Episode 2: The Poster Child

Pushkin. 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 Plus. You'll also get bonus episodes, full audio books, and binges from your favorite Pushkin hosts and authors. Find Pushkin Plus on the deep Cover show page on Apple Podcasts, or at pushkin dot fm slash plus. All right, let's get into it.

Previously on deep Cover, I liked her.

I liked her a lot. She worked really hard, and she was really humble.

Sarah says that she's going to have to have her leg amputated, and I was blown away.

She tells me that, like, she just got diagnosed with stage four lung cancer.

Could 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. The DoD ID number for this D two fourteen belongs to a corporal so and so, and it's a guy. Then fifty percent of this document is altered.

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 small estate in the nation. People like to say, in Rhode Island, you can't go anywhere without bumping into someone you know. Now, in such a small place, it seems like it'd be

Sarah passed herself off as a veteran, specifically a former US Marine who'd served in Iraq and Afghanistan, who'd been injured, a decorated war hero. But none of this was true. Was a story she told about herself, the sprawling lie she lived for six whole years. 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 a lot of right. Instead she did this.

Rhode Island is celebrating a national Purple Heart Day, and there will be a heartfelt tribute for the brave women and men who have been awarded this special medal. Here to tell us all about it is a purple Heart veteran Sarah Kavanall. Sarah, if you can tell us a little bit about yourself, and you were awarded a purple Heart.

Yes, so, I served in the Marine Corps for about eleven years. That was given at purple Heart for action to Afghanistan. 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. 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.

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 quap uniform, pressed neat, immaculate metals 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. Sarah told the assembled crowd, no one earns a purple heart alone. I earned mine

So yes, Sarah really did this. 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

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 Colburn and I'm Jess McKay. Thank you, And this is deep Cover Season six, The Truth About Sarah, Episode two, The

So people may forget my name, but though, oh hey, do you know Dave. Dave, oh, the guy with a handlebar mustache? Oh yeah, I know him.

To Dave Ainslie. He's an Army vet served over twenty 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 I was like, I'm gonna 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. 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 one point fifty two.

DFW, 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. Dave was the commander of this post and his ongoing goal was to modern eyes the place. He says, when he first arrived in twenty ten, the vibe was kind of like what you might expect, as he put it, smokey bar,

She explained to me that 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.

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 hold up. Indeed, he understood this kind of thing, so.

We've all been there before. The VA is great organization, but not always perfect. We wanted to help her.

So many of the charities that help veterans in the US 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. And here was Dave trying to do exactly that.

So I said, hey, we're getting ready for the Veterans State Parade. Meet us over there.

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.

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 two fourteen.

A d D two fourteen. It's actually a very important document in the 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.

I looked at it. 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 she seemed very genuine, and it'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.

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

It was a voice vote. Okay, here's this veteran. Here's her proof. She wants to become a member of our post. She needs help. Here's her story. Can we give her the eight hundred and whatever dollars it was that she needed all in favorsay? II eyes have it. Okay, hey, we're in the parade. You want to march with us? Sure?

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. The boy Scouts are there too, marching past the package store and the antique dealer and

As far as was concerned, the day was a win. Win got to help ve need and he also got a new member, a fresh face, and a woman too.

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

She was the post A child because she was pretty blonde. Um, she was openly a lesbian, and again that is an aspect of people who have served that doesn't get represented. Well you know what I mean. So she was the post A child for lack of a better term.

Not to mention, she was also a wounded combat veteran. 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. Eventually, she showed up to VFW meetings with purple heart license plates, and she seemed remarkably resilient.

I liked her story 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.

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

She could talk to these other veterans, and the other veterans were like, 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.

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, love the beach. The two of them seemed like a great match, and of course Sarah's veteran buddy's rally to celebrate.

I think she asked me to organize the bachelorette party. To be honest with you, sometimes I can be a little gregarious, so it goes with the Yeah, it goes with a hand of all mustache. So what we did was we first met at a German American club up in Batucket, had a couple of beers there.

Dave invited a bunch of VFW members, including an old Vietnam Vet. They all enjoyed a few bruskies together.

And then we went down to Providence. We got a hotel suite, we did some shots, and then we all put TWU two's on just because you attitude too, Yes I did, because you're just sort of you're a big dude. Yes I am.

And for the record, these were rainbow colored two twos. Once they were all two tuned up, it was picture time.

So outside of the hotel, we all posed like army men, 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. And then we went to a hall at the Moon type bar where the dueling pianos and we were all singing songs. And then we all went uh to a gay bar.

And there it was a modern day VFW celebrating in two two's. 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 host, it was Sarah who took over. She became the next commander, and then she really was the poster child of post one p.

Fifty two.

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. But in the civilian world, her acts of valor made her something of a hero for people who'd never seen a battlefield. Heroes were the stuff of Hollywood movies,

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

Do you have a favorite class to teach? Oh?

Yeah, the boot camps by far Slam the rope, slam the balls, get that aggression out.

Yeah.

Michelle is in her early sixties with spiky blonde hair. She reminds me a lot of the moms from where I grew up outside of Boston. When you first meet her, her attitude is kind of, what the hell do you want? Then she'll invite you into her home and make you a peanut butter ball and you're in.

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 nineteen eighties because she was partially deaf, or so she claimed to Michelle. One day, Sarah was getting ready to start her workout, Michelle noticed that Sarah's sneakers were untied.

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 gole sit down, girl, we're tying those bad boys up.

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

I just looked at her and said, just because you ask for help doesn't mean you're helpless. Like, ask for someone to help you, don't be silly.

And that's sort of.

The 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.

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, Michelle, along with other members of the gym, came to believe that Sarah was suffering from PTSD. 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. Michelle stepped in and asked the person taking the pictures to move. This kind of thing. It became a habit for Michelle.

We would kind of quietly make sure that when she was in our environment at the gym, she was protected.

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. Yeah. Kids. She told Michelle that she avoided them and there was a reason.

She had told me that she had shot and killed a twelve year old boy that was the 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 and just reliving that episode over and over again.

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. 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. 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.

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.

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. Sometimes she needs stop altogether. And one day Sarah tells Michelle why.

She's like, well, I found out why I'm short of breath. I have terminal cancer. I have burn pit cancer, lung cancer. So now I'm thinking, shoot, she has no depth perception, she's deaf in one ear, she has tactile defficiencies, 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 handle in their life?

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

And all of this was more than just a pet charity. Was a moment that seemed to clarify what this community was all about. It wasn't just someplace where you did burpies and crunches. It was a place where people showed up each day with and for one another, a place where when someone was struggling, a hero, someone who'd served and suffered and still mustard a little bit of sunshine,

The gym buddies showered Sarah with many gifts, and perhaps the greatest of these was a wedding. Here's how it went down. 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 Feudy. They're in their mid fifties. Both had worked at Duncan Donuts headquarters where they met and fell in love. That's a New

We want to get married. We just we can't afford it, but we really want. And she almost like it's almost like she knew that we have. We said, well, you know, if you're willing to go to the Northeast Kingdom, we could see what we could do. You know, if you wanted to have a wedding, a backyard wedding, you know, a small backyard wedding. We have a place up there.

They're underselling it, but orgeous farmhouse originally built in eighteen fifty one, kind of classic Vermont charm.

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

So problems. Sarah Nicole now had a picture perfect venue for free, But for Sarah there was actually a potential for disaster still lurking. 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. You had her buddies from the gym, from the VFW, and then you had people like her own parents who knew she'd

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

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

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. Kate didn't know what to say.

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

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, 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 it was horrific.

And did I believe it? Of course I believed.

I was reading it, and she's sharing this with me, so of course I believed it. 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 it right now.

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

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 really ruin my day.

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. 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. Sarah explained, they.

Don't like to talk about it, and if you don't mind, please don't mention anything.

Sarah quietly made a similar request to others as well. She will decide Dave, her buddy from the VFW, the guy with the handlebar mustache. She mentioned that her father was a former general, and then she warned.

Whatever you do, don't talk to my dad about my service because it's the source object. And I want to have the wedding night. I sudn't go well. I don't want any drama.

They have their wedding. Mark and Kate played the role of wedding coordinators. Basically, Mark actually cut down a birch tree so we could build a pergola for Sarah and Nicole to get married under. They set up the benches in the backyard and draped tool over the pergola as an altar. The wedding colors were blue and gold, the Marine Corps colors. The veterans might appreciate this understated touch,

I contacted Sarah and I said, hey, what's going on, Like I'm hearing this and she says, yes, some people are coming after me. And then she started crying and she's like, whatever you do, don't believe them that they're trying to mar or you know, disparage me or do whatever. I'm like, well, okay, is there anything you need, Like can we help out? And she says, no, just don't worry about it. I'm dealing with it.

But the rumors kept going online. There was chatter people speculating questioning Sarah's credentials started to snowball.

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 two fourteen, 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 in this story from Sarah, Dave is like.

Hmmm, 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 two fourteen. He said, ooh, 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 you.

That's when I start thinking something's not right here.

Definitely not right. And Dave's proof had just vanished because apparently Sarah was one step ahead of him. Next time on deep Cover.

I've always been told I'm a really good listener, right, and I maximized that while I was lying right people, when you create space, people fill that space.

Deep Cover The Truth About Sarah was produced by Amy Gaines McQuaid and Tally Emlin, Additional production support by Sonya Gerwit.

Our show is edited by Karen Chakerjee. Our executive producer is Jacob Smith, mastering by Jake Gorsky.

Original scoring in our theme were composed by Luis Gara. Our show art was designed by Sean Carney. Fact checking by Anica Robbins.

Special thanks to Sarah Nis, Izzy Carter, Daphne Chen, Jake Flanagan, and Greta Cone. Additional thanks to Vicki Merrick, I'm Jess.

McHugh and I'm Jake Halpern. My co host, Jess McHugh is currently researching a book on female con artists.