Jake Halpern (Host)
Appearances
Deep Cover
Episode 4: The Suspect
So my name is Kate Mannion, and I am a co-host of a podcast at Barstool Sports called Zero Blog 30. Barstool Sports, where I work, we're a media company. And I say this with love, we're probably the lowest brow media company. If you're coming to us for your exact factoids and opinions on stuff, you might be wrong.
Deep Cover
Episode 4: The Suspect
I'm like, oh, a Yale email address. My mind was blown. I was like, what could this possibly be about for me? It's got to be something to do with like butts or something. Because that's more the beat I cover.
Deep Cover
Episode 4: The Suspect
I was a senior in college with a 1.8 GPA. Going into winter break... Just didn't show up for any of my finals. The school was like, you're done. You got to get out of here. And I was like, oh, crap. My parents are going to be pissed. And I needed a plan B. I was like a recruiter's dream. I walked into the recruiting office and I knew I wanted the hardest branch.
Deep Cover
Episode 4: The Suspect
I was like, I need the biggest kick in the ass ever. Walked into the Marine Corps. I was like, one ticket to Marine Corps, please.
Deep Cover
Episode 4: The Suspect
Basically, we go over what's happening in the military, spill the tea a little bit about some gossip, and try to support each other.
Deep Cover
Episode 4: The Suspect
I am scrolling through the Hunter 7 social media, and I see them post about this Marine veteran, Sarah Kavanaugh.
Deep Cover
Episode 4: The Suspect
They were sharing her story of her diagnosis. And I remember like sobbing as I read her story. I was so blown away by it. It was like eight pages long on their Instagram story. And she gave them details like there was a five centimeter long nodule. It's in her femur, her ribs, her scapula, thoracic spine. And now there's lesions on her brain.
Deep Cover
Episode 4: The Suspect
I was like, oh my God, this cancer is related directly to her time in service, to so many things that myself and my friends were exposed to things like this. And so I guess you see yourself mirrored in somebody and you see them going through a nightmare scenario and you're like, holy shit, that could be me. How can I help?
Deep Cover
Episode 4: The Suspect
When she reached out to me, it was like, I have some crazy news for you.
Deep Cover
Episode 4: The Suspect
I remember the heartbreak I felt and I just like my heart dropped into my butt. It was like I couldn't, to put it eloquently, I like could not believe it. And I didn't want it to be true.
Deep Cover
Episode 4: The Suspect
The feeling was so gross. Like I didn't donate a ton of money, but I donated, it was like a hundred bucks. But I like my emotions, my time, like posting all this stuff. I was like, I was genuinely moved by her story.
Deep Cover
Episode 4: The Suspect
Holy shit, this story is, yeah. I'm sure more is going to come out about it. I'm interested to see. But anyway, NCIS, FBI, the VA, like all these different organizations now are coming after her.
Deep Cover
Episode 3: The Confidante
Previously on Deep Cover. She explained to me that, um, 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.
Deep Cover
Episode 3: The Confidante
I call up a records keeper and I say, hey, I need a copy of her DD form 214. He said, oh, she just left my house two hours ago. She came here to the house to come get it. That's when I start thinking something's not right here.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
Michelle and Sarah met at the gym. Sarah presented herself as a veteran, unemployed and struggling with some injuries. 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.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
One day, when Sarah was getting ready to start her workout, Michelle noticed that Sarah's sneakers were untied.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
So in Michelle's words, she became the primary shoe tier. 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.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
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.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
Long before Sarah ever traveled out to Montana, long before she met Dex or Tom or Natalie, she had a life in Rhode Island. That's where she grew up, where she went to high school, where she had made a home for herself. 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.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
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. It was a place where people showed up each day with and for one another.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
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. Not just because it was the right thing to do, but because it was an affirmation of who this community was. It almost seemed like Sarah, with her needs, provided something that the gym itself needed too.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
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.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
It all started one night when Sarah arrived unannounced at Kate and Mark's house.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
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. According to Sarah, the military had covered up the whole thing and punished Sarah for it. Now she had the paperwork detailing the whole ordeal, and it was clear that Sarah wanted them to read it right then and there.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
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. So Kate sits with Sarah on the couch as Mark reads the report. Here's Mark.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
As the wedding date approached, Sarah pulled Mark and Kate aside and asked them for a favor.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
Mark and Kate, they understood why Sarah had made this request. 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.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
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.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
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. She mentioned that her father was a former general.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
As all of this was unfolding, initially, Dave wasn't too worried because... I have the proof that says she's a service member. 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. And now, after hearing these rumors and this story from Sarah, Dave is like...
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
And Dave's proof had just vanished because apparently Sarah was one step ahead of him. Next time on Deep Cover.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
Deep Cover, The Truth About Sarah was produced by Amy Gaines McQuaid and Tali Emlin. Additional production support by Sonia Gerwit.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
Original scoring and our theme were composed by Luis Guerra. Our show art was designed by Sean Carney. Fact-checking by Annika Robbins.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
And I'm Jake Halpern. My co-host, Jess McHugh, is currently researching a book on female con artists.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
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. 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. She stood alongside the governor and made a speech about patriotism and sacrifice.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
Sarah told the assembled crowd, no one earns a Purple Heart alone. I earned mine amongst 11 other Marines. She added, I have long been one of those veterans, the ones who wish to fly under the radar, who merely did what was asked.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
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. But Sarah, she navigated well in small spaces. And as the walls closed in, they just keep getting smaller. I'm Jake Halpern.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
And this is Deep Cover Season 6, The Truth About Sarah. Episode 2, The Poster Child. 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. And as far as we can tell, all of this really started back in 2016 with this guy.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
Hey, it's Jake. Before we get into this episode, I wanted to let you know that you can hear more ad-free episodes from this season of Deep Cover before the release to the public by signing up for Pushkin+. You'll also get bonus episodes, full audiobooks, and binges from your favorite Pushkin hosts and authors.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
That's Dave Ainsley. 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, so when he finally got out, he returned home to Rhode Island and...
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
And that look worked for him, came like his calling card, as he put it. 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.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
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. And they do this by jumping in and helping veterans right away when they need it most.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
They were gathering in a parking lot when Sarah shows up to join them. It's all pretty informal, except for one bit of paperwork.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
A DD-214. It's actually a very important document in this story. You may recall us talking about it in the last episode. 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.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
Find Pushkin Plus on the Deep Cover show page on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin.fm slash plus. All right, let's get into it.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
So right there on the spot in the parking lot with Sarah standing there, Dave calls for a vote.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
And like that, Sarah was marching in the annual Veterans Day parade. 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. Veterans are walking down West Main Street together, waving.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
The Boy Scouts are there, too, marching past the package store and the antique dealer and the quilting shop. It's classic America. And right there, in the middle of it all, was Sarah Kavanaugh, the newest member of Post 152.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
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. The two of them seemed like a great match. And of course, Sarah's veteran buddies rallied to celebrate.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
Dave invited a bunch of VFW members, including an old Vietnam vet. They all enjoyed a few brewskis together.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
And for the record, these were rainbow-colored tutus. Once they were all tutued up, it was picture time.
Deep Cover
Episode 2: The Poster Child
And there it was. A modern day VFW celebrating in tutus. It was the sort of VFW that Dave had envisioned, and it seemed that Sarah had played a key role in making it happen. And the real proof of this, the crowning proof, was that a few years later, when Dave stepped down as commander of the post, it was Sarah who took over. She became the next commander.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
You have a distinct style when posing questions that really makes one think about the messages between the lines. Jess and I have spoken twice and emailed several times to talk about my actions and the consequences of It is important to me that you know, I know and knew several months before my arrest that what I was doing was wrong.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
Remember Natalie, the third musketeer from the Montana retreat, the clarinetist? Yeah, well, Natalie also stayed in touch with Sarah. In fact, right around the time that Dex was visiting the cemetery in Arlington, Natalie and Sarah were actually hanging out in person. A bunch of vets, including a few from the Montana retreat, gathered at a CrossFit gym in California to have a little competition.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
I could not have imagined the laws I was breaking, but know now that I was always guilty. What is your opinion about my crime? I ask this because no matter who we are, we bring biases and I'd like to know what you are bringing to the conversation. Also, I have not always thought about others before myself and will always be deliberately sensitive to other people for the rest of my life.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
Yeah, pretty insane. This was like an ultra marathon for weightlifters. They broke down into teams of two. Now, at this point, Natalie didn't know about Sarah's cancer. And this is because Sarah had never told her. She just confided this to Dex, which, as we've come to learn, is kind of how Sarah operated. She shared details about her life one-on-one in these small, private moments.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
And so the secrets remain compartmentalized. Natalie was aware that Sarah had some issue with her leg, but that was about all. Then, in the middle of the competition, during one of the breaks, they're all kind of just sitting around resting, Natalie, her teammate, Sarah, her teammate.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
And the proof was, Sarah's team then goes on to beat Natalie's team in the competition. And Natalie, she's in awe. The two women went to another retreat together not long after this. And it seemed like Sarah's leg was in bad shape.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
Looking back, Natalie still recalls the intensity of this moment with Sarah. The tenseness of her hamstring, the tremors in her muscles, the pain on Sarah's face. It all seems so real. In the coming weeks, Natalie texted Sarah about the amputation to see if it had been scheduled. And Sarah eventually gave her a date, January 26th. The date sticks in Natalie's mind.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
She keeps thinking about it as it draws closer. And then, the night before the surgery, Natalie can't sleep. She just keeps thinking about Sarah.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
I'm looking forward to meeting you, even if it's virtually. Sincerely, Sarah. This letter that I just read you, it's written on lined paper, the kind I used in grade school. And the penmanship is flawless. When I read it for the first time, I was in my car, outside my classroom at the university where I teach, and I found myself just sitting there, reading and rereading this letter.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
The next day, Natalie shot Sarah another text to see how the surgery went. And Sarah explained they had to call off the amputation.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
That guy she mentions, Tom, that's Tom Schumann. He's the founder of Patrol Base Abate, the nonprofit that organized those retreats up in Montana. Tom also knew Sarah, and now he was texting with an urgent message.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
Tom says that Sarah has been lying about a number of things, and that she may have lied about her military service. Natalie didn't know who or what to believe.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
But it turns out Tom had his reasons. In the weeks leading up to this moment, he'd been digging into Sarah's story and he discovered a few red flags, some things that just didn't add up. More on that after the break.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
"'What is your opinion about my crime?' she asked. Now that was interesting to me. It was almost like, right from the jump, this woman, Sarah Kavanaugh, had flipped the script, like she was interviewing me.' And then there was this line. I'd like to know what you were bringing to the conversation. Funny because we weren't even having a conversation yet.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
Within a few weeks, Tom hears about Sarah's cancer, and he feels like he's got to do something.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
At the time, Tom lived in Rhode Island, where Sarah also lived. So they met up for coffee and talked for hours. He learned how she'd seen combat in Afghanistan, how her convoy was blown up, and how she'd been seriously hurt in the blast. And how, despite it all, she still managed to save some of the guys in her patrol, dragging them to safety, even with her own crushed hip.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
How she'd gotten a bronze star for her bravery. And now she had cancer in her lungs because of the toxic chemicals in that explosion.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
She told Tom that her plan had been to get a PhD in English literature. She'd even been accepted into a program at Johns Hopkins. But then the VA delivered some shattering news. They told her that she couldn't use her GI Bill. Why? Because her life expectancy was shorter than the time it would take to finish the program. It was devastating. All of it.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
But looking back, I understand now that the conversation had already started and she was already sussing me out, tuning in to me. And Sarah, she's really, really good at that. I know that now. Months before I got that letter, I got a call from my friend, Jess McHugh. She's my co-host this season. Jess is a journalist and an author.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
Tom, being a guy of action, was like, maybe I can create a salaried position for you at Patrol Base Sabate. At the time, the organization was run entirely by volunteers. There were no paid positions. But the organization did have donors, some with deep pockets. And Tom thought, maybe one of them would be willing to pay for this.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
Tom even had a particular donor in mind, a woman who lived up in New Hampshire.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
Around this same time, something else very important happens. Remember how Dex, the friend from the Montana retreat, tried to help Sarah with her medical bills? How she contacted a charity called Hunter 7? Well, that charity had also started digging into Sarah's backstory. And what they discovered prompted them to alert both Tom and the FBI.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
But what no one realized, not Tom or Dex or NCIS or even the FBI, was just how deep this deception went. None of them could begin to fathom it. Lies tend to be fragile, temperamental things. Small ones may flourish, but the big ones die, wilting under their own weight. Except in this case, the bigger it grew, the more real it became.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
In fact, you may have noticed in Sarah's letter, she makes a reference to Jess. And that's because Jess is the one who found this story.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
To this day, much of this story is shrouded in mystery. There's no detailed public record of what really happened. What's more, most of the people caught up in all of this haven't spoken publicly or even to each other. So the story itself remains compartmentalized, like rooms in a mansion with no doors between them.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
Jess and I have spent the last year or so finding our way into these rooms and listening. Coming up this season on Deep Cover...
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
Deep cover The Truth About Sarah was produced by Amy Gaines McQuaid and Tali Emlin. Additional production support by Sonia Gerwit.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
Original scoring and our theme were composed by Luis Guerra. Our show art was designed by Sean Carney. Fact-checking by Annika Robbins.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
And I'm Jake Halpern. My co-host, Jess McHugh, is currently researching a book on female con artists.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
There's so much that we've learned since we first started talking to Sarah. So much else that she's told us. And we've spent the last eight months trying to figure out how much of her story is true. And what, if anything, we could trust. Because this story is all about trust. It's about what it means to know someone or think you know someone and what happens when reality itself seems to dissolve.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
Hey, it's Jake. Before we get into this episode, I wanted to let you know that you can hear more ad-free episodes from this season of Deep Cover before the release to the public by signing up for Pushkin+. You'll also get bonus episodes, full audiobooks, and binges from your favorite Pushkin hosts and authors.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
Part of the ethos of this retreat was you didn't brag about the past. You focused on now. And you exercised a lot. The whole point of this retreat was actually strength building. The vets built a platform that became their outdoor gym. They lifted weights here, did squats, deadlifts, power cleans. And apparently, they were also carrying giant slabs of rock up a mountain.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
That woman you can hear saying, push it, that's Sarah Kavanaugh. We found this video of her on YouTube from this same retreat. She's in a sweaty gray tank top, has on these mirrored sunglasses and leather workman's gloves. She has blonde hair and a runner's build, slim and athletic.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
And that soft, inspirational music, that's in there because this is a promotional video for Patrol Base Abate. And in that video, we see Sarah giving an interview with the wild mountains of Montana in the background.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
Find Pushkin Plus on the Deep Cover show page on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin.fm slash plus. All right, let's get into it. Hey, I'm just recording here because I'm in the car outside the English department and I just got this letter. which was sent to me by Sarah Cavanaugh. Okay. October 12th, 2024. Dear Jake, thank you for sending me the articles and book that you've written.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
That's Natalie Markham. She was a clarinetist in the Marine Corps band, a self-described band nerd. At the time of the retreat, Natalie was struggling. She owned a CrossFit gym that had been hit hard during the pandemic, and she was worried that it might go bust. So for her, to be here in Montana, doing something she loved under the open sky with new friends, it was like she could breathe.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
She asks someone to take a picture of her with Dex and Sarah to commemorate the moment.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
In the picture, the three of them are standing against the backdrop of the mountains, all flexing, biceps and triceps bulging. Natalie and Sarah are smiling. Dex is all business, serious as can be. And looking at the photo, I could kind of feel their energy. I'd never guessed they'd just met.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
They look like they could be sisters, joking, competing, giving each other shit, like the Three Musketeers or something. Dex told us that this kind of camaraderie is not a given.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
Dex was especially impressed with Sarah. She was somehow doing all these really intense workouts while also dealing with what seemed like a pretty serious leg injury.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
Because Sarah was so modest, because she didn't boast or advertise about who she was and what she'd done, there was an air of mystery about her. Sarah said she was a cryptolinguist. She'd served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. She came from a military family. Her brother had been a Marine, too. He was killed in combat and buried at Arlington Cemetery.
Deep Cover
Episode 1: The Warrior
As Sarah told it, her hip never healed properly. From the knee down, her leg was basically dying. But that's not all.
Deep Cover
Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
This is a story all about trust and about a woman named Sarah Kavanaugh.
Deep Cover
Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
She was a decorated veteran, a Marine who saved her comrades, a hero.
Deep Cover
Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
Deep Cover, The Truth About Sarah, coming May 12th from Pushkin Industries.
Deep Cover
Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
There were also moments when she said things that seemed a little off or just didn't add up. But no one called her on it. At least, not at first.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
When Nicole got the call, the call, that the FBI was at her house, she hopped in her car and rushed home.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
Also, just so you know, you can hear more ad-free episodes from this season of Deep Cover before they're released to the public by signing up for Pushkin+. You'll also get bonus episodes, full audiobooks, and binges from your favorite Pushkin hosts and authors. Find Pushkin Plus on the Deep Cover show page, on Apple Podcasts, or at pushkin.fm. Okay, let's get into it.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
When they arrive back home, the cop cars are all gone, the neighbors are back in their homes, and their quiet New England street is once again a quiet New England street.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
As they're picking up the mess, Nicole's mind keeps returning to the cancer. Because if there's one thing that she needs to be true, it's that. It's why she took the promotion, worked the extra hours, built up their savings. And it was the cancer that, in a way, helped explain why Sarah had been struggling so much, why she'd been so distant.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
And most of all, it was the cancer that prompted them to postpone their plans to have kids. And so, as they're cleaning up, she asks Sarah again about the cancer. And once more, Sarah insists, yes, it's true. But Nicole, she can't let it go. This question, it plays on her exhausted mind.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
And then she just waited, somehow sensing that maybe under the cover of darkness, the truth might finally emerge.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
Sarah admits she lied a lot growing up, about all kinds of things. At first, some of the lies we heard about seemed to us like they'd fall in the category of just stuff that kids do. She'd tell her parents she was at school when she wasn't. Sometimes she'd lie to other kids. We spoke to her best friend. Her name is Ariel. They met as teenagers, and the two of them remain very close.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
Ariel gave us a window into Sarah's world. Back in high school, Ariel remembers Sarah spinning lies that didn't even really make sense. Like when Sarah would tell people that she was adopted. According to Ariel, Sarah's mom called her out on this, saying, Stop it. You're not adopted. But Sarah would keep on saying it. Ariel always found this strange and never quite understood why Sarah did it.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
Heads up, in this episode, there are references to suicidal ideation and sexual abuse.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
Sarah told us that things happened to her as a child that made her want to live a different life. Be someone else. Lie. Escape.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
Sarah says that there was a man who sexually abused her for years when she was a girl. Her mother attested to this in official documents. Nicole also confirmed to us that this abuse was something that Sarah had shared with her.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
Sarah started taking medications for her anxiety after this, and she says she really evened out. But then her insurance stopped covering her medical provider, so she went off her meds. It was a rough time. She says that she tried to take her own life on multiple occasions. All of this is to say, Sarah told us, she faced some pretty difficult moments in her life from a young age.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
These two things, her wife and her veteran buddies, would become Sarah's pillars, her support. But they were also destined to push against one another and create tension in a way that would ultimately bring everything crashing down.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
What Sarah is describing here are symptoms of PTSD, which she says stemmed from her trauma, the sexual abuse from her past. And she says that veterans seem to understand this kind of trauma innately, almost like it was part of their shared memory and their unspoken language. She told us she felt safe with them, like for once no one was judging her because they understood them.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
Sarah told us she always felt different, but when she was posing as a veteran, she felt like she belonged.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
Around the people that she cared about. And that, right there, was the problem. Because these people, the people she cared about, were the same people that she was deceiving and manipulating and taking money from. Sarah says that what she did stemmed from a deep need and some seriously flawed thinking.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
One detail that's often overlooked in this story, Sarah Kavanaugh was married. She had a wife, a woman named Nicole.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
The odd part about all of this is that Sarah did have this other life, with a pretty home and a caring spouse, a life that seemed pretty good. Even now, when Sarah talks about Nicole, you can hear a tenderness in her voice. She calls her Nikki. And as far as we can tell, Nikki was a lifeline for Sarah. It was Nikki who took Sarah on walks in Lincoln Woods.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
It was Nikki who lay rose petals through their house to show Sarah just how much she cared. It was Nikki who wouldn't let Sarah spend one single night at their new house without the promise of a wedding. Even now, Sarah gets really emotional when she talks about what it meant when Nicole came into her life.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
For Sarah and Nicole, the weight of their marriage and the years of secrets and lies came to a head in February of 2022. After they returned from the hospital and cleaned up the mess from the search, they went to their bedroom. and with the lights out, they lay silently side by side. The room itself had once been their inner sanctum, the cocoon of their intimacy.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
Nicole had always seen this home as the start of something. Years before, she had carefully scattered rose petals and glowing candles, creating a trail that led Sarah towards the future that they had imagined. But now, there was no light, just darkness and quiet, until Nicole finally spoke.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
Our interview with Nicole, it happened in the new place where she lives, a tidy townhouse at the edge of a busy commercial strip. We had to turn off the heat for the interview so our mic wouldn't pick up any extra noise. Point is, it had gotten kind of cold in the room, and dark too. The sun had gone down. And for a moment, we just kind of sat there. And then Nicole said this.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
And we wondered, what went on in that home? What did Nicole know? When did she know it? And did she see a side of Sarah that the rest of the world didn't?
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
For Sarah, the aftermath was something else entirely. She was now in the house alone, with hardly anyone to rely on. She'd been outed. The media was buzzing with stories of her lies. The authorities had seized many of her personal possessions. She had no phone, no wife, no heroic backstory to fall back upon. Whether she realized it or not, there was nothing left to do but wait for the arrest.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
and a much more public reckoning. Next time, on the finale of Deep Cover, The Truth About Sarah.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
The deep cover The Truth About Sarah was produced by Amy Gaines McQuaid and Tali Emlin. Additional production support by Sonia Gerwit.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
Original scoring and our theme were composed by Luis Guerra. Our show art was designed by Sean Carney. Fact-checking by Annika Robbins.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
And I'm Jake Halpern. Hey, it's Jake. And look, I got a little favor to ask. If you like the show, please just take one minute and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Honestly, it really helps new listeners find the show, which in turn helps us continue making these stories for you. Thanks a lot.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
When we met, I did something I don't usually do. I just asked her. Why did you agree to talk to us?
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
Nicole grew up in New Mexico, but moved to New England in her late 20s. She's outdoorsy, just like Sarah, so when the two of them connected online, one of their first dates was a hike. They met at Lincoln Woods, a park with rugged hills, tree-lined trails, and a tranquil pond.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
Nicole says Sarah was just very in tune. Those were her words. Sarah presented herself to Nicole as a native New Englander with a brother and two divorced parents. All true, by the way. She said she worked as a mental health professional. Also true.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
The pictures from that day are radiant. Nicole, in her crisp white dress, looks lovingly at Sarah in her soft ivory gown. In one shot, they wave at the camera playfully. In another, they sway together on the dance floor, arms around each other, with the warmth of summer light casting soft shadows. Sarah and Nicole were now a married couple.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
But, according to Nicole, they continued to live independent lives. They had different hobbies and different friend groups. Nicole was into softball and was in a serious travel league, often away on the weekends. And Sarah was working for veteran organizations and had to travel for that. At least, that's what she told Nicole. And yet, living independent lives seemed to work for them.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
This doesn't seem totally weird to me, by the way. I've been together with my wife for 28 years, and one of the main reasons our marriage still works is that we know how to give each other space. We have our own interests, our own realms. But let's face it, marriages are rarely as tidy as we imagine.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
They're messy by nature, and no one stays perfectly within their own lanes, especially when children enter the picture. And for Sarah and Nicole, it was precisely this issue, children, that forced some very hard choices.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
What Nicole didn't know at the time was that, of course, Sarah was living a double life. When she traveled for veteran events, she was sometimes attending all-expense-paid retreats, posing as a war hero. When she was out with her veteran buddies, she was playing the role of the VFW commander.
Deep Cover
Episode 5: The Wife
And when she went away on her own, sometimes she was actually with Sam, the physical therapist whom she'd become romantically involved with. The whole thing was bound to unravel. And then, one day, it did.
Spotlight: Snitch City
Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
But when Dex gets to the grave, she notices that this Marine, he has a different last name than Sarah's. And when she looks up his obituary, she sees that they're not even the same race. When she sends Sarah a picture of the grave, though, Sarah confirms that, yes, this is him.
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Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
You can hear Dex trying to make sense of this, but she said she didn't ask Sarah too many questions about it.
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Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
So, Dex just didn't say anything. Besides, at this point, Sarah was fighting lung cancer. And from time to time, she'd mention to Dex that her medical bills were piling up. That the VA wasn't covering everything. Dex wanted to help, even from far away. That's when she heard about this charity called Hunter 7. Hunter 7 helps veterans who struggle to pay their medical bills.
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Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
The reality is many veterans face huge gaps in the health care the VA provides. Long wait times, denied claims, and charities like Hunter 7 come in as a stopgap. So Dex tells Sarah she should apply for financial assistance. At first, Sarah seemed reluctant. Maybe she was just underwater with everything she had going on. So Dex offered to step in and submit an application for Sarah.
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Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
She couldn't know this then, but this simple act of kindness would set something in motion. Something that would forever alter the way Dex saw Sarah.
Spotlight: Snitch City
Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
Tom Schumann first met Sarah Kavanaugh in the snowy mountains of Boulder, Colorado, at a patrol base abate retreat.
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Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
This retreat was similar to the one in Montana we told you about. Hang out, workout, talk, connect. That was the goal. That's why Tom founded PB Abate in the first place. He's a Marine. And when he returned from his tours overseas, he watched his comrades struggle. He told us three of his fellow Marines died by suicide over the course of one month. And that is what led him to start PB Abate.
Spotlight: Snitch City
Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
In Colorado, Tom and Sarah started to get to know each other. Sarah told him she was a professor, which appealed to him. Tom himself taught literature at the U.S. Naval Academy. Sarah also told him that she had a kid who just crashed her pickup truck. She seemed down-to-earth and genuine.
Spotlight: Snitch City
Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
On the last day of this retreat, a guy named Brian Shantosh led them on an adventure workout. Shantosh is a former Marine and a leadership guru famed for his wilderness programs. And his workouts have a reputation for pushing people to their limits. So everyone, even Tom, was nervous. They were told to break down into teams of two. Sarah and Tom partnered up.
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Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
They get to it. They start pushing this weighted sled up the mountain and then back down the mountain on this mile-long loop again and again and again. And remember, this is the Rockies in December, so it's freezing, and the wind is whipping them as they trudge through.
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Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
Tom's not a very effusive guy, so this is basically his version of gushing. He didn't know about all of Sarah's health issues, the cancer, and the leg amputation. Sarah had never told him about this, though he would soon find out.
Spotlight: Snitch City
Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
So he wants to get all his ducks in a row. He asks Sarah for a copy of her DD-214. That's the official military discharge paper that all service members receive explaining how and when they left the service. Sarah sends him the paperwork. He says he remembers vividly the moment he received it. He was sitting in his car, in a parking lot, about to get a haircut.
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Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
He starts scanning through the documents on his phone and something catches his eye. The DD-214 says Sarah retired as a corporal, which is weird because she'd made it all the way up to staff sergeant. In fact, he'd seen a picture of her with a staff sergeant insignia. So he calls her up.
Spotlight: Snitch City
Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
Suddenly, Sarah's whole story, with all its drama and all its heroics, is feeling very shaky. Tom knew he needed backup, so he reached out to a friend who had access to personnel records. The friend, he punches in Sarah's DOD number, the military equivalent of a social security number, does some more digging. That friend gets back to Tom with what he's found.
Spotlight: Snitch City
Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
It looks like she'd taken someone else's records and doctored them, inserting her own name and other details. This, by the way, is not a small thing. This isn't forging your mom's name on a sick note. This is a huge deal. Felony level huge. Tom is in a state of shock.
Spotlight: Snitch City
Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
Tom goes home and tells his wife. His wife, she's pissed. She knows how hard Tom has been working for this woman, trying to help her. And now she seems to be a fraud? She's like, not on my watch. So she goes over in person and reports this whole thing to NCIS. That's the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Maybe you've seen the TV show. They're the badass investigators for the U.S.
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Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
Navy and Marine Corps. Anyway, the NCIS folks, they're like, okay, we'll look into this.
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Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
This season is about a betrayal writ large, a deception that played out over the course of more than six years, not just in Montana, but in Colorado and Texas and Tennessee, California and Rhode Island too.
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Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
Our show is edited by Karen Shakerji. Our executive producer is Jacob Smith. Mastering by Jake Gorski.
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Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
Special thanks to Sarah Nix, Izzy Carter, Daphne Chen, Jake Flanagan, and Greta Cohn. Additional thanks to Vicki Merrick. I'm Jess McHugh.
Spotlight: Snitch City
Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
I first heard about Sarah when I read a few articles about her online. Just snippets, really. But what I read about her was so bizarre, so unusual. I had a million questions. So I tracked her down. We started sending emails, talking on the phone, getting to know each other. And right from the start, she felt familiar to me. We have a few things in common, actually.
Spotlight: Snitch City
Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
We're about the same age, both from small towns in New England. But also, I've become a bit of an expert on women like her. I've spent years digging into historical research, reviewing court documents, and immersing myself in the world of women who managed to live multiple lives. I've found so much that I'm now writing a book about it all.
Spotlight: Snitch City
Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
So yeah, Sarah felt familiar to me, but in the most unsettling way. I clearly remember one of the first things I wrote to her after reading those headlines. I told her, I suspect that there is so much more to your story. I had no way of knowing just how true that would turn out to be.
Spotlight: Snitch City
Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
One of the first people we interviewed for this story was Catherine Dexter. She goes by Dex. Dex initially met Sarah Kavanaugh in the mountains of Montana at a retreat for veterans.
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Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
Dex had served in the Marines as military police in Japan and a couple other bases. When she got out, she felt a bit lost.
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Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
The retreat was organized by a nonprofit called Patrol Base Abate, also known as PB Abate. The founder started the organization because he was concerned about the mental health of veterans and their difficulties readjusting to civilian life. And this was kind of the exact crossroads Dex was at. So she applied to go on one of their all-expense-paid trips to Montana.
Spotlight: Snitch City
Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
And that's how she ended up drinking her coffee in Big Sky country with all these other vets and meeting Sarah. What were your first impressions of her at the time?
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Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
Keep moving, keep moving. Thank you.
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Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
person who started these retreats was concerned about all the challenges that vets face as they transition back to civilian life. And he wanted this time in the woods to be healing, transformational even.
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Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
Dex says that on this retreat, there were just a few female vets. It was her, Sarah, and another former Marine named Natalie. The three of them worked out together.
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Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
So just to recap, here's this woman, Sarah, who at the time was just 30 years old, already a decorated war veteran, strong, modest, quietly brave, sprinting down these mountain trails and giving herself these injections to stem the pain. And on top of it all, she also has stage four lung cancer. Dex had to coax it out of her because Sarah's story came out in dribs and drabs.
Spotlight: Snitch City
Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
And it got more tragic incrementally, like a kettle on a stove that heats up slowly until all of a sudden it starts to boil. So the retreat in Montana comes to an end and the three musketeers say goodbye to one another. They stay in touch. And this, by the way, is exactly the goal of this program. Veterans forming real bonds that last long after the campfire goes out.
Spotlight: Snitch City
Introducing Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah
A few months after the Montana retreat, in December of 2021, Dex happened to be in Virginia, visiting Arlington National Cemetery. And suddenly, Dex remembers that Sarah's brother was a Marine who was killed in action. So she sends Sarah a text and says she'd like to lay a wreath at his grave. Within minutes, Sarah texts back with a plot number.