Aaron | Betrayal Weekly

Summary

Betrayal Weekly – "Aaron" (Season 3, Episode 1)

Podcast: Betrayal Weekly
Host: Andrea Gunning
Release Date: June 4, 2026
Summary by: Podcast Summarizer

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Episode Overview

The season premiere of Betrayal Weekly dives into Aaron Ward's harrowing story of deception, financial manipulation, and the unveiling of a colossal personal betrayal. Aaron recounts his relationship with Sabrina Taylor—a charismatic woman who faked a serious illness, emotionally exploited Aaron and others for years, and left a trail of financial ruin and psychological trauma. This episode examines not only Aaron's personal resilience but also raises important questions about trust, vulnerability, and the hidden nature of financial and emotional abuse.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Aaron’s Background and Ambitions

• Aaron’s Upbringing: Raised in rural Ohio, son of upper middle class, computer-science parents who valued honesty and giving back to the community.

  "My parents were a lot about honesty and a lot about trying to help people that needed it." — Aaron Ward (04:48)

• Early Passion for Gaming: Inspired by Nintendo Power magazine, Aaron set ambitious goals: work on a AAA game, graduate from DigiPen, and become a Jeopardy champion.
• Social Struggles at DigiPen: Experienced the negative effects of male-dominated environments and worked actively to avoid misogyny in his social circles.
• Therapy & Relationship Values: Learned to avoid transactional relationships and to focus on mutual care and support.

2. Meeting Sabrina and Falling in Love

• How They Met: Responding to a quirky Craigslist personals ad in 2007. Sabrina stood out as a nerdy, self-assured black woman from the Midwest.
• First Date: Instant connection at a dog park; shared background, nerdy interests, and chemistry.

  "We had great physical chemistry as well as having a lot of things in common... It felt like it was kind of a meant to be situation." — Aaron Ward (11:19)

• Sabrina’s Charisma: Easily integrated into Aaron’s friend group, drawing people in with her charm.

3. Sabrina’s Illness and the Rise of Red Flags

• Diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis: After moving in together, Sabrina claimed she was diagnosed with MS, echoing trauma from Aaron’s own family (his grandfather’s MS).

  “She started talking about all the things that she might not be able to do. And I tried to comfort her the best I could.” — Aaron Ward (19:34)

• Aaron’s Commitment: Despite the shock, Aaron remained steadfast in his support:

  "I never had the thought of not committing to her... I was in for the long haul." — Aaron Ward (20:50)

• Symptom Escalation: Sabrina’s illness worsened—back pain, cane usage, fainting spells.
• Dependence and Responsibility: Aaron took on increasingly burdensome roles—financial provider, caregiver, responsible for housework and errands.

4. Financial and Emotional Manipulation

• Sabrina’s Job Loss and Spending: Fired after being caught shopping on a sick day. Continued lavish spending on luxury goods, while Aaron scrambled to cover bills, often taking payday loans.
• Medication Costs: Regular issues with insurance, leading Aaron to pay out-of-pocket or borrow money to cover essential meds.
• Aaron’s Sacrifices: Sold prized possessions (video game collection), maxed out credit cards, and skipped meals to keep up with mounting expenses.

  “I basically sold everything I owned.” — Aaron Ward (29:51)

• Sabrina’s Mental Health as Control: Frequently threatened suicide if her material and financial needs weren’t met.

  “There was an occasion where suicide was threatened if I couldn't come up with $500 to buy a custom cosplay outfit for a convention.” — Aaron Ward (29:10)

5. Unraveling the Lie

• Experimental Treatment: Sabrina pushes for expensive new treatment. Aaron, despite exhaustion, tries to verify details—asks for receipts, faces evasion.
• Financial Monitoring: Upon finally accessing her bank account, Aaron discovers Sabrina is spending the supposed treatment money on shopping and digital microtransactions.

  “She’s paying 200 bucks a week on My Little Pony phone game microtransactions.” — Aaron Ward (36:48)

• Confrontation and Wild Excuses: Sabrina delivers a bizarre story about working at a strip club to pay for treatment, which Aaron no longer believes.

6. Breakup and Aftermath

• Ending the Relationship: Aaron finally ends things after a fake suicide attempt is uncovered.

  "An emotionally abusive relationship is like a cult of two people." — Aaron Ward (38:28)

• Isolation and Smear Campaign: Post-breakup, Sabrina spreads false accusations about Aaron within their friend group, further isolating him.
• Regret and Trauma: Aaron copes with isolation, deep psychological scars, and ongoing debt.

  “I was left with significant psychological trauma that I unfortunately didn't take the time to properly process.” — Aaron Ward (47:32)

7. The Exposure and Legal Consequences

• Community Discovery: Years later, Sabrina’s lies unravel as others share similar stories of being scammed.
• FBI Investigation: Aaron is contacted by the FBI; Sabrina is eventually charged and pleads guilty to one count of wire fraud. It’s confirmed she never had MS.

  “They had forged documents... multiple doctors... that she'd never had MS. 100% of it was a lie.” — Aaron Ward (50:49)

• Where the Money Went: Over $600,000 defrauded, spent primarily on luxury travel, online shopping, and self-indulgence.

  “The money was just going to traveling and shopping and not having to work.” — Aaron Ward (52:59)

8. Sentencing and Recovery

• Impact Statement: At sentencing, Aaron’s statement about suicide threats influences the judge to rescind Sabrina’s bail.
• Ongoing Impact: Sabrina is sentenced to 27 months in prison but Aaron and other victims will never recover much of what was lost.

  “There is no way I'll be able to pay my mom back before she dies. I'm one of the lucky ones...” — Aaron Ward (56:22)

9. Closing Reflections and Advice

• Not About Losing Faith in Others: Aaron emphasizes that for every manipulative person, most are genuine and deserving of help.
• Trust Your Instincts and Seek Proof:

  "If you feel like you're being taken advantage of... start asking for proof. That was really what unraveled Sabrina's entire conversation: somebody asked for the receipts." — Aaron Ward (57:19)

• Message to Other Men:

  “These things do happen to men, and you’re not less of a man... If this story helps one person get out... then this was all worth it.” — Aaron Ward (58:21)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Who lies about being this sick?” (34:04)
• “An emotionally abusive relationship is like a cult of two people. The cult leader no longer had control over me. But I also didn’t have the emotional and financial strength to leave.” (38:28)
• "She was trying to live the lifestyle she thought she deserved and didn't care how many people she had to leech off of..." (52:59)
• “She never worked for the Gates foundation. She never graduated from UW, and she never even got close to medical school and has mostly lived her life off the generosity of others.” (52:22)
• “If this story helps one person get out or helps their friend get out of a toxic, abusive relationship, then this was all worth it.” (58:21)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Aaron’s Background & Early Story – 03:00–07:17
• Meeting Sabrina – 08:13–10:55
• The MS Diagnosis – 15:07–20:20
• Financial Manipulation Begins – 22:06–25:33
• Aaron’s Caregiver Role Intensifies – 26:12–28:19
• Manipulation Surrounding Treatments – 31:21–33:19
• The Breaking Point: Monitoring the Account – 35:54–37:21
• Breakup and Emotional Aftermath – 38:28–47:32
• Legal Fallout and FBI Involvement – 50:00–56:22
• Aaron’s Reflections and Advice – 57:05–58:58

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Tone & Style

The episode is delivered in a compassionate, forthright tone, with Aaron narrating his own vulnerability, confusion, and eventual empowerment. Andrea Gunning provides empathetic context and insight, ensuring that listeners understand both the emotional depth and the practical implications of Aaron's journey.

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Conclusion

Aaron's story is a powerful, cautionary tale of deception and resilience. It highlights not only the hidden dangers of unchecked trust, but also the enduring value of self-awareness, seeking evidence, and supporting those who have experienced similar abuse—regardless of gender. The episode ends on a note of hope, with Aaron dedicated to helping others recognize and escape toxic relationships.

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[If you're impacted by similar situations, refer to resources in the show notes or seek support in your local area.]

Transcript

[Andrea Gunning]

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[Andrea Gunning]

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[Malcolm Glebel]

All?

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[Andrea Gunning]

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[Aaron Ward]

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[Andrea Gunning]

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[Aaron Ward]

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[Malcolm Glebel]

Okay, one judgment anyway.

[Aaron Ward]

Give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront payment

[Andrea Gunning]

of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month. Required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full [e-mail] hey everyone, just a note before we begin. This episode discusses suicidal ideation. Please take care when listening. Betrayal Weekly is officially back. This is season three, episode one. Each episode tells a unique story of deception and broken trust. And each storyteller has found their own path forward. Whether you've been with us from the beginning or you're just tuning in, welcome. We are starting this season with Erin's

[Health Coach]

story

[Aaron Ward]

I'm at work just plugging away, and I get an email notification on my smartphone. I look down and it's from the FBI. Re information about Sabrina Taylor.

[Andrea Gunning]

I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Betrayal, a show about the people we trust the most and the deceptions that change everything.

[Aaron Ward]

My name is Aaron Ward. I'm a software engineer working in video games.

[Andrea Gunning]

Aaron spent his whole career working on popular video games.

[Aaron Ward]

I worked on Halo Infinite. I worked on Minecraft. I've worked on a bunch of little projects for Nintendo. One of my minor claims to fame is I had the number one played game on Nick.com in 2008, which was SpongeBob SquarePants, Reef Rumble.

[Andrea Gunning]

Aaron's a third generation computer nerd. He grew up in rural Ohio with his siblings and parents who worked in computer science.

[Aaron Ward]

My parents were what I would call upper middle class, both white collar working professionals.

[Andrea Gunning]

Aaron's parents made enough money for their family to live comfortably. But a lot of people in their community struggle to make ends meet. His parents tried to give back wherever they could.

[Aaron Ward]

My parents always volunteered a lot. They were very generous and they also helped lead a lot of local fundraisers.

[Andrea Gunning]

His parents taught him to be generous with his money and his time.

[Aaron Ward]

My parents were a lot about honesty and a lot about trying to help people that needed it.

[Andrea Gunning]

Aaron spent most of his free time playing video games or reading about them.

[Aaron Ward]

I was a really big Nintendo fan and I had a subscription to Nintendo Power.

[Andrea Gunning]

Nintendo Power was a magazine all about Nintendo games. It had comics, game reviews and articles. Aaron read every issue. And when he was in fifth grade, he read an article that sparked his interest.

[Aaron Ward]

They mentioned the opening of the DigiPen campus.

[Andrea Gunning]

DigiPen is a college near Seattle that specializes in video game design. Even though Erin was only in fifth

[Aaron Ward]

grade, I knew very early on that's really what I wanted to do with my life.

[Andrea Gunning]

Getting into DigiPen became Aaron's life goal.

[Aaron Ward]

One of our freshman year activities when I was in high school was writing three things that you wanted to try to accomplish in your life. My three things were working on a AAA video game title, graduating from DigiPen, and being a Jeopardy. Champion.

[Andrea Gunning]

As of this recording, Aaron is not a Jeopardy. Champion yet, but he's accomplished his other two goals. His senior year in high school, he was accepted into DigiPen. He left the farms and factories of rural Ohio and jumped headfirst into a world of video games. It was exciting and Aaron learned a lot. But DigiPen had one big shortcoming.

[Aaron Ward]

DigiPen has a 95 to 5 male to female ratio. So DigiPen was four years of having almost no female socialization. As someone who had mostly female friends in high school, that was a big change for me.

[Andrea Gunning]

Aaron noticed how being in a male dominated environment was impacting the people around him and he didn't like what he saw.

[Aaron Ward]

I had seen a lot of my peers at DigiPen starting to go down that path of misogyny because they weren't being around women in their day to day lives. So the only women they were exposed to were actresses or people in the media.

[Andrea Gunning]

Aaron didn't want to go down that path, so he read books and worked with his therapist to learn what healthy relationships really looked like.

[Aaron Ward]

One thing I learned is to try to not be transactional in relationships. It's not about I do this for you, you do this thing for me. Relationships need to be about the broader scope of caring for each other and being there for each other when stuff is hard.

[Andrea Gunning]

After graduating from college, Aaron and some friends moved into an apartment together. He was working as a video game programmer and loved the life he'd built. He felt ready to meet someone and decided to give dating in Seattle a try.

[Aaron Ward]

I was not super outgoing. I was not a go out to the bars and meet someone kind of person. And that's when I turned to Internet dating. At the time 2007, the iPhone is barely a thing. There is no Tinder. So what I'm left with option wise are Craigslist personals.

[Andrea Gunning]

Craigslist Personals was a subsection of Craigslist for people who were looking for relationships, romantic connections or friendships. You could post an ad about yourself and what you were looking for.

[Aaron Ward]

I had noticed there was a glut of men looking for women ads, so I mostly focused on responding to the few women that had posted their ads up.

[Andrea Gunning]

One day while scrolling through Craigslist, Aaron saw an ad that caught his attention.

[Aaron Ward]

The headline of it was about how white guys are scared to date black women and it intrigued me enough to at least read it. In the ad she talked about how she was a nerdy black woman who grew up in a largely white Midwestern area and how the white men of the Seattle area had never seemed to approach her or approached her in very poor ways.

[Andrea Gunning]

Aaron responded to the ad, apologizing on behalf of the white nerdy men of Seattle. The author of the post thought his response was funny and wrote him back.

[Aaron Ward]

I found out her name was Sabrina. We exchanged pictures over email and had a couple of emails back and forth before we decided to go out on a date to the local off leash dog park.

[Andrea Gunning]

On the day of their date, Erin headed to the dog park feeling nervous but excited.

[Aaron Ward]

She showed up looking just like her pictures with her pet Dalmatian Satchel who was very sweet. And we ended up taking a nice long hour plus walk where we both went through our lives and the things we have in common. She grew up in Iowa. I grew up in Ohio, so we both grew up in the Midwest.

[Andrea Gunning]

Aaron immediately felt relaxed around Sabrina.

[Aaron Ward]

We also talked about all of our different nerdy video games, anime television shows. We were both big Sailor Moon fans. We had both played basically every Nintendo game that had ever been made. Mario's Zeldas final fantasies.

[Andrea Gunning]

After their first date, Aaron couldn't wait to see Sabrina again. He invited her to hang out with him and his friends at a pub they liked on the east side of Seattle. He was a little nervous would Sabrina click with his friends? But as soon as she showed up, his nerves melted away.

[Aaron Ward]

She got along with basically everybody. She is magnetic and draws a lot of people around her to listen to her talk about whatever she's talking about. She's definitely the kind of person that can make friends very easily in a crowd.

[Andrea Gunning]

Aaron loved hanging out with his friends with Sabrina by his side.

[Aaron Ward]

The fact that she was so charismatic was extremely attractive to me. It really helped fill in some of my gaps of getting conversations started and breaking the ice socially with new people.

[Andrea Gunning]

After that night at the pub, Aaron and Sabrina had their first kiss.

[Aaron Ward]

We had great physical chemistry as well as having a lot of things in common. So that really felt like it was kind of a meant to be situation.

[Andrea Gunning]

They started spending more and more time together. Soon they were officially boyfriend and girlfriend. They had long conversations about their backgrounds and dreams for the future.

[Aaron Ward]

She was an intern for the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and she was finishing up her double bachelor's in public health and women's studies. With her end goal being becoming a doctor. She had big plans for her life going forward. That was something that was attractive to me in a possibly forever partner.

[Andrea Gunning]

With Sabrina, the world felt big.

[Aaron Ward]

We went on a couple of little trips to the coast and being with her just really got me out of my shell and got me out of my apartment with my roommates and out doing things, even if it was just shopping or wandering around Pike Place Market.

[Andrea Gunning]

And of course they loved playing video games together.

[Aaron Ward]

She would have a game that she really liked the story of but wasn't quite dexterous enough to beat. And so she'd get us started and I would do the later, harder levels for her so we could both see the ending of the game.

[Andrea Gunning]

They were on the same team.

[Aaron Ward]

Sabrina really made me feel seen and appreciated in a way that I hadn't been for a while. She always made me feel like I was a priority in her life and I tried to do the same.

[Andrea Gunning]

They began to talk about their long term goals.

[Aaron Ward]

I wanted the stereotypical white picket fence wife, two and a half kids, et cetera. She was looking toward medical school, so kids and getting married and stuff, that was down the road a bit and I was okay with that. At this point. We're still early to mid-20s, so we've got some time.

[Andrea Gunning]

Aaron and his friends moved into a new house together in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood.

[Aaron Ward]

A month after me and my roommates had moved into the house, Sabrina comes to me and says that her apartment is going condo. Obviously she can't afford to buy it and she's not making a lot of money as an intern at the Gates foundation. And she's still trying to finish up that last like month or two of school. She basically doesn't have anywhere to go.

[Andrea Gunning]

So Sabrina moved in with them.

[Aaron Ward]

I was excited to move in with my girlfriend, even if it was on a slightly faster schedule than I was planning on in my head. I was happy to have her with me every day. Waking up with me, going to bed with me, just being around all the time.

[Andrea Gunning]

In true Sabrina fashion, she made the transition easy. She brought a lot of laughter and fun to the house.

[Aaron Ward]

She got along really well with my roommates. She integrated very quickly into the friend group. It was just a lot of fun to have everybody living together. You know, we all played rock band together and we could kind of be loud and crazy because we weren't sharing a wall with anybody.

[Andrea Gunning]

But living in the same house also meant seeing each other's daily struggles up close. Sybrina had been dealing with chronic back pain. Erin saw just how much of a toll it was taking on her.

[Aaron Ward]

It had gotten bad enough that she had to call out of work a couple days for it. So I encouraged her to go to the doctor and, you know, kind of get this checked out.

[Andrea Gunning]

Sabrina agreed. The day of her appointment arrived, and when Erin came home from work, he was anxious to hear how it went.

[Aaron Ward]

I come home and she's seated on the couch looking very defeated. So I sit down and I hold her hand and that's when she tells me her doctor had diagnosed her as having multiple sclerosis. Since he got out.

[Andrea Gunning]

Bad things keep happening.

[Podcast Advertiser]

Cape Fear, a new series is streaming June 5th on Apple TV. Why would I want to hurt you? Starring Academy Award winner Javier Bardem and Academy Award nominee Amy Adams.

[Andrea Gunning]

He is coming after my family.

[Podcast Advertiser]

Cape Fear, streaming June 5th on Apple TV.

[Malcolm Glebel]

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[Stefano Pallard]

Your pronunciation is strongly American. It's more Scuderia Ferrari.

[Malcolm Glebel]

I'm still working on rolling my R's, but what I was able to learn from Stefano was the importance of engaging the Tifosi, the Ferrari super fans. In the digital age.

[Stefano Pallard]

Ferrari fans and super fans want to be part of something, want to belong to something. So they want to be part of a community and ultimately they want to be part of a winning team.

[Malcolm Glebel]

You've got Ferrari, which is a long history, design history, and now you're interacting in a kind of digital space. I'm curious how you balance those two traditions.

[Stefano Pallard]

When it comes to fan engagement, it's really digital technology. And digital channels, are they enabled to create a deeper connection with our fans?

[Malcolm Glebel]

To learn more about how Ferrari and IBM are using technology to build deeper connections with fans, visit IBM.com/ferrari.

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[Andrea Gunning]

When Aaron and his girlfriend Sabrina moved in together, Aaron realized how much her chronic back pain was impacting her day to day life. He encouraged her to go to the doctors and she did. When she came back from her appointment, Erin could tell right away that something was wrong.

[Aaron Ward]

So I sit down and I hold her hand and I asked her what happened that day. And that's when she tells me that her doctor had diagnosed her as having multiple sclerosis.

[Andrea Gunning]

Erin held her close as Sabrina began to cry.

[Aaron Ward]

She started talking about all the things that she might not be able to do. And I tried to comfort her the best I could.

[Andrea Gunning]

Aaron was in shock. His grandfather Harlan had died of multiple sclerosis. So Aaron knew how difficult Ms. Could be.

[Aaron Ward]

I heard the horror stories from my dad about how bad it was for Harlan. I had known a couple of friends that had had an Ms. And had their lives cut pretty short. I had a thumb in the air. Guess of her life expectancy being somewhere in the 50s. Maybe if she was already diagnosed before we had turned 30. I was just devastated.

[Andrea Gunning]

Their shared dreams for the future, a house, kids growing old together, crumbled in front of his eyes.

[Aaron Ward]

I didn't know what to do besides just hold her and tell her. I promised to help her through whatever came up. I was going to do whatever it took.

[Andrea Gunning]

Even though they'd only been dating a year, Erin was committed to staying by her side whatever their future held.

[Aaron Ward]

I never had the thought of not committing to didn't scare me off. I was in for the long haul at this point. I wanted to be there for her. This is the reality now. So let's figure it out. Let's do what we can.

[Andrea Gunning]

Sabrina had an undergraduate degree in public

[Aaron Ward]

health, so I kind of let her take the driver's seat as far as learning about the disease and letting me know what she needed from me to assist.

[Andrea Gunning]

Sybrina's first symptom was back pain. But over time she started experiencing other symptoms as well.

[Aaron Ward]

Generalized soreness and limb pain. And casual exercise from like walking the dog was starting to bother her. So walking the dog became entirely my responsibility.

[Andrea Gunning]

Then standing at all became a challenge.

[Aaron Ward]

So I took over a larger share of the housework and basically all the cooking. It was a little exhausting, quite frankly. It's kind of just lucky I was still in my late 20s and I kind of still had the energy to do all of that. Lot of caffeine, lot of sugar.

[Andrea Gunning]

Aaron did everything he could to make Sybrina as happy as possible during this incredibly challenging time.

[Aaron Ward]

I was paying for a lot of makeup, a lot of clothes. She had very particular tastes. As my dad liked to say, she has champagne taste in a beer pocketbook.

[Andrea Gunning]

Sybrina was working at a nonprofit, but her symptoms quickly began interfering with her job.

[Aaron Ward]

She's been calling out of work a couple times a month at this point. One day she calls me up and says, well, I got fired.

[Andrea Gunning]

Aaron was immediately defensive of Sabrina.

[Aaron Ward]

What the hell happened? They can't just fire you if you're sick.

[Andrea Gunning]

Sabrina explained that she had called out of work because she was having a high pain day. But then she had to run an errand that couldn't wait. And while she was out, she ran into her boss.

[Aaron Ward]

Her boss had seen her out chopping on a day when she was supposedly in so much pain she couldn't get out of bed.

[Andrea Gunning]

Erin was frustrated.

[Aaron Ward]

If you're calling out, you need to stay home.

[Andrea Gunning]

He told her to just let him handle the errand next time.

[Aaron Ward]

After she's fired from her job, she's basically stuck at home. She talks about going back to medical school. I'm very encouraging of this because she needs to have a job for us to function as a unit. I don't make enough money to support us both forever.

[Andrea Gunning]

Sabrina still needed a few more college credits before she could apply to medical school, so she enrolled in community college classes. Erin was now the sole provider for both of them. But Sabrina's spending habits didn't slow down. Aaron was left scrambling to cover the costs.

[Aaron Ward]

I end up getting payday loans and spending a good chunk of every payday going to each payday loan place to pay the loan off and then immediately loan the money again.

[Andrea Gunning]

He watched his credit card bills stack up. Sabrina was still spending money on luxury items like makeup and clothes while they were struggling to make ends meet. It was unsustainable and stressful. Aaron confronted Sabrina about her spending habits a few times.

[Aaron Ward]

It usually broke down into a lot of tears and promising to do better and saying, I should be able to live comfortably.

[Andrea Gunning]

Sabrina's symptoms were progressing, and she wanted to make the most of the years where her quality of life was still relatively good. She wanted to experience the world and fill her days with things that brought her joy. Aaron wanted that, too, but the financial pressure on him was mounting. He was also paying for all of Sabrina's medications.

[Aaron Ward]

After losing her job with a nonprofit, Sabrina struggled to maintain insurance. She Would tell me that, oh, I've got my insurance set up. It's fine. You can go in. It won't cost that much.

[Andrea Gunning]

But when Erin went to the pharmacy and they ran Sabrina's insurance, it often didn't go through.

[Aaron Ward]

So it goes from, you know, 20, 30 bucks to 300, 400 bucks. That was several hundred dollars that I usually didn't have every month. But I have to have the medication today because we're out. Medication is not something you can live without.

[Andrea Gunning]

So Erin did whatever had to be done to make sure Sybrina got her medications on time.

[Aaron Ward]

It often came down to borrowing money from people or paying bills late, or the Internet gets shut off for a few days, having the rent check bounce just to make sure that the medications were filled on the day they needed to be filled.

[Andrea Gunning]

As the months went on, Sabrina's Ms. Symptoms worsened. She began using a cane for walking assistance. It was harder for her to keep her balance, and she began fainting frequently. Her soreness and limb pain became more severe.

[Aaron Ward]

Because of all the pain, she was having a lot of trouble keeping her energy level up. Seeing her struggles with the illness was definitely a major challenge for me. I didn't want to see her in pain. I wanted to try and make her life as easy as possible because I knew that this was going to be a pretty rough ride for her.

[Andrea Gunning]

He offered to support her by coming to doctor's appointments with her. But the scheduling never worked out. In the middle of a very challenging time, there was a bright spot. Aaron got his dream job.

[Aaron Ward]

I got a job as a software engineer at Nintendo. This is my dream company. I got business cards that say Nintendo and my name. It's a huge deal to me.

[Andrea Gunning]

Aaron and Sabrina had moved out of the house with his friends and into an apartment of their own. On top of starting his new job, Aaron was spending hours each day taking care of Sabrina. It was difficult.

[Aaron Ward]

By this point, we're much less romantic partners and much more caregiver and receiver. I did all the dishes. I did all the cooking. We don't really have that romantic relationship anymore. We're always broke. We're not going out on dates.

[Andrea Gunning]

Erin was caring for Sabrina financially and handling their household chores because her Ms. Symptoms made physical labor painful. But Sabrina's quality of life was still good enough for her to spend time with friends and have independence. And so her personal spending never slowed.

[Aaron Ward]

She was going out with friends and often spending money we didn't have. She's buying new clothes all the time, spending 100 plus bucks a month at the Mac counter and Sephora packages from different delivery companies somehow magically getting paid for. And this is on top of all the medications.

[Andrea Gunning]

Erin felt powerless to stop Sabrina's spending. As her Ms. Symptoms worsened, so did her mental health. She began struggling with suicidal ideation.

[Aaron Ward]

At first it was, well, if we can't refill my meds on time and I have to go without a couple days, maybe I should just kill myself so I don't have to experience the pain for that week until a paycheck shows up.

[Andrea Gunning]

It felt like all of Sabrina's safety and stability rested on Aaron. He worked hard to cover all of her medication costs, but his paychecks weren't enough and he was going into debt to afford everything. Then Sybrina began calling Aaron while he was at work. Usually there was something specific that she needed.

[Aaron Ward]

Often it was medication related. But it started to expand beyond that. There was an occasion where suicide was threatened if I couldn't come up with $500 to buy a custom cosplay outfit for a convention.

[Andrea Gunning]

Sabrina's calls began taking up more and more of his workday. She was in such a delicate mental state, he felt like it was unsafe to leave her alone.

[Aaron Ward]

All of this basically just drove me into a level of depression and exhaustion that I became unrecognizable to a lot of friends and family. I was always eating cheap garbage. There were a lot of times where I, you know, skipped lunch at work for a week or more because I didn't have the five bucks I needed to go get lunch.

[Andrea Gunning]

The cost of Sabrina's Ms. Medications was impossible to keep up with. Aaron tried everything.

[Aaron Ward]

I filled up several credit cards trying to cover everything. I basically sold everything I owned. I had a video game collection that in today's dollars probably would be worth 25 to $30,000. And I was selling it for pennies on the dollar because there was something we needed. Now it was always, I need a couple hundred bucks now I need to buy medication tomorrow. I need to make sure the rent check doesn't bounce again.

[Andrea Gunning]

Erin was living in a survival state, always trying to keep up with the most urgent need. Then, after Erin had been racking up medical debt for a year, Sybrina heard about a new treatment from her doctor. It was a glimmer of hope.

[Aaron Ward]

The experimental intravenous treatment for Ms. Came up the first time. The medication was called Interferon.

[Andrea Gunning]

It was the early 2000s, and there weren't as many treatment options available for Ms. As there are today. For the first time in months. Sybrina seemed optimistic. This treatment could be the key to getting their lives back on track. Instead of the weekly and monthly payments, this treatment lasted a few months. Her doctors were hopeful that Interferon could help manage all of her symptoms. Instead of needing multiple prescriptions, it had the possibility to majorly improve her quality of life.

[Aaron Ward]

If I could pay seven or eight hundred dollars every couple months, then we wouldn't need to be buying all these other medications. This experimental treatment would be able to cover everything or at least make a significant difference in her well being, possibly to the point where she might even be able to go back to work. It felt like a godsend, the possibility that we could actually start moving forward as equal partners again instead of just me taking care of her all the time.

[Andrea Gunning]

The way they were living was unsustainable, so Erin was willing to take a risk.

[Aaron Ward]

I decided to move forward with it. I got some help from my parents to help start the initial treatments.

[Andrea Gunning]

He kept offering to attend Sabrina's appointments with her, but it never worked out.

[Aaron Ward]

They were always scheduled in the middle of the morning or in the middle of the afternoon on a work day. If I took time off to try and join her at appointment, oh well, they had to cancel and reschedule.

[Andrea Gunning]

Aaron had put everything he had on the line to help Sybrina access this treatment. It was becoming more and more concerning to him that he'd never spoken to a doctor about it directly. Every medical update he heard came through Sabrina.

[Aaron Ward]

I had been talking to my dad about it and he told me that I should start asking for receipts since I could never make it to an appointment.

[Andrea Gunning]

So Erin asked Sabrina to see a receipt for one of her interferon treatments. And when he did, something strange happened.

[Aaron Ward]

I could kind of see panic on her face for about a half a second.

[Andrea Gunning]

But the panic quickly disappeared and she

[Aaron Ward]

told him, sure, I'll get you one. That became a week or more, and then over a month into, oh, it's time for the next treatment.

[Andrea Gunning]

Aaron knew something wasn't right, but he was starting to lose the will to argue with Sabrina.

[Aaron Ward]

I think at this point, I had just been beaten down emotionally so badly that I kind of just stopped caring. I didn't even have the strength to fight and argue about just basic information at this point.

[Andrea Gunning]

Erin and Sabrina had been together for five years, and it had been four years since she was diagnosed with Ms. Paying for her Ms. Treatments for years had been a huge strain on Aaron. He was racking up debt and his mental health was getting worse. But Erin knew that having Ms. Was a much bigger nightmare. He had watched Sybrina suffer for years, and the idea of doubting any part of her experience made Aaron feel guilty.

[Aaron Ward]

Who lies about being this sick?

[Andrea Gunning]

One day, Sabrina approached Erin and told him that her doctors were recommending she start a new version of Interferon. One that she'd only need every six to nine months. But there was a catch. It cost $8,000 for each treatment. She was planning to ask a mutual friend of theirs for help. Up until now, Erin had been paying for all the Interferon treatments himself.

[Aaron Ward]

Not having to panic about it at this point was such a priority that I agreed to go along with it.

[Andrea Gunning]

Aaron and Sabrina went to their friend's house to ask for his financial support.

[Aaron Ward]

The friend brings up, okay, so you want to borrow $15,000? And I had to hide the shock on my face because suddenly the number had changed. I didn't want to mess it up by confronting Sabrina about it in front of him. So after we leave, I confront her in the car about, what's this extra $7,000 for? And she tells me, well, I want to start school up again. There's a couple thousand bucks for that. I need to replace my computer, and you know, I can only take a top of the line MacBook, so that's another three or $4,000.

[Andrea Gunning]

By this point, Erin did not trust Sybrina to handle money responsibly.

[Aaron Ward]

The first thing I told her was, I know how you are about spending money. If you're gonna do this, go do the medical treatment first. Don't go buy the MacBook, don't pay for school stuff. You go do the medical treatment first. She said, yes, yes, of course, of course I'll do the medical treatment first.

[Andrea Gunning]

But Aaron didn't feel comfortable just taking Sabrina's word for it. He needed to see for himself how she was spending this money.

[Aaron Ward]

Her computer was broken, so she had been doing some of her work on my computer. That meant that she had saved her bank login on my computer. So after she deposited the check, I started watching the balance of the account.

[Andrea Gunning]

Every day he checked to see if she had made the $8,000 payment for interferon.

[Aaron Ward]

And every day I would open the bank account and see a couple hundred bucks get nibbled away. And then big purchase at the Mac store, went to the mall and spent fifteen hundred dollars on clothes and makeup.

[Andrea Gunning]

Aaron watched in horror as the bank account slowly drained. There was still some part of him that expected her to pay for the treatment for a While there was still enough in the account $8,000 to afford it.

[Aaron Ward]

It's getting smaller and smaller. I'm not seeing the big expenditure for the treatment. And then one day, we've passed below the line of what the treatment costs. That was the whole reason we were supposed to borrow this money in the first place. And she's paying 200 bucks a week on My Little Pony phone game microtransactions. It gets below half of what she supposedly needed for this treatment, and then it finally gets below $1,000. And that was the day I kind of snapped.

[Andrea Gunning]

Aaron had woken up before Sabrina to walk the dogs.

[Aaron Ward]

I went in the kitchen. I grabbed a bunch of black garbage bags from under the sink. She was still in bed.

[Andrea Gunning]

He woke her up, handed her the trash bags, and told her to start packing her things.

[Aaron Ward]

At first, she tried to deny that she had spent the money. And that's when I revealed that, no, I had actually been watching her bank account. And that's when the whopper to end all whoppers comes out of her mouth. She tells me that she's been working the day shift at a strip club while I've been at work at Nintendo. She doesn't have a receipt for it, but she did get the treatment, and that's what she spent her stripper money on.

[Andrea Gunning]

Erin wasn't buying it.

[Aaron Ward]

Honestly, I think this was the last time I ever believed a word she said. She managed to get me to not throw her out with crocodile tears, claiming she would get me receipts.

[Andrea Gunning]

Aaron knew he should walk away from the relationship, but the reality was a lot more complicated.

[Aaron Ward]

An emotionally abusive relationship is like a cult of two people. The cult leader no longer had control over me. But I also didn't have the emotional and financial strength to leave.

[Andrea Gunning]

At this point, Sabrina suggested opening their relationship and seeing other people. Erin agreed. In the months that followed, Sabrina was still adamant that she had paid for the interferon treatment.

[Aaron Ward]

I could never get documented proof of it. No receipts, no information from the doctor, no nothing.

[Andrea Gunning]

Aaron was trying to find a way to leave the relationship, but he was worried about what would happen to Sybrina when he left. She had been dependent on him for six years now.

[Aaron Ward]

I still believed that she had ms, but that she just wasn't nearly as bad as what she let on, because I had seen enough visual indicators to convince me that she was at least impaired. Somehow it felt like she was just taking advantage of my family's history with Ms. To try and squeeze as much money out of my family as possible.

[Andrea Gunning]

Since Aaron and Sabrina had opened their relationship. He started seeing someone named Kia. He loved spending time with her. She was like a breath of fresh air. One night while Aaron was out on a date with Kia, he got an alarming text from Sabrina.

[Aaron Ward]

Sabrina had told me that she was in the bathroom, had taken a whole bottle of pills.

[Andrea Gunning]

Sybrina had made a suicide attempt. Aaron began to panic. He knew Sabrina often lied and exaggerated things. But if there was any chance at all that this was true, he had to help her.

[Aaron Ward]

So Kia and I rushed home.

[Andrea Gunning]

We parked outside while Aaron and Kia were still in the car. The front door of the house opened

[Aaron Ward]

and Sabrina walks out with two of her friends to go out to dinner.

[Andrea Gunning]

She didn't see him in the car. She walked right past him. For Aaron, that moment changed everything.

[Aaron Ward]

This was purely a power play to try and keep my attention.

[Andrea Gunning]

Since he got out, bad things keep happening.

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[Andrea Gunning]

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[Malcolm Glebel]

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[Stefano Pallard]

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[Malcolm Glebel]

I'm still working on rolling my R's, but what I was able to learn from Stefano was the importance of engaging the tifosi, the Ferrari superfans in the digital age.

[Stefano Pallard]

Ferrari fans and super fans want to be part of something, want to belong to something. So they want to be part of a community and ultimately they want to be part of a winning team.

[Malcolm Glebel]

You've got Ferrari, which has a long history, design history, and now you're interacting in a kind of digital space. I'm curious how you balance those two traditions.

[Stefano Pallard]

When it comes to fan engagement, it's really digital technology. And digital channels are being able to create a deeper connection with our fans.

[Malcolm Glebel]

To learn more about how Ferrari and IBM are using technology to build deeper connections with fans, visit IBM.com Ferrari,

[Aaron Ward]

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[Andrea Gunning]

Aaron was starting to realize that his girlfriend Sabrina was lying about the severity of her Ms. Symptoms to get financial support from him and his friends. Aaron hadn't found a way to leave the relationship. He was still worried about her physical and mental health. One night, Sybrina texted him that she had attempted suicide and locked herself in the bathroom.

[Aaron Ward]

So Kia and I rushed home, parked outside, and while we're sitting out there, Sybrina walks out with two of her friends to go out to dinner.

[Andrea Gunning]

Erin was scared that Sabrina's life was at risk and she needed immediate medical attention. But here she was dressed up to go out laughing with her friends.

[Aaron Ward]

This was purely a power play to try and keep my attention. After Sabrina came home, I told her that I saw her leaving and she tried to tell me that they were taking her to the hospital. I told her I knew that was bullshit.

[Andrea Gunning]

For the last five years of their relationship, Sabrina had been convincing Erin that she was on the brink of collapse mentally and physically, and that he was the only person who could keep her safe. But now the extent of her deception was becoming clear to Aaron. This wasn't just exaggeration and bad spending habits. This was emotional and financial abuse.

[Aaron Ward]

The following weekend, I invited one of my good friends over to kind of steel my resolve. And I sat Sabrina down on the couch in the living room, and I told her, we are not in a relationship anymore. I'm not paying for everything anymore. I'm done.

[Andrea Gunning]

The next weekend, while Sabrina was out of the house, Aaron's friends helped him move out.

[Aaron Ward]

I rented a new apartment across town where she didn't know where I lived. I think she knew it was coming. She knew she was busted for the fake suicide attempt, and she had just resigned herself to the fact that the spigot that was Aaron is turned off.

[Andrea Gunning]

Sabrina and Aaron still had a lot of mutual friends. After the breakup, Aaron distanced himself from their social group.

[Aaron Ward]

She told a lot of people that I was physically abusive, financially abusive, that I was the one pissing away all of our money.

[Andrea Gunning]

Aaron was isolated from his community and left to deal with the impact of years of financial and emotional abuse.

[Aaron Ward]

I was left with significant psychological trauma that I unfortunately didn't take the time to properly process.

[Andrea Gunning]

A few years passed. Aaron was trying to rebuild a base of stability in his life and pay off the debt he mounted while taking care of Sabrina. One day, Aaron was on Facebook when he saw that one of his old friends had posted a gofundme for Sabrina.

[Aaron Ward]

I clicked on the link and gave it a read. She was in Japan. Someone had cleaned out her accounts while she was in Japan, and she was stuck there with no return ticket and no money. I posted a reply to the gofundme saying that if you're going to start raising money for Sabrina, how about you start raising money to pay all the people back that she took money from and never paid back?

[Andrea Gunning]

The organizer of the GoFundMe criticized him for calling Sabrina's character into question. His concern was shut down in the comments. But other people had started catching on to Sabrina's lies. The friends she was hanging out with in Japan. They collected evidence, then posted their side of the story to Facebook.

[Aaron Ward]

Sabrina posted that she had spent the day at the bullet train station trying to figure out what the best time to jump in front of the train was. In reality, she had spent that day at Disneyland Tokyo spending hundreds or thousands of dollars and at the same time, pleading poverty on facebook.

[Andrea Gunning]

Finally, Sybrina was exposed. The truth was out there. And there was no way for her to talk her way out of it.

[Aaron Ward]

Over the next week, I probably fielded a dozen or more apologies. Sabrina's scam worked great until people actually started talking to each other. And then it all fell apart.

[Andrea Gunning]

Other people began to come forward, sharing their own stories of Sabrina borrowing money and never paying them back.

[Aaron Ward]

It felt gratifying to know that I wasn't the only one. And at the same time, I was wracked with guilt that if I had figured some of this stuff out sooner, maybe a lot of these other people wouldn't have lost all this money.

[Andrea Gunning]

One day, something unexpected happened.

[Aaron Ward]

I'm at work at Nintendo, just plugging away, and I get an email notification on my smartphone. I look down and it's from the FBI. Re information about Sybrina Taylor.

[Andrea Gunning]

The FBI was investigating Sabrina for fraud.

[Aaron Ward]

I gave the agent a call, and we spent about an hour going through all of the different parts of my time with Sabrina, her Ms. Treatments and diagnosis.

[Andrea Gunning]

The FBI kept Erin up to date on Sybrina's case. She was charged with four counts of wire fraud. She appeared in court for the first time in November of 2021. After that, Erin was able to see the case the FBI had built against Sybrina.

[Aaron Ward]

It wasn't until I saw some of the evidence that I was 100% certain that she had never had Ms. They had forged documents using doctor's letterheads. They had statements from multiple doctors that they'd tested her multiple times that she never had Ms. 100% of it was a lie.

[Andrea Gunning]

Erin had been paying for drugs like gabapentin under the impression that they were critical in managing Sybrina's Ms. Symptoms. But gabapentin can be used to treat a variety of more mild conditions. After learning the truth about Sabrina's health, Erin did some research and learned that she was taking around three times over the maximum recommended dose of gabapentin. We don't know what she was using it for, but the drug is often used off label for anxiety. And if misused, it can be addictive. Sybrina Taylor defrauded numerous victims out of over $600,000. She stole this money not from strangers, but from people who trusted her, who were concerned about her diagnosis and who were willing to make compromises in their own lives to help her afford treatment and care. On July 1, 2022, she pled guilty to one count of wire fraud for a scheme to defraud friends and acquaintances. Her health wasn't the only thing she fabricated. Sabrina's entire identity was a lie.

[Aaron Ward]

She never worked for the Gates foundation. She never graduated from uw, and she never even got close to medical school and has mostly lived her life off the generosity of others.

[Andrea Gunning]

At this point, there was one question all of her victims wanted an answer to.

[Aaron Ward]

Where was the money going?

[Andrea Gunning]

It was the kind of thing that was impossible to understand unless you watched it up close, Like Aaron had watching Sabrina's bank account drain transaction by transaction. He knew where the money went.

[Aaron Ward]

The truth is, the money was just going to traveling and shopping and not having to work. She was trying to live the lifestyle she thought she deserved and didn't care how many people she had to leech off of to make that lifestyle happen.

[Andrea Gunning]

When Sybrina pled guilty, the U.S. attorney's office for the western district of Washington released a statement about her crimes. We've had a voice actor read sections of it.

[Voice Actor]

Taylor engaged in a sustained and calculated course of conduct that preyed upon her victim's best emotions. Taylor used a substantial portion of the defrauded funds to pay for luxuries such as almost $60,000 for multiple trips to Japan and Korea, nearly $38,000 for online purchases from Amazon and Etsy, more than 29,000 for clothing, and nearly $16,000 for makeup. Taylor met some of the people she defrauded online, using shared interests, such as Japanese anime, comic books, or video games to establish a relationship.

[Andrea Gunning]

Sabrina's sentencing hearing was six months later, in January of 2023. It was the first time Aaron had seen her in over five years. He delivered a statement at the hearing.

[Aaron Ward]

I laid out a lot of the trauma that had come with everything that, you know, my dad had basically worked an extra year or two past when he thought he was gonna retire to try and cover all of my debts. Essentially, I told the judge that one of her favorite tactics was to threaten to commit suicide to get people to do what she wanted when she wanted it done. And I think because of what I said, the judge rescinded her bail and sent her into confinement immediately because he did not want her to try to repeat that pattern.

[Andrea Gunning]

Sabrina was sentenced to 27 months in prison. Assistant United States attorney Joe Silvio released a sentencing memo. We've had a voice actor read part of it.

[Malcolm Glebel]

Taylor carried out an extensive fraud scheme using deceit and deception that preyed upon humankind's better angels. Several of Taylor's victims suffered substantial financial hardship. Some likely will never be made whole financially. Equally as important, Taylor exploited and betrayed the trust of each of her victims and many Of Taylor's victims will continue

[Aaron Ward]

to pay an emotional toll for many years to come. I was definitely a lot less anxious during the time that I knew she was in prison. She has been returned to the Seattle area. I know she's still around here. Luckily, I haven't run into her, but that's definitely something that's on the back of my mind.

[Andrea Gunning]

Even though Sybrina isn't in Aaron's life anymore, her financial abuse will affect him for a long time. It's hard to know the exact number that Aaron spent on Sabrina, but he estimates it was at least $150,000. His debt severely impacted his credit, and he'll be paying it off for years to come.

[Aaron Ward]

The total number I ended up owing my mom Was just short of $100,000. I've been paying back what I could in the years since, and there is no way I'll be able to pay my mom back before she dies. I'm one of the lucky ones. I had someone that I could borrow that kind of money off of to get everything straightened out. I very easily could have had to declare bankruptcy over this.

[Andrea Gunning]

Sybrina was ordered to pay some of her victims restitution, But Erin's name was not included in the list because of statute of limitations. To Erin, this isn't a story about how we shouldn't trust others.

[Aaron Ward]

She is the outlier. For every Sabrina that's out there, there are 10,000 people who actually need the help.

[Andrea Gunning]

To Aaron, this is a story about how we should trust ourselves.

[Aaron Ward]

If you feel like you're being taken advantage of or if you feel like you're doing everything for this other person and struggling to keep your head above water, Start asking for proof. That was really what unraveled Sabrina's entire conversation was somebody asked for the receipts.

[Andrea Gunning]

The experience has given Aaron a new perspective on financial and emotional abuse.

[Aaron Ward]

This kind of thing happens to a lot more people than anyone realizes, and it's not something you should hold against anybody when it happens to them. This same kind of thing can happen to anybody under the right circumstances. I am a lot slower to trust people than I used to be, but it hasn't kept me from trusting people at all.

[Andrea Gunning]

We end every weekly episode with the same question. Why do you want to share your story?

[Aaron Ward]

These things do happen to men, and you're not less of a man. Thank you for this having happened to you. And I really think that we need to be just as honest as the women that are coming forward with stories like these. If this story helps one person get out or helps their friend get out of a toxic, abusive relationship, then this was all worth it.

[Andrea Gunning]

On the next episode of Betrayal Weekly.

[Voice Actor]

How in the world could someone stoop that low and go to that extreme? Were you too cowardly just to tell me the truth?

[Andrea Gunning]

If you'd like to share your story on betrayal, please email betrayalpodmail.com that is betrayalpodmail.com Please note that we are not a mental health organization. If you are in crisis or currently experiencing domestic violence, we encourage you to seek local help or dial 911. Please contact organizations that offer immediate support. In our show Notes, we've included a list of US based resources. You can follow us on Instagram betrayalpod or find me tsandreagunning to access our newsletter and additional content and to connect with the Betrayal community. Join our [e-mail] we're grateful for your support. One way to show support is by subscribing to our show on Apple Podcasts. Don't forget to rate and review Betrayal. Five star reviews go a long way. Big thank you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fox Basin hosted and produced by me, Andrea Gunning written and produced by Olivia Hewitt. Our story editor is Monique Laborde. Also produced by Ben Fetterman. Our Associate producer is Leah Jablo. Production management by Kristin Melchiori Booking support by Curry Richmond Voice acting by Todd Ganz and Carrie Hartman. Our iheard team is Ally Perry and Jessica Krynczyk. Audio editing by Tanner Robbins with additional editing and mixing by Matt d'. Alvecchio. Betrayals theme composed by Oliver Baines. Music Library provided by MyMusic and for more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pod.

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[Andrea Gunning]

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[Aaron Ward]

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Now I will control an Empire original

[Aaron Ward]

series like the Shy. Just make sure we protect each other. And live sports like ufc. Welcome to the history books. New home, same family. Your BET favorites are now on Paramount Plus. Subscribe now.

[Andrea Gunning]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.