Episode 4: The Suspect

Summary

Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah – Episode 4: The Suspect

Release Date: May 26, 2025
Hosts: Jake Halpern & Jess McHugh
Producers: Amy Gaines McQuaid and Tali M
Executive Producer: Jacob Smith

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Introduction

In Episode 4, titled "The Suspect," of Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah, hosts Jake Halpern and Jess McHugh delve deeper into the enigmatic life of Sarah Kavanaugh. A decorated Marine and a devoted social worker, Sarah's seemingly heroic facade begins to crumble as layers of deception emerge, leading investigators into a complex web of fraud and betrayal.

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The Discovery: Kate Mannion’s Involvement

The unraveling begins with Kate Mannion, a former Marine and co-host of Barstool Sports' podcast Zero Blog 30. Kate's military background and current role in supporting veterans make her a pivotal figure in uncovering Sarah's deceit.

Kate Mannion [04:04]:
"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 gotta be something to do with like butts or something. Cause that's more the beat I cover."

During a routine scroll through social media, Kate stumbles upon a heartfelt post by Hunter7, a veterans' charity, detailing Sarah's severe battle with cancer. The emotional depth and medical specificity of Sarah's story deeply resonate with Kate, prompting her to take action.

Kate Mannion [06:03]:
"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."

Motivated by empathy and a sense of duty, Kate amplifies Sarah's story across her platforms, unaware that this act would be the catalyst for exposing a six-year long deception.

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Unraveling the Lie: The Investigation

Tom Donnelly, chief of VA Police in Rhode Island and an investigator with the VA's Office of Inspector General, begins to piece together inconsistencies in Sarah's narrative. Initial doubts arise when Hunter7's social media posts about Sarah contain discrepancies concerning her military service and medical records.

Tom Donnelly [14:04]:
"The Providence VA only did that procedure to one person on that day, and that person was Justin."

Comparing Sarah's fabricated medical records with those of Justin, a friend battling stage four lung cancer, the investigators uncover striking similarities and evidence of data manipulation.

Justin Richmond [18:53]:
"What immediately occurred to me was that as soon as I told her I had cancer, even though she was telling me it was okay, in her back of her mind, she was thinking, I can take advantage of this."

Further scrutiny reveals that Sarah had accessed and altered Justin's medical records, using them to legitimize her false claims of being a veteran and a cancer patient. This blatant breach of trust and ethical misconduct sets the stage for a comprehensive investigation.

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The Search Warrant and Confrontation

As the evidence mounts, Donnelly secures a search warrant to raid Sarah's residence. On February 3, 2022, a team of federal agents descends upon Sarah's home under a blanket of snow, signaling the gravity of their mission.

Tom Donnelly [26:47]:
"So we got the paperwork signed, figure out how we're going to approach the house. We all pile into our cars and we drive down Rhode Island."

In a rare moment of courtesy, Donnelly contacts Sarah before breaching the door, giving her a chance to comply willingly. However, Sarah evades their initial attempt, prompting the agents to force entry after a tense 15-minute wait.

Inside, the agents meticulously search for incriminating evidence, uncovering items like Sarah's VFW membership card, misleading medical bills, and a suspicious green notebook resembling a military war diary.

Tom Donnelly [33:10]:
"She had what, in my opinion, I would call a backstopped identity. Anyone who was ever in the military or worked for the government knows the green record book."

Confronted with overwhelming evidence, Sarah's facade begins to crumble. Overcome by paranoia and the relentless pressure of her lies, she experiences a mental breakdown, culminating in a desperate psychiatric evaluation.

Sarah Kavanaugh [30:47]:
"I lost a ton of weight. I began to drink extremely heavily, and I... kind of lost interest in most other things."

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The Aftermath and Impact

Sarah's arrest sends shockwaves through her personal and professional circles. Her wife, Nicole, is left grappling with the betrayal, unsure of whom to trust. The investigation reveals that Sarah defrauded over ten veterans' charities, including Hunter7, and exploited five individuals, siphoning off more than a quarter of a million dollars.

Jake Halpern [36:09]:
"She defrauded 10 different veterans charities. She also stole federal benefits, accepted donations from GoFundMe, and exploited five individuals."

The revelation of Sarah's double life not only tarnishes the reputation of the charities involved but also sows distrust among donors, potentially jeopardizing the aid provided to genuine veterans in need.

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Conclusion

Episode 4, "The Suspect," masterfully navigates the intricate layers of Sarah Kavanaugh's deception, highlighting the profound impact of her fraud on the lives of those who trusted her. Through meticulous investigation and the relentless pursuit of truth by TOM Donnelly and Kate Mannion, the episode underscores the fragility of trust and the devastating consequences of betrayal.

Jake Halpern [39:15]:
"Original scoring and our theme were composed by Luis Guerra. Our show art was designed by Sean Carney. Fact checking by Annika Robbins."

As the case against Sarah unfolds, listeners are left pondering the complexities of identity, the ease of manipulation, and the resilience required to uncover the truth.

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Credits:

• Produced by: Amy Gaines McQuaid and Tali M
• Additional Production Support: Sonja Gerwitt
• Edited by: Karen Shakurji
• Executive Producer: Jacob Smith
• Mastering: Jake Gorski
• Original Scoring and Theme: Luis Guerra
• Show Art: Sean Carney
• Fact-Checking: Annika Robbins
• Special Thanks: Sarah Nix, Izzy Carter, Daphne Chen, Jake Flanagan, Greta Cohn, and Vicki Merrick

Next Episode: "Reckoning at Home" – Delving into the confrontation between Sarah and her wife, Nicole, and the fallout from the investigation.

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Transcript

[Jake Halpern]

Pushkin. 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 for you. Thanks a lot. You're listening to an iHeart podcast.

[Justin Richmond]

This is Justin Richmond from Broken Record. The three things I love about summer are pool days, blaring all the new summer songs that come out, and endless refreshing iced drinks from Starbucks. Even better, my favorite summer drink has returned to Starbucks. The Summer Berry Refresher is available now. A mix of berry flavors shaken with ice and poured over raspberry flavored pearls. It's light, vibrant, and just as refreshing as the summer fun you'll be having. So queue up your playlist and head over to Starbucks to check out their summer menu. There's something for everyone. From creamy cold brews to ice cold refreshers. Your summer Berry Refresher is ready at Starbucks.

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[Jake Halpern]

Just a heads up. In this episode, there's a reference to suicidal ideation.

[Jess McHugh]

Previously on Deep Cover.

[Justin]

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.

[Sarah]

I was like, oh, my God, you basically stole money. And I said to her, I go, you're gonna go to jail, Sarah. And she's like, you think?

[Justin]

Dave told me, like, hey, she's fake.

[Jake Halpern]

She's.

[Justin]

She's not a veteran. And I was just in shock and trying to just like, wrap my brain around it.

[Sarah Kavanaugh]

I don't think it's ever gonna 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.

[Jess McHugh]

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.

[Kate Mannion]

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.

[Jake Halpern]

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.

[Kate Mannion]

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 gotta be something to do with like butts or something. Cause that's more the beat I cover.

[Jess McHugh]

Jake asking the deep questions.

[Jake Halpern]

That's amazing. That's your beat is like the buttocks beat.

[Jess McHugh]

But way before she got busy on the buttocks beat, Kate had served in the military.

[Kate Mannion]

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 gotta get outta here. And I was like, oh, crap, my parents are gonna 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. I was like, I need the biggest kick in the ass ever. Walked into the Marine Corps. Was like, one ticket to Marine Corps, please.

[Jess McHugh]

All told, Kate served about five years, including two tours in Afghanistan. After getting out, she found her way into podcasting at Barstool Sports. She hosted that show called Zero Blog 30, all about life in the military.

[Kate Mannion]

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.

[Jake Halpern]

If you've listened to her show, you've heard Kate and her co hosts trying to help other veterans. However, they can, often plugging veteran charities. Kate's a big supporter of a charity called Hunter7.

[Jess McHugh]

You might remember Sarah's friend Dex had actually submitted Sarah to Hunter7 to get help paying her medical bills. In this Hunter7 connection, this is how Kate first learns about Sarah's story.

[Kate Mannion]

I am scrolling through the Hunter 7 social media and I see them post about this Marine Veteran Sarah Kavanaugh Hunter.

[Jake Halpern]

7 has something called an immediate needs program. It's for veterans who struggle to pay medical bills and have illnesses connected to their service. They or someone on their behalf can submit a request. And. And that's what Dex had done for Sarah, submitted her application. And now Hunter 7 was publicizing Sarah's tragic story online.

[Kate Mannion]

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 5 centimeter long nodule, and it's in her femur, her ribs, her scapula, thoracic spine, and now there's lesions on her brain. Like the medical lingo that went into this was so detailed.

[Jess McHugh]

The post also mentioned that Sarah's CT scan showed metallic particles in her lungs, something often linked to IED blasts.

[Kate Mannion]

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?

[Jake Halpern]

Kate does everything she can to spread the word. She donates herself, but she also posts on her social media account, trying to rally as many people as she can to help Sarah. And then at some point, she gets a call from the woman who's the director of Hunter 7.

[Kate Mannion]

When she reached out to me, I was like, I have some crazy news for you.

[Jess McHugh]

That's when Kate learned that all of those details about Sarah's medical condition, like the 5 centimeter long nodule in her lungs, appeared to be made up or stolen and that Sarah wasn't who she claimed to be.

[Kate Mannion]

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.

[Jake Halpern]

Shortly after this, Kate goes public on her podcast. Here's a clip from that episode where she's talking to her co hosts about what happened.

[Kate Mannion]

The feeling was so gross. Like, I. I didn't donate a ton of money, but I donated. It was like 100 bucks. But I. I like my emotions, my time, like, posting all this stuff. Like, I was genuinely moved by her story.

[Jess McHugh]

Kate goes on like this, venting about the mess Sarah's caused. She says that this whole scandal will only scare people away from donating to veterans charities, leaving less help for those who really need it, she told her co hosts this would just make it way harder for real women combat vets to get the respect they deserve, which really pissed Kate off.

[Kate Mannion]

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.

[Jake Halpern]

Kate was more right than she knew. Law enforcement officials had already started investigating Sarah Kavanaugh on the down low, trying to keep it quiet. And now Kate's podcast would put pressure on investigators to go into overdrive. Over many years, Sarah had built a house of lies. The people she deceived lived in separate shuttered rooms hidden from one another. But now the foundation was cracking, as were the walls. And the truth. Truth was seeping in, piercing in its brightness as her carefully built world came undone. I'm Jay Halpern.

[Jess McHugh]

And I'm Jess McHugh and this is.

[Jake Halpern]

Deep cover season six the truth about Sarah episode four the suspect.

[Justin Richmond]

This is Justin Richmond from Broken Record. What's summer without new music and what's the hottest new summer song without a refreshing iced coffee in hand? Especially the new iced Horchata Oat Milk Shaken espresso available now at Starbucks. A blonde espresso combined with rich horchata syrup that delivers a wonderful hint of cinnamon, vanilla and rice flavors. Topped with oat milk, it delivers a flavor inspired by the Mexican style horchata. For a refreshing and creamy pick me up. As an LA native, I've had my fair share of horchata and this blend is delicious. Not only does it taste like authentic horchata, but you still get a great coffee flavor. It's perfectly balanced, a little something for everyone. You can savor your coffee at the same time you kick out your summer jams this year thanks to Starbucks new summer menu featuring everything from creamy cold brews to ice cold refreshers. Your Iced Horchata Oat Milk shaken espresso is ready at Starbucks.

[Unknown]

Together T Mobile for Business and industry leaders are innovating with our advanced 5G solutions. For Walt Disney Studios they transformed moviemaking by syncing teams in California with a remote production hub in Hawaii, enabling Picture perfect collaboration to help bring Lilo and Stitch to theaters this summer. For PGA of America they deliver pro level efficiency with connected security and ticketless entry for smoother operations, seamless transactions and better fan experiences from gate to green. And for tractor Supply they put 5G business Internet to work across 2,200 stores cultivating AI driven customer experiences to keep things running seamlessly inside curbside and countryside. T Mobile for business is helping industries redefine what's possible. Because with a partner that's as committed to your business as you are, there are no limits. Discover how T Mobile advanced 5G solutions can take your business further@t mobile.com now.

While others are sitting in lecture halls, you're already building your future at Ferris State University. Hands on training starts from day one. With real world skills that lead straight to careers in construction, engineering, automotive tech and more, you're not just learning, you're earning. Building a life you can be proud of. And with in state tuition for out of state students, success is within reach. Ferris State University Unleash your potential. Register now at Ferris. Edu. That's Ferris. Edu.

[Jess McHugh]

We have to talk about this Instagram post for a second. The one that Hunter7 shared about Sarah Kavanaugh. This is the post that Kate saw, the one that brought her to tears. This post had all the details of Sarah's supposed injuries and a photo of her in her uniform. Well, a lot of people saw and shared this post and as it made the rounds, people started commenting saying something looked off about her uniform. For one thing, she was wearing out of regulation earrings. And also upon closer inspection, it looked like her eagle, globe and anchor insignia were backwards. The folks at Hunter 7 started getting suspicious, so they called the VA to verify Sarah's service record. Folks at the VA do a quick check in their database. Sarah's not in it, at least not as a veteran. And this hot mess? It all lands on the desk of a guy named Tom Donnelly.

[Tom Donnelly]

The chief of VA Police in Rhode island called me and said, hey, you know, I think we might have a problem with an employee.

[Jess McHugh]

That's Donnelly. He's an investigator with the Department of Veterans Affairs. Basically he's an in house detective for the VA's Office of Inspector General looking into fraud and other sketchy business. Which is why he was the one to get this call about Sarah Kavanaugh, a VA social worker who had apparently been gone rogue.

[Jake Halpern]

Now Donnelly is looking at more than just a scammer. He's got someone working the system from the inside, like a mole in his own ranks. So he opens an investigation and he's just a few days into it when Kate's podcast comes out on Barstool.

[Tom Donnelly]

So our concern is that we don't know the extent of it yet. Like we don't know all the evidence that there is, which opens the avenue for her to potentially destroy evidence or cover her tracks a little bit, or try to talk to witnesses and get them to not cooperate.

[Jake Halpern]

But here was the good news for Donnelly. Right from the start, he had some incriminating evidence, an important set of documents. These documents, they all came from Hunter7, the charity. They were actually documents that Sarah herself had submitted to bolster her lies to support her false claims of being a veteran and a cancer patient. These records would help Donnelly do two really important things. First, they'd help him get a warrant to search Sarah's house. Second, like a trail of breadcrumbs, they'd lead him right to the doorstep of several people Sarah had deceived. And this, in turn, would spark some pretty tough conversations. We'll get to the search warrant in a bit, but first we want to tell you about those conversations. Donnelly contacted Justin, Sarah's friend from the VFW. He was the one battling stage four lung cancer. @ this point, Justin had heard the rumors about Sarah being a fraud, but there was still so much that he didn't know. Donnelly arranged for them to meet at the naval base in Newport, Rhode Island. Justin recalls that they gathered in an old conference room, a forgotten, rundown, beat up place. Old furniture was stacked haphazardly, like it had been cleared out for some event and never put back. Looking around the room, Justin saw agents from a number of federal agencies.

[Justin]

I had ncis, I think, FBI and VA investigators all. I sat down with them all at the same time. They were extremely sympathetic. First of all, I mean, they were visibly upset, but they just kind of laid it out and they said, look, you know, like, this is what we think she did.

[Jake Halpern]

They explained how they'd put together the pieces. One of Donnelly's colleagues had noticed something interesting about Sarah's medical records from Hunter 7.

[Tom Donnelly]

There's this rare procedure in the medical notes. It's got a date on it. The Providence VA only did that procedure to one person on that day, and.

[Jake Halpern]

That person was Justin. When investigators compared the two sets of medical records, Sarah's and Justin's looked pretty much identical. Justin's doctor had even made a few typos. And those exact same typos were in Sarah's records. It was a cut and paste job.

[Justin]

What immediately occurred to me was that as soon as I told her I had cancer, even though she was telling me it was okay, in her back of her mind, she was thinking, I can take advantage of this.

[Jake Halpern]

You might recall from our last episode, Justin had given Sarah money, supposedly so she could pay for her Own cancer treatment. Sarah had taken this money under false pretenses. But as Donnelly had discovered, she'd also done something far more devious. Using her privileges as a social worker at the Providence va, Sarah had accessed Justin's medical records. She'd stolen them, doctored them, and passed them off as her own.

[Justin]

I just couldn't wrap my head around what kind of person would do that to another person. That was especially. That was. You knew was sick, that was getting treatment, that was, you know, dying, and you're going to take advantage of that person with no. No reservations whatsoever. I thought about it for a very long time after that. Just like it just. I couldn't stop thinking about how. How much I was violated by that.

[Jake Halpern]

Justin laid out his side of the story for investigators, how he'd given Sarah thousands of dollars for her treatment. Justin was able to provide them with very specific evidence. Dates, amounts, and transaction records for every electronic transfer, all of which would be helpful to Donnelly's investigation.

[Jess McHugh]

One of the other documents that Donnelly had gotten from Hunter 7 was a set of medical bills. These bills were from Dana Farber, a cancer hospital in Boston. The bills looked real. So if they weren't Sarah's, whose were they? Donnelly and his colleagues slowly pieced together where the bills had come from. And this trail of clues would eventually lead them to a physical therapy clinic outside of Providence. And that clinic it belonged to was Sarah's physical therapist. They become friends. And then much more than that. Sarah had become a fixture in Sam's life. She'd even helped out when Sam's mom was ill. Donnelly, along with a few other federal agents, just showed up at Sam's PT clinic one day with a subpoena and some questions.

[Sarah]

And I was like, well, where do you want to have this meeting? I will not have it in my practice because I had no private room. I said, I will not have it at my home. They'll go, what about a cafe? I said, no. I said, not going to cafe. I was like, everyone knows me in this town. Absolutely not. So we basically had the interview in their car. Donalee was sitting in the front, turned like this the entire time. And there was another woman who was in the driver's seat. Same thing turned looking at me the entire time.

[Jess McHugh]

The feds start talking about Sam's mom, asked if she was in treatment for cancer.

[Sarah]

And I said, yeah. And I went into this whole story like she was going to Rhode island, wasn't getting really the care that she needed, so she went to Dana Farber.

[Jess McHugh]

So there's Sam in the car, in the parking lot, at her work, cramped between a bunch of federal agents, wondering what all this could possibly have to do with her mom. That's when investigators asked her, do you.

[Sarah]

Realize that Sarah used a bill, one of your mother's bills from Dana Farber? And I said, no, I didn't realize that. I didn't know that. And I said, that's really disappointing. And that's when I got upset and I started crying.

[Jess McHugh]

Just a few weeks earlier, Sam had learned that Sarah had been lying to her for years about nearly everything. But this was different. These documents from Hunter 7. They would be key to Donnelly's investigation. Because even before he sat down with Justin and Sam, they gave him ample evidence of a crime. Those documents were would allow him to do something really crucial. Get a warrant to search Sarah's house. We'll be right back.

[Justin Richmond]

This is Justin Richmond from Broken Record. What's summer without new music? And what's the hottest new summer song without a refreshing iced coffee in hand? Especially the new iced Horchata Oat milk shaken espresso available now at Starbucks. A blonde espresso combined with rich horchata syrup that delivers a wonderful hint of cinnamon, vanilla and rice flavors. Topped with oat milk, it delivers a flavor inspired by the Mexican style horchata. For a refreshing and creamy, pick me up. As an LA native, I've had my fair share of horchata and this blend is delicious. Not only does it taste like authentic horchata, but you still get a great coffee flavor. It's perfectly balanced. A little something for everyone. You can savor your coffee at the same time you kick out your summer jams this year thanks to Starbucks new summer menu featuring everything from creamy cold brews to ice cold refreshers. Your iced Horchata oat Milk shaken espresso is ready at Starbucks.

[Unknown]

Together, T Mobile for business and industry leaders are innovating with our advanced 5G solutions. For Walt Disney Studios, they transformed moviemaking by syncing teams in California with a remote production hub in Hawaii, enabling picture perfect collaboration to help bring Lilo and Stitch to theaters this summer. For PGA of America, they deliver pro level efficiency with connected security and ticketless entry for smoother operations, seamless transactions and better fan experiences from gate to green. And for tractor Supply, they put 5G business Internet to work across 2,200 stores, cultivating AI driven customer experiences to keep things running seamlessly inside curbside and countryside. T Mobile for business is helping industries redefine what's possible because with a Partner that's as committed to your business as you are. There are no limits. Discover how T Mobile Advanced 5G solutions can take your business further@t mobile.com now.

While others are sitting in lecture halls, you're already building your future at Ferris State University. Hands on training starts from day one. With real world skills that lead straight to careers in construction, engineering, automotive tech and more. You're not just learning, you're earning. Building a life you can be proud of. And with in state tuition for out of state students, success is within reach. Ferris State University. Unleash your potential. Register now at Ferris. Edu. That's Ferris Edu.

[Jess McHugh]

Early on the morning of February 3, 2022, search warrant in hand, Donnelly set out for Sarah's house.

[Tom Donnelly]

So we got the, got the paperwork signed, figure out how we're going to approach the house. We all pile into our cars and we drive down Rhode Island.

[Jess McHugh]

Donnelly had a couple of his own agents with him and a couple agents from the FBI.

[Tom Donnelly]

So we get there and, you know, it's snowing and everyone like surrounds the house. Everyone's got their tactical plate, carrier vests on. Everyone's all dressed up for the occasion. And we form, you know, a stack of agents to go up and knock on the door. So requirement of a normal search warrant is that you knock, you announce, you know, police search warrant, and then you give a reasonable amount of time for somebody inside to answer the door. So knocking on the door, loudly announcing, nobody's coming.

[Jake Halpern]

So this crowd of agents is standing there in Sarah's front yard debating whether they should break in the door. And it's snowing, freezing cold. So what does Donnelly do? Turns out he's got Sarah's cell phone number. He's never actually spoken to her, but he figures, hey, maybe before I bust this door down, I should, you know, give her a ring. Very considerate. You never see that in the police movies, right? Detective gives suspect a courtesy call, but that's what he does. He calls her and she picks up.

[Tom Donnelly]

And I said like, hey, we are at your house. It's the police. Are you in the house? We need you to come to the door. And she says, no, I went out.

[Jess McHugh]

Sarah had slipped out of the house without anyone knowing. Donnelly's not quite sure how.

[Jake Halpern]

Oh, she ducked surveillance.

[Tom Donnelly]

And it wasn't that she was trying to avoid surveillance. I think she was trying to avoid the news. But it had the side effect of avoiding the surveillance. I said, all right, you said you're 15 minutes away. You've got exactly 15 minutes to come back. And if you don't come back, then at that point, we're going to have to force our way into your house.

[Jake Halpern]

While they're all waiting on Sarah, an agent notices there's a back window that's unlocked. So he shimmies through it and opens the front door for the rest of the agents. By the time Sarah pulled up, the search was in full swing.

[Tom Donnelly]

The whole street was blocked off. There was a dozen cars. There's agents everywhere, evidence bags, evidence tapes.

[Jake Halpern]

And Donnelly laid eyes on Sarah for the first time.

[Tom Donnelly]

So she pulled up, maybe bewildered is the word I would use, just because there's all these people milling about. The FBI people are wearing their plate carriers that say FBI and big letters on them.

[Jess McHugh]

So Donnelly tells her, look, you can't be in the house while we search. You can go wait at a friend's or get a coffee at Dunkin, but you can't go in the house. Sarah decides to wait outside.

[Jake Halpern]

All right.

[Tom Donnelly]

Thursday, February 3, 3. 23pm Video walkthrough.

[Jake Halpern]

As we leave the residence, we got.

[Jess McHugh]

Footage of the search through a Freedom of Information act request.

[Jake Halpern]

This video was taken by an officer as he walked through the house. They were looking for Sarah's work phone and any computers, checks from charities, that uniform that she'd been photographed in, any evidence that would corroborate their case. Meanwhile, Sarah was watching agents come in and out of the house. Sarah didn't say much. She just looked dazed. In Donnelly's words, maybe like if you've.

[Tom Donnelly]

Ever seen somebody immediately, like after a car accident where they. They're still trying to process exactly what just happened kind of thing, because it was a big turnout.

[Jake Halpern]

According to Sarah, by the time the feds searched her house, she was already in rough shape, mentally exhausted by the stress of all her lies.

[Sarah Kavanaugh]

I lost a ton of weight. I began to drink extremely heavily, and I. I kind of lost interest in most other things. I began to just kind of go through the motions of these lies. Okay, just keep going. Something's going to happen.

[Jake Halpern]

It will end for Sarah. The day of the search was kind of surreal.

[Sarah Kavanaugh]

When they came to search my house, I had been like, taking some pictures, pills to sleep or calm down, because I would get up during the night and I would walk around the house and check the windows. And this wasn't because I thought they were coming to search my house or anything. I had no idea about the investigation, but it was just this sense of knowing I was lying and the paranoia that comes from that.

[Jake Halpern]

Standing in the snow covered driveway Donnelly tried to talk to Sarah.

[Tom Donnelly]

I had just said, hey, why are we here today? And she had started to tell me about who she borrowed the Marine Corps uniform from that she had worn. And then I think at that point it really sank in, what was happening, because there's agents coming in and out of the house. And then she said, she stopped her story about the uniform, and she just said, I'm not. I'm not going to talk to you.

[Sarah Kavanaugh]

I was so afraid, right? I was so, so afraid. Not because I thought it was illegal, not because I'm thinking I'm going to go to prison, but because I'm like, they are not going to be my friends anymore. I'm not going to have these people in my life.

[Jake Halpern]

The team of agents went through the house methodically placing items in evidence bags.

[Tom Donnelly]

There were vfw, like, donation bins in the basement. You know, like the five gallon buckets that they put out, like when you're going to the grocery store or something. There was no money in them.

[Jake Halpern]

They also found her VFW membership card and VFW Polos mail from the Wounded Warrior Project. And inside a closet in her home office, Donnelly found something else. Something very curious. A green colored notebook.

[Tom Donnelly]

I used to work in counterintelligence investigations. And she had what, in my opinion, I would call a backstopped identity.

[Jake Halpern]

Explain what you mean by that.

[Tom Donnelly]

Anyone who was ever in the military or worked for the government knows the green record book. It's a. It's a notebook, it's ruled paper. Inside, it's like this 1950s seafoam green. The military's probably used them since World War II. She had one of those. And she wrote a very detailed fake war diary.

[Jake Halpern]

That's right. He'd found what looked like a war diary. Sarah, by the way, doesn't remember this at all, but Donnelly told us it included detailed entries from Afghanistan.

[Jess McHugh]

And Donnelly found other clues for the character. Sarah had been playing other props for her double life, her backstopped identity. Sarah the Marine, Sarah the hero. Like a handmade vase with the Marine Corps insignia. He later discovered Sarah had made it as part of an art therapy trip for veterans. As Sarah waited, her mind went to dark places.

[Sarah Kavanaugh]

I had to sit outside on the fender of the car in the garage, and there were two officers standing on either side of me, and they were, I think, playing good cop, so to speak, Right? And there was this man, and he was like an IT guy, and he was thin, he had glasses, kind of like a boyish haircut, and he wasn't like, as intense as the other agents. And he had a gun on his holster. And I was like, I could probably get to him fast enough that the other man on the other side will shoot me. And I remember, like, even when they were in my house, that thought consuming me, not even thinking about, like, that they're searching my house, and that this is now a criminal investigation, right? Just thinking about, like, letting it end, letting it be over.

[Jess McHugh]

Donnelly remembers this moment really clearly, too.

[Tom Donnelly]

She had said, what would happen to me if I tried to take your gun from you right now to. To the agents that were kind of standing there, like, watching her, and they're like, well, like, why would you do that? And so at that point, we were concerned. So we had the local police respond out and said, look, she's saying things that I think could be construed as self harm.

[Jess McHugh]

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 10 different veterans charities. 10. 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.

[Jake Halpern]

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.

[Sarah Kavanaugh]

Picked up the phone just to check my messages. And that she said, you need to come home. The FBI is here.

[Jess McHugh]

That's when I knew it was that fast.

[Sarah Kavanaugh]

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.

[Jake Halpern]

Deep Cover. The Truth About Sarah was produced by Amy Gaines McQuaid and Tali M. Additional production support by Sonja Gerwitt.

[Jess McHugh]

Our show is edited by Karen Shakurji. Our executive producer is Jacob Smith. Mastering by Jake Gorski.

[Jake Halpern]

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

[Jess McHugh]

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

[Jake Halpern]

And I'm Jake Halpern. You can binge the entire season of Deep Cover the Truth About Sarah ad free by subscribing to Pushkin plus. Sign up on the show page on Apple Podcasts or at Pushkin FM Plus Pushkin subscribers can access ad free episodes, full audiobooks and exclusive binges of our other true crime podcasts throughout the year.

[Justin Richmond]

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[Jake Halpern]

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