah with many gifts, and perhaps the greatest of these was a wedding. Here's how it went down.

Speaker 2 Sarah told people at the gym that she was engaged to Nicole, and their main problem was that they couldn't find a wedding venue. But there was this couple from the gym, Kate and Mark Feudie.

Speaker 2 They're in their mid-50s, both had worked at Dunkin' Donuts headquarters, where they met and fell in love. That's a New Englander's dream, if you ask me.

Speaker 2 They often took Sarah out for dinner, let her use their pool as part of her physical therapy. They became really close, almost like a set of surrogate parents.

Speaker 2 Kate and Mark also have a place up in Vermont. Kate told us that one day, Sarah just kind of dropped the hint, told them,

Speaker 18 Well, we want to get get married. We just, we can't afford it, but we really want.

Speaker 7 And she almost like, it's almost like she knew that we had.

Speaker 18 We said, well, you know, if you're willing to go to the Northeast Kingdom, we could see what we could do.

Speaker 18 You know, if you wanted to have a wedding, a backyard wedding, you know, a small backyard wedding, we have a place up there.

Speaker 2 They're underselling it, but it's a gorgeous farmhouse, originally built in 1851, kind of classic Vermont charm.

Speaker 18 I said to them, I'm like, we have so much like farmhouse decor. I go, you should just don't waste money on anything for the wedding.
Just use stuff from around the house, you know?

Speaker 2 So problem solved, right? Sarah and Nicole now had a picture-perfect venue for free.

Speaker 2 But for Sarah, there was actually potential for disaster still lurking.

Speaker 2 In an act of true boldness, Sarah had created a guest list that included both people who believed her to be a war hero and people who knew damn well that she wasn't one.

Speaker 2 You had her buddies from the gym and the VFW,

Speaker 2 and then you had people like her own parents who knew she'd never served a day in her life.

Speaker 2 And if people started mingling and chatting, as wedding guests tend to do, Sarah's lie would quickly be outed.

Speaker 2 Sarah's saving grace, her insurance policy, if you will, hinged on yet another lie, which she'd set in motion months before.

Speaker 3 It all started one night when Sarah arrived unannounced at Kate and Mark's house.

Speaker 18 She showed up in a panic at our house, you know, knocked on the door. I let her in.
I was like, what's up? Oh my gosh, what are you doing?

Speaker 18 You know, I needed to just stop by because I just got my paperwork in the mail. Do you guys want to read it?

Speaker 3 The paperwork, which she hands to them, looks like an official military document with Sarah's account of a sexual assault that Sarah claimed happened while she was in the military.

Speaker 3 According to Sarah, the military had covered up the whole thing and punished Sarah for it.

Speaker 3 Now she had the paperwork detailing the whole ordeal and it was clear that Sarah wanted them to read it right then and there.

Speaker 3 Kate didn't know what to say.

Speaker 18 I said, I go, oh, Sarah, I'm like, that's really private. You know, I'm not, I don't know.
And she goes, well, you know, I can't talk to my mom about any of this stuff because she can't handle it.

Speaker 18 She just can't handle any of this stuff, Kate. And I know you guys can handle it.

Speaker 3 Mark and Kate thought it was odd that Sarah was sharing this paperwork with them. They hadn't asked for corroboration.
But they felt Sarah's need to have someone be with her in this moment.

Speaker 3 So Kate sits with Sarah on the couch as Mark reads the report. Here's Mark.

Speaker 3 I couldn't believe what I was reading. What this guy did to her and how he beat her to the point where she was passed out, crushed her face, her cheekbones.
I mean, it was horrific.

Speaker 3 And did I believe it? Of course I believe I was reading it and she's sharing this with me. So, of course, I believed it.

Speaker 3 You know, it was just, it was very emotional to know that this woman who's sitting right here has gone through this horrific event in her life. I could cry thinking about her right now.

Speaker 3 As the wedding date approached, Sarah pulled Mark and Kate aside and asked them for a favor.

Speaker 18 Would you guys mind not mentioning anything about the military at all to my parents? She was very specific. I don't want it to ruin

Speaker 3 my day.

Speaker 3 Mark and Kate, they understood why Sarah had made this request.

Speaker 3 They both remembered so vividly that night when Sarah showed up at their door, when she showed them the paperwork with all the details about the sexual assault and how she was sharing it with them because her own family couldn't deal with it.

Speaker 3 According to Sarah, that whole incident was still extremely traumatic for her parents, so much so that any mention of the military at all would upset them.

Speaker 18 Sarah explained, They don't like to talk about it, and if you don't mind, please don't mention anything.

Speaker 3 Sarah quietly made a similar request to others as well. She pulled aside Dave, her buddy from the VFW.
the guy with the handlebar mustache.

Speaker 3 She mentioned that her father was a former general, and then she warned,

Speaker 3 Whatever you do, don't talk to my dad about my service because it's a sore subject and I want to have the wedding nice and go well. I don't want any drama.

Speaker 2 The day of their wedding, Mark and Kate played the role of wedding coordinators, basically. Mark actually cut down a birch tree so he could build a pergola for Sarah and Nicole to get married under.

Speaker 2 They set up the benches in the backyard and draped tull over the pergola as an altar. The wedding colors were blue and gold, the Marine Corps colors.

Speaker 2 The veterans might appreciate this understated touch, but it wouldn't tip off anyone else. And there were sunflowers, Sarah's favorite, in maple syrup buckets along the aisles.

Speaker 2 And sure.

Speaker 2 People talked and chatted and joked and laughed, like they do at weddings when things start to get rowdy. But somehow, Sarah's world stayed separate, or just separate enough that her lies held.

Speaker 2 And if this seems hard to believe, it is.

Speaker 2 This moment, this wedding, was something that Jake and I were both obsessed with. How was it that no one's drunk uncle asked Sarah about her time in Iraq?

Speaker 2 That no cousins started chatting too much to the VFW guys and figured out Sarah's charade?

Speaker 2 But none of this happened. It was a pretty perfect summer wedding.
Sarah emerged from it unscathed.

Speaker 2 She lived those two lives for another three and a half years until January of 2022.

Speaker 2 That's when charities started getting suspicious of Sarah's claims and reached out to the authorities to investigate.

Speaker 2 Rumors started circulating that Sarah was an imposter.

Speaker 2 Word quickly got back to Dave that the commander of his VFW post might be a fraud.

Speaker 2 And right away, Dave picks up the phone.

Speaker 3 I contacted Sarah and I said, hey, what's going on? Like, I'm hearing this.

Speaker 3 And she says, yes, some people are coming after me. And then she started crying and she's like,

Speaker 3 whatever you do, don't believe them. They're trying to

Speaker 3 mar or, you know, disparage me or do whatever.

Speaker 3 I'm like, well, okay, is there anything you need? Like, can we help out? And she says, no,

Speaker 3 just

Speaker 3 don't worry about it. I'm dealing with it.

Speaker 2 But the rumors kept going. Online, there was chatter, people speculating, questioning Sarah's credentials.
It started to snowball.

Speaker 3 As all of this was unfolding, initially, Dave wasn't too worried because

Speaker 3 I have the proof that says she's a service member.

Speaker 3 And that proof was the DD-214, Sarah's discharge papers from the military. The document that Sarah first presented to Dave at the parade six years earlier when she first joined his VFW post.

Speaker 3 And now, after hearing these rumors and this story from Sarah, Dave is like,

Speaker 3 Hmm, I don't know what's going on. So I'm going to get this proof.
And then, so I call up the person, a records keeper, and I say, hey, I need a copy of her DD Form 214.

Speaker 3 He says, oh.

Speaker 3 She just left my house two hours ago. She came here to the house to come get it.
What's your reaction when he says that to to you? That's when I start thinking something's not right here.

Speaker 3 Definitely not right. And Dave's proof had just vanished because apparently Sarah was one step ahead of him.

Speaker 3 Next time, on deep cover.

Speaker 1 I've always been told I'm a really good listener, right? And I maximized that while I was lying, right?

Speaker 2 People,

Speaker 17 when you create space, people fill that space.

Speaker 3 Deep Cover The Truth About Sarah was produced by Amy Gaines-McQuaid and Tali Emlin. Additional production support by Sonia Gerwit.

Speaker 2 Our show is edited by Karen Shakurjeed. Our executive producer is Jacob Smith.
Mastering by Jake Gorski.

Speaker 3 Original scoring and our theme were composed by Luis Guerra. Our show art was designed by Sean Carney.
Fact-checking by Annika Robbins.

Speaker 2 Special thanks to Sarah Nix, Izzy Carter, Daphne Chen, Jake Flanagan, and Greta Cohn.

Speaker 2 Additional thanks to Vicki Merrick.

Speaker 2 I'm Jess McHugh.

Speaker 3 And I'm Jake Halpern.

Speaker 11 This is Sophie Cunningham from Show Me Something.

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Speaker 2 Only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line.
But first,

Speaker 2 there, the last one.

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