A former Marine and media personality asks questions and publicly challenges Sarah Cavanaugh’s credentials. Behind the scenes, law enforcement is already investigating Sarah; but the surge of media attention forces their hand. Fearing she might destroy evidence, federal agents move quickly to search Sarah’s home. Get early, ad-free access to more episodes of Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah by subscribing to Pushkin+ on Apple Podcasts or Pushkin.fm. Access ad-free episodes, exclusive binges, full audiobooks, and bonus content for all Pushkin shows with Pushkin+.Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkinSubscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.com/plusSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chapter 1: What background information is provided about Sarah Cavanaugh?
Pushkin. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Just a heads up, in this episode, there's a reference to suicidal ideation.
Previously on Deep Cover.
Veterans look out for each other. And I'm not going to sit here and let a fellow, what I thought at the time was a fellow veteran, die from lack of treatment.
I was like, oh my God, you basically stole money. And I said to her, I go, you're going to go to jail, Sarah. And she's like, you think?
Dave told me like, hey, she's fake. She's not a veteran. And I was just in shock and trying to just like wrap my brain around it.
I don't think it's ever going to be easy to think about the people I hurt. And because these are people that even before they knew I hurt them, right, I was hurting them, right, because I was lying to them.
If there was one single person who really put Sarah on the map in a very public way, well, it'd be this woman right here.
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.
Kate is one of the very first people we reached out to when we started reporting this season. I sent her a message using my work email from the university where I teach.
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Chapter 2: How did Kate Mannion get involved in Sarah's story?
Sarah was taken to a local hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. Meanwhile, Donnelly dove into the mountain of evidence. The scope of Sarah Kavanaugh's fraud was beyond what he could have imagined. Over six years, Sarah defrauded ten different veterans' charities. Ten. She also stole federal benefits, accepted donations from GoFundMe,
and exploited five individuals, including Justin, her gym buddy Michelle, Sam, and Sam's mother. All told, she stole over a quarter of a million dollars of cash and services. And that's just the wire fraud total, which doesn't even count the donations she took from friends in cash over the years. All of this while working as a licensed social worker at the VA.
The feds would spend the next few months building their case against Sarah Kavanaugh.
Later that same day, after Sarah's psychiatric evaluation, she was cleared and released. Her wife, Nicole, was waiting for her at the hospital and drove her home. It's easy to forget that Sarah had a wife. This story is so twisted and complicated. But she did. They shared a home and a life together.
And her wife, she thought she knew who Sarah was until that day when the police searched their house. For Nicole, that was the moment of truth. So that night, when they finally returned home, Nicole had questions. And there would be a reckoning. Next time on Deep Cover.
Picked up the phone just to check my messages. And she said, you need to come home. The FBI is here. That's when I knew. It was that fast. I had nothing until I had that.
When you live two separate lives for so long, it feels normal, right? I had to be someone else in front of other people when I was young and when I was a child. And that was normal.
Deep cover The Truth About Sarah was produced by Amy Gaines McQuaid and Tali Emlin. Additional production support by Sonia Gerwit.
Our show is edited by Karen Shakerji. Our executive producer is Jacob Smith. Mastering by Jake Gorski.
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