1 00:00:06,340 --> 00:00:08,341 [gentle music playing] 2 00:00:08,342 --> 00:00:13,763 [Paige] The best part about being a mom is watching my children figure 3 00:00:13,764 --> 00:00:17,433 things out, put the pieces together. 4 00:00:17,434 --> 00:00:20,187 It's pretty cool to see the gears turning. 5 00:00:22,064 --> 00:00:24,566 Being a mom kind of feels all encompassing. 6 00:00:24,691 --> 00:00:27,860 I know a lot of people kind of have an identity crisis. 7 00:00:27,861 --> 00:00:32,741 So sometimes it's nice to take a break from mom-mode. 8 00:00:32,866 --> 00:00:35,409 You know, getting away from real life 9 00:00:35,410 --> 00:00:37,537 and kind of becoming somebody else. 10 00:00:37,538 --> 00:00:40,541 So I could understand why Sarah did some of these things. 11 00:00:41,917 --> 00:00:44,378 If Sarah had any shame, she wouldn't have done any of 12 00:00:44,503 --> 00:00:46,796 the things she's done over the last 20 years. 13 00:00:46,797 --> 00:00:48,757 I think she really wanted the things that she lied about. 14 00:00:48,882 --> 00:00:50,717 There's something... 15 00:00:50,842 --> 00:00:52,635 There's something not right in there. 16 00:00:52,636 --> 00:00:55,764 This was a woman with no authentic identity. 17 00:00:55,889 --> 00:00:58,267 I just remember I couldn't sleep that whole week. 18 00:00:58,392 --> 00:00:59,725 [Bethany] I've never seen her walk. 19 00:00:59,726 --> 00:01:01,770 I don't even really how tall she is. 20 00:01:01,895 --> 00:01:05,398 [Elisabeth] I think she just idealized my life at the time and was 21 00:01:05,399 --> 00:01:08,110 like, "This is what I want, and I'm gonna insert myself 22 00:01:08,235 --> 00:01:09,444 in your life." 23 00:01:09,570 --> 00:01:11,446 As things progressed, I found 24 00:01:11,572 --> 00:01:13,781 out exactly how intricate the web was, 25 00:01:13,782 --> 00:01:15,741 and it became almost a game. 26 00:01:15,742 --> 00:01:18,077 She wasn't in it for the money, and so I became 27 00:01:18,078 --> 00:01:21,122 intensely curious about what she was in it for. 28 00:01:21,123 --> 00:01:22,749 That person does not exist. 29 00:01:22,874 --> 00:01:25,960 That feeling of grief of, like, somebody had just died. 30 00:01:25,961 --> 00:01:28,463 [Elisabeth] That's where it gets really, really crazy. 31 00:01:28,589 --> 00:01:29,590 My head was just spinning. 32 00:01:31,091 --> 00:01:32,301 I just don't want anybody to be hurt. 33 00:01:34,261 --> 00:01:35,469 She better hope she never meets me. 34 00:01:35,470 --> 00:01:36,972 [dramatic chord plays] 35 00:01:37,097 --> 00:01:39,099 [main theme playing] 36 00:01:58,493 --> 00:02:00,454 [pensive cello playing] 37 00:02:03,665 --> 00:02:07,044 [Erin speaking] 38 00:02:29,608 --> 00:02:31,610 [gentle music playing] 39 00:02:57,844 --> 00:03:00,055 They become really good friends. 40 00:03:00,180 --> 00:03:03,891 And you can imagine how special that was to Erin. 41 00:03:03,892 --> 00:03:06,852 I know what it's like, 'cause I lived with two 42 00:03:06,853 --> 00:03:09,855 disabled brothers. They just want friends. 43 00:03:09,856 --> 00:03:13,567 They want someone to think they're special enough to spend 44 00:03:13,568 --> 00:03:16,195 time with, right, and be a friend to. 45 00:03:16,196 --> 00:03:19,365 So this meant a lot to Erin. 46 00:03:19,366 --> 00:03:21,368 [Erin speaking] 47 00:03:32,921 --> 00:03:36,758 So now Erin knows that Sarah understands Erin's life 48 00:03:36,883 --> 00:03:39,928 because Sarah's living with a sister with special needs. 49 00:03:40,053 --> 00:03:42,055 [Erin speaking] 50 00:03:47,894 --> 00:03:49,730 [dramatic, suspenseful chord plays] 51 00:04:00,866 --> 00:04:04,118 As Sarah and Erin got closer and started to talk all 52 00:04:04,119 --> 00:04:07,913 the time, Sarah started to tell Erin about her husband Adam 53 00:04:07,914 --> 00:04:11,834 and their multiple pregnancies, multiple miscarriages, 54 00:04:11,835 --> 00:04:14,004 and even deaths of some babies. 55 00:04:15,380 --> 00:04:17,382 [Erin speaking] 56 00:04:26,266 --> 00:04:28,602 My name is Sarah Treleaven. I'm a journalist. 57 00:04:29,811 --> 00:04:32,939 And I mostly write long-form magazine features. 58 00:04:33,064 --> 00:04:35,357 I also make true-crime podcasts. 59 00:04:35,358 --> 00:04:37,276 And I wrote about Sarah Delashmit 60 00:04:37,277 --> 00:04:41,197 for ELLE magazine in 2021. 61 00:04:41,198 --> 00:04:44,451 Almost immediately, I knew there was a huge story here. 62 00:04:50,707 --> 00:04:53,125 Sarah and Erin had been friends for quite some time 63 00:04:53,126 --> 00:04:56,171 when Erin gets an email from someone. 64 00:04:56,296 --> 00:05:00,382 And it's a guy named Jeff who says he's seen Erin's 65 00:05:00,383 --> 00:05:02,177 profile on a dating website, 66 00:05:02,302 --> 00:05:03,719 and he thinks she's really pretty. 67 00:05:03,720 --> 00:05:05,055 And he'd really like to get to know her. 68 00:05:06,097 --> 00:05:08,809 So Erin is narrating this to Sarah while they're on 69 00:05:08,934 --> 00:05:12,061 the phone, and Sarah says, "I cannot believe this, 70 00:05:12,062 --> 00:05:13,562 "but I know Jeff. 71 00:05:13,563 --> 00:05:15,816 He's my husband Adam's best friend." 72 00:05:17,317 --> 00:05:22,029 This really feeds into this idea that it's Erin and Sarah 73 00:05:22,030 --> 00:05:23,323 who are destined to be together. 74 00:05:42,008 --> 00:05:44,260 [Sarah] You know, Erin, she's an adult who lives 75 00:05:44,261 --> 00:05:48,181 with her parents and is very aware of her own limitations. 76 00:05:48,306 --> 00:05:51,518 And so Jeff is sort of promising her this life 77 00:05:51,643 --> 00:05:53,395 that they might have together. 78 00:05:53,520 --> 00:05:57,023 And it's this fantasy that is immediately appealing. 79 00:06:57,626 --> 00:07:01,755 Sarah also started to tell Erin about multiple illnesses, 80 00:07:01,880 --> 00:07:03,924 including Guillain-Barré syndrome, 81 00:07:04,049 --> 00:07:06,551 Ebola, and multiple cancers. 82 00:07:07,844 --> 00:07:11,348 [Erin speaking] 83 00:07:18,438 --> 00:07:20,440 [tense music playing] 84 00:08:15,120 --> 00:08:18,872 [Sarah] What's amazing is that when Erin knew her, Sarah was 85 00:08:18,873 --> 00:08:21,208 the one providing the care. 86 00:08:21,209 --> 00:08:24,546 But when she showed up at Camp Summit years later, 87 00:08:24,671 --> 00:08:25,839 she arrived as someone 88 00:08:25,964 --> 00:08:27,841 who needed that same level of care. 89 00:08:29,009 --> 00:08:30,343 That's where Bethany comes in. 90 00:08:31,428 --> 00:08:33,430 [gentle, rhythmic music playing] 91 00:08:39,227 --> 00:08:40,895 - You want to go outside? - [dog barks] 92 00:08:43,857 --> 00:08:45,357 [Bethany] Come on. Don't pee right there. 93 00:08:45,358 --> 00:08:47,736 Oh, my God. 94 00:08:47,861 --> 00:08:52,365 Ruby's just, she's the guard dog, our safety net for so long. 95 00:08:52,490 --> 00:08:53,699 My anxiety is up, 96 00:08:53,700 --> 00:08:56,410 and I'm worried, can I protect us or anything like that? 97 00:08:56,411 --> 00:08:58,370 And she's the little alarm. 98 00:08:58,371 --> 00:09:00,247 Can I have a hug? 99 00:09:00,248 --> 00:09:02,083 Thank you. Thank you. 100 00:09:04,461 --> 00:09:05,462 Love you too. 101 00:09:07,297 --> 00:09:08,465 And I got my makeup all over you. 102 00:09:10,550 --> 00:09:13,094 Coming into meeting Sarah. My life was very hard. 103 00:09:13,219 --> 00:09:15,137 There's a lot of pain there. 104 00:09:15,138 --> 00:09:16,598 I grew up in a cult. 105 00:09:18,600 --> 00:09:21,936 The situations I was put in in that cult 106 00:09:22,062 --> 00:09:23,646 was very traumatizing. 107 00:09:24,814 --> 00:09:26,191 Sorry, I'm trying to stop crying too. 108 00:09:28,026 --> 00:09:30,695 So I saw a lot, I heard a lot, and I 109 00:09:31,905 --> 00:09:35,617 watched girls be put in situations where judgment 110 00:09:35,742 --> 00:09:37,410 and shame were kind of the narrative. 111 00:09:39,245 --> 00:09:40,371 And so I left. 112 00:09:43,083 --> 00:09:45,960 Anyone who leaves that community is not spoken well of, 113 00:09:46,086 --> 00:09:49,422 and so I did not have a community. 114 00:09:49,547 --> 00:09:51,800 And in order to build that, I was volunteering 115 00:09:51,925 --> 00:09:53,342 with nonprofits. 116 00:09:53,343 --> 00:09:56,512 I worked for AmeriCorps for a year, and then I taught 117 00:09:56,513 --> 00:09:58,431 English in the Dominican Republic. 118 00:09:58,556 --> 00:10:00,682 And then I was working as a camp counselor 119 00:10:00,683 --> 00:10:04,771 at Camp Summit, an outdoor camp for adults with disabilities. 120 00:10:04,896 --> 00:10:05,939 And that's where I met Sarah. 121 00:10:06,981 --> 00:10:10,859 She had muscular dystrophy, and she was in a wheelchair. 122 00:10:10,860 --> 00:10:14,113 [Sarah] So Sarah was originally someone who was taking care 123 00:10:14,114 --> 00:10:16,031 of people with disabilities. 124 00:10:16,032 --> 00:10:19,119 And now she's the one in a wheelchair. 125 00:10:19,244 --> 00:10:20,953 What are the odds of that? 126 00:10:20,954 --> 00:10:22,956 [suspenseful music ends] 127 00:10:30,088 --> 00:10:33,049 [Bethany] So, 2015, I was in my mid-20s, 128 00:10:33,174 --> 00:10:35,635 working as a camp counselor at Camp Summit. 129 00:10:38,138 --> 00:10:41,349 Camp Summit is an outdoor camp for adults with disabilities. 130 00:10:43,059 --> 00:10:45,227 So, there's bonfires, we do cookouts, 131 00:10:45,228 --> 00:10:47,104 um, there's horseback riding. 132 00:10:47,105 --> 00:10:49,232 Um, they have a pool now, which is really great. 133 00:10:50,400 --> 00:10:52,985 So, everything is just meant to be outside. 134 00:10:52,986 --> 00:10:55,904 Camp counselors there are kind of a dual role. 135 00:10:55,905 --> 00:10:58,241 Counselor, live-in caretaker in the cabins. 136 00:11:00,410 --> 00:11:03,121 First time I saw Sarah was on move-in day. 137 00:11:03,246 --> 00:11:05,790 And Sarah came in in her power wheelchair. 138 00:11:05,915 --> 00:11:08,293 She was wearing kind of like a light pink T-shirt. 139 00:11:08,418 --> 00:11:11,295 Had a big smile on her face and had just kind of this very 140 00:11:11,296 --> 00:11:12,505 gentle first impression. 141 00:11:15,925 --> 00:11:18,343 I'm Kerry. I worked at Camp Summit 142 00:11:18,344 --> 00:11:22,807 the fall of 2015. I was Sarah's unit leader, 143 00:11:22,932 --> 00:11:23,933 so the lead counselor for 144 00:11:24,058 --> 00:11:26,185 the cabin that Sarah was in for the week. 145 00:11:26,186 --> 00:11:28,813 I worked directly with her, was a caregiver throughout 146 00:11:28,938 --> 00:11:33,317 the time, would transfer her to the restroom and bathe her, 147 00:11:33,318 --> 00:11:36,320 and also supported with feeding and then also with all 148 00:11:36,321 --> 00:11:37,614 the activities throughout the day. 149 00:11:38,615 --> 00:11:40,032 Sarah was super friendly. 150 00:11:40,033 --> 00:11:42,826 She really engaged with all the counselors and we all 151 00:11:42,827 --> 00:11:45,955 became friendly with her throughout the week. 152 00:11:46,080 --> 00:11:48,290 Her mobility at that point was just her wrist. 153 00:11:48,291 --> 00:11:49,541 This is all I ever saw. 154 00:11:49,542 --> 00:11:52,836 She could do enough to kind of control the wheelchair. 155 00:11:52,837 --> 00:11:55,256 You know, obviously anything else that she needed was on us. 156 00:11:56,633 --> 00:11:59,176 One of the things that's super interesting about Sarah is 157 00:11:59,177 --> 00:12:01,971 people are really drawn to her positive energy and they 158 00:12:02,096 --> 00:12:04,140 genuinely like her and they want to 159 00:12:04,265 --> 00:12:05,767 develop this intimacy with her. 160 00:12:07,185 --> 00:12:11,481 She's somebody who only creates relationships under false 161 00:12:11,606 --> 00:12:13,899 pretenses and then blows them up. 162 00:12:13,900 --> 00:12:17,946 And this happens over and over and over again for 20 years. 163 00:12:19,197 --> 00:12:22,532 It's important to tap into your intuition 164 00:12:22,533 --> 00:12:24,327 and beware of your surroundings. 165 00:12:24,452 --> 00:12:26,496 And I'm not saying that that necessarily applies here, 166 00:12:26,621 --> 00:12:29,498 but have you ever been in a situation where you, 167 00:12:29,499 --> 00:12:33,210 you know, you like someone, but you start wondering, 168 00:12:33,211 --> 00:12:34,836 wait a minute, something's a little off here? 169 00:12:34,837 --> 00:12:36,421 Like, something's just not right. 170 00:12:36,422 --> 00:12:37,506 It's like, it's your intuition. 171 00:12:37,507 --> 00:12:39,258 It's your gut calling what you want. 172 00:12:39,259 --> 00:12:41,385 [gentle music playing] 173 00:12:41,386 --> 00:12:44,554 We supported her with getting into a hammock and things like 174 00:12:44,555 --> 00:12:47,892 that and we just made sure she had the best time possible. 175 00:12:49,519 --> 00:12:52,020 [Bethany] Sarah really wanted to go on the zip line during activities, 176 00:12:52,021 --> 00:12:54,690 and we obviously really wanted to make that happen for her, 177 00:12:54,691 --> 00:12:56,566 so there was several counselors 178 00:12:56,567 --> 00:12:57,860 that had to get involved for that. 179 00:13:01,239 --> 00:13:03,740 So, she went across pretty quick and then got onto 180 00:13:03,741 --> 00:13:07,035 the platform on the other side where other caregivers were 181 00:13:07,036 --> 00:13:09,621 there waiting, and I remember they lowered her down, 182 00:13:09,622 --> 00:13:12,208 and she laid on the platform, and she just sobbed. 183 00:13:13,418 --> 00:13:14,710 Like, "That was the best experience. 184 00:13:14,711 --> 00:13:15,920 "Thank you for doing this for me." 185 00:13:16,045 --> 00:13:17,880 Like, "I've never been able to do anything like that before." 186 00:13:18,006 --> 00:13:19,424 And we were all just around her, like, cheering, like, 187 00:13:19,549 --> 00:13:20,549 "I'm glad you had fun." 188 00:13:20,550 --> 00:13:21,550 You know, this is why we're here. 189 00:13:21,551 --> 00:13:23,135 I'm so glad that you get to experience this. 190 00:13:23,136 --> 00:13:25,262 And horseback riding was the same thing. 191 00:13:25,263 --> 00:13:27,139 She really liked the horses too. 192 00:13:27,140 --> 00:13:28,432 I remember that. 193 00:13:28,433 --> 00:13:30,892 But it seemed like the zip line was, like, the very emotional 194 00:13:30,893 --> 00:13:32,144 experience for her. 195 00:13:32,145 --> 00:13:36,107 And I felt good about helping her have such a big, 196 00:13:36,232 --> 00:13:37,275 monumental experience. 197 00:13:38,401 --> 00:13:40,110 And so that helped me work 198 00:13:40,111 --> 00:13:41,863 through my own trauma from that cult. 199 00:13:43,072 --> 00:13:44,406 Because I'm trying to find a community. 200 00:13:44,407 --> 00:13:45,533 I've been trying, you know, to... 201 00:13:47,577 --> 00:13:48,578 find myself. 202 00:13:48,703 --> 00:13:52,164 And I have realized this is literally my cheat-sheet 203 00:13:52,165 --> 00:13:54,791 on how I can heal from it. 204 00:13:54,792 --> 00:13:56,753 [classical music playing] 205 00:13:58,546 --> 00:14:01,590 [Bethany] For her, morning would start out with helping her 206 00:14:01,591 --> 00:14:03,091 transition onto her wheelchair. 207 00:14:03,092 --> 00:14:05,094 ♪ 208 00:14:10,808 --> 00:14:12,143 [Bethany] And then we would've brushed her hair, 209 00:14:13,227 --> 00:14:14,228 help her with her teeth, 210 00:14:15,480 --> 00:14:17,982 get her ready for the day, and then be out the door. 211 00:14:19,609 --> 00:14:21,652 She told us pretty early on when she first arrived that 212 00:14:21,778 --> 00:14:24,946 she was on her period, so she had come prepared 213 00:14:24,947 --> 00:14:25,990 with pads for the week. 214 00:14:30,119 --> 00:14:33,205 There was one time we woke up in the middle of the night 215 00:14:33,206 --> 00:14:35,458 and was calling for help. It was, like, 4:00 AM 216 00:14:35,583 --> 00:14:38,126 to put her CPAP mask on, 217 00:14:38,127 --> 00:14:41,172 and I was over there, like, on top of the bed 218 00:14:41,297 --> 00:14:43,299 just trying to help support her. 219 00:14:43,424 --> 00:14:44,425 [sighs] 220 00:14:45,510 --> 00:14:47,470 She had to use the restroom a lot that week. 221 00:14:48,471 --> 00:14:50,556 At one point, it was north of 10 in a day 222 00:14:52,016 --> 00:14:53,476 because she needed pads changed 223 00:14:54,685 --> 00:14:56,521 and her wheelchair was huge, and it was very hard 224 00:14:56,646 --> 00:14:58,230 to maneuver at 90-degree angles 225 00:14:58,231 --> 00:14:59,857 where we needed to get it around the toilet. 226 00:15:02,235 --> 00:15:03,985 It would take at least two people to transfer 227 00:15:03,986 --> 00:15:05,196 her onto a toilet. 228 00:15:05,321 --> 00:15:08,073 So, I'm trying to get her up, turn her at a 45-degree angle, 229 00:15:08,074 --> 00:15:09,908 and then the girl behind the toilet would have to grab 230 00:15:09,909 --> 00:15:12,661 her from behind, and carefully, like, set her down, 231 00:15:12,662 --> 00:15:13,912 'cause, again, dead weight. 232 00:15:13,913 --> 00:15:14,872 Like, you don't wanna just 233 00:15:14,997 --> 00:15:17,333 drop somebody like that on a toilet. 234 00:15:18,835 --> 00:15:21,003 I have never been so sore in my life. 235 00:15:24,173 --> 00:15:28,886 With that level of intimacy, of the care that Bethany gave 236 00:15:29,011 --> 00:15:32,681 Sarah-- changing her menstrual products and washing her 237 00:15:32,682 --> 00:15:35,393 and wiping her after she went to the bathroom and brushing 238 00:15:35,518 --> 00:15:39,856 her hair and all this, I mean, that brought them close. 239 00:15:40,982 --> 00:15:42,066 [Bethany] That week with her, 240 00:15:42,191 --> 00:15:44,234 I felt like I was building a friendship 'cause she was 241 00:15:44,235 --> 00:15:46,028 really good at asking questions and wanting to, 242 00:15:47,196 --> 00:15:49,406 you know, be inquisitive, know more about me. 243 00:15:49,407 --> 00:15:52,117 And I feel like she mirrored some of my behavior. 244 00:15:52,118 --> 00:15:53,577 You know, if I was in tears, 245 00:15:53,578 --> 00:15:54,912 she would be in tears about something. 246 00:15:55,037 --> 00:15:56,955 Like, if I was having a bad day, she was having a bad day 247 00:15:56,956 --> 00:15:58,123 and that kind of thing. 248 00:15:58,124 --> 00:15:59,791 And so, it just felt like a very fast friendship 249 00:15:59,792 --> 00:16:00,918 in that sense. 250 00:16:01,043 --> 00:16:03,628 Sounds a little bit like Sarah's relationship 251 00:16:03,629 --> 00:16:04,588 with Erin, right? 252 00:16:04,589 --> 00:16:07,382 I mean, there's such a connection. 253 00:16:07,383 --> 00:16:09,385 And Bethany's coming off her own trauma. 254 00:16:09,510 --> 00:16:11,595 She's healing, and disconnected is part 255 00:16:11,596 --> 00:16:12,930 of the healing for her. 256 00:16:14,182 --> 00:16:16,224 [Bethany] At the end of the week, we had to say goodbye to Sarah, 257 00:16:16,225 --> 00:16:18,102 but we all planned on going back to camp 258 00:16:18,227 --> 00:16:19,896 for the spring session. 259 00:16:20,021 --> 00:16:22,398 But then I found out I was pregnant in January, 260 00:16:22,523 --> 00:16:24,650 so I let her know I wasn't going back for that session. 261 00:16:25,651 --> 00:16:27,903 Sarah's interest in my pregnancy ran pretty deep 262 00:16:27,904 --> 00:16:29,654 to the point where, you know, Sarah would just ask me 263 00:16:29,655 --> 00:16:31,948 for my ultrasounds pretty frequently. 264 00:16:31,949 --> 00:16:33,242 "You never sent me the ultrasounds." 265 00:16:34,785 --> 00:16:36,454 I thought that was weird. 266 00:16:36,579 --> 00:16:38,581 [suspenseful music playing] 267 00:16:39,957 --> 00:16:42,250 [Bethany] When I knew she was gonna be down at Camp Summit that week, 268 00:16:42,251 --> 00:16:46,254 I was back in Tennessee and got a call from the camp. 269 00:16:46,255 --> 00:16:48,799 [suspenseful music builds] 270 00:16:48,925 --> 00:16:50,426 [Bethany] It was the assistant camp director. 271 00:16:50,551 --> 00:16:52,470 She said, "So Sarah's here at camp this week. 272 00:16:52,595 --> 00:16:54,472 We wanted you to know about what happened." 273 00:16:57,016 --> 00:16:59,768 Sarah's pastor and some family members traveled from Illinois 274 00:16:59,769 --> 00:17:00,978 to Texas to go to the camp. 275 00:17:01,103 --> 00:17:03,606 ♪ 276 00:17:03,731 --> 00:17:06,651 [Bethany] They called over the walkie to ask for Sarah 277 00:17:06,776 --> 00:17:11,822 to come up to the office where she saw the van, her family, 278 00:17:12,949 --> 00:17:14,825 and the camp director. 279 00:17:14,951 --> 00:17:16,577 She pulled up in the wheelchair 280 00:17:17,703 --> 00:17:18,996 and stood up. 281 00:17:19,121 --> 00:17:21,123 [dramatic, miraculous music playing] 282 00:17:26,295 --> 00:17:29,130 [Bethany] Didn't say anything to anybody, just got in the van. 283 00:17:29,131 --> 00:17:30,383 They closed the door and drove off. 284 00:17:32,677 --> 00:17:35,471 She was able-bodied and was lying about all of this. 285 00:17:42,186 --> 00:17:45,397 [Bethany] After I found out about Sarah lying about everything, 286 00:17:45,398 --> 00:17:47,065 it was so emotionally triggering. 287 00:17:47,066 --> 00:17:49,360 It physically caused pain 288 00:17:49,485 --> 00:17:51,654 and just feeling like somebody had just died. 289 00:17:55,199 --> 00:17:57,034 To think I was doing something good for someone 290 00:17:57,159 --> 00:17:58,452 because they needed this, 291 00:17:59,954 --> 00:18:02,832 and then to shift and realize, like, no, I was being violated, 292 00:18:04,333 --> 00:18:06,002 just felt like such a huge punch in the gut. 293 00:18:07,378 --> 00:18:10,839 [Beth] So when you look at Bethany, she was coming off 294 00:18:10,840 --> 00:18:14,051 her own trauma, as somebody no longer a member of a cult. 295 00:18:14,176 --> 00:18:17,054 I mean, this was part of her healing process, 296 00:18:17,179 --> 00:18:18,431 and it probably set her back. 297 00:19:02,725 --> 00:19:04,935 She stole her time. She stole her emotions. 298 00:19:05,061 --> 00:19:08,064 She broke her heart. She stole her disease. 299 00:19:09,273 --> 00:19:10,274 It's disgusting. 300 00:19:12,109 --> 00:19:14,904 I grew up with brothers in wheelchairs, and they passed 301 00:19:15,029 --> 00:19:16,613 away a long time ago. 302 00:19:16,614 --> 00:19:20,451 To this day, when I am getting out of the subway... 303 00:19:27,249 --> 00:19:28,792 and I'm looking up at the stairs and there's 304 00:19:28,793 --> 00:19:31,420 no elevator, I think, and my brothers are named Joe 305 00:19:31,545 --> 00:19:33,631 and Jon, and I think, I couldn't get them 306 00:19:33,756 --> 00:19:34,799 up the stairs. 307 00:19:34,924 --> 00:19:36,801 How would I get them up the stairs? 308 00:19:36,926 --> 00:19:38,636 To this day, I still think about that. 309 00:19:41,138 --> 00:19:43,182 [somber, suspenseful music playing] 310 00:19:45,434 --> 00:19:47,769 [Bethany] I never heard from Sarah again, 311 00:19:47,770 --> 00:19:51,649 but Sarah made a grave impact on my life, 312 00:19:51,774 --> 00:19:55,694 'cause trust is completely out the window. 313 00:19:55,695 --> 00:19:57,321 I was still processing everything, and then 314 00:19:57,446 --> 00:19:59,490 I found out Sarah hurt other people. 315 00:20:01,951 --> 00:20:03,994 ♪ 316 00:20:05,621 --> 00:20:07,164 My name is Elisabeth Hickox. 317 00:20:07,289 --> 00:20:12,043 I live in Newport, Rhode Island, and I was 318 00:20:12,044 --> 00:20:15,881 a volunteer for the Young Survival Coalition Cycling. 319 00:20:19,260 --> 00:20:21,804 Sarah told me she was a flight attendant who was 320 00:20:21,929 --> 00:20:23,722 on leave for treatment. 321 00:20:23,723 --> 00:20:25,849 She had a 14-month-old daughter, 322 00:20:25,850 --> 00:20:28,059 and her name was Bindi. 323 00:20:28,060 --> 00:20:31,981 And that during the course of the charity ride weekend, 324 00:20:32,106 --> 00:20:35,650 she had gotten the information from her doctor that her cancer 325 00:20:35,651 --> 00:20:37,069 had progressed to stage four, 326 00:20:38,904 --> 00:20:41,282 and that she hadn't told her husband yet. 327 00:20:42,783 --> 00:20:44,993 That really just grabbed at me. 328 00:20:44,994 --> 00:20:47,662 [suspenseful piano plays] 329 00:20:47,663 --> 00:20:51,499 Here we see Sarah emotionally targeting Lis, just the way 330 00:20:51,500 --> 00:20:54,502 she did with Erin and with Bethany. 331 00:20:54,503 --> 00:20:55,546 Here we go again. 332 00:20:58,132 --> 00:20:59,716 From there, our relationship 333 00:20:59,717 --> 00:21:00,718 really progressed. 334 00:21:02,344 --> 00:21:05,890 It was at that time that she said she was going to fly 335 00:21:06,015 --> 00:21:07,683 into Fort Lauderdale for the weekend 336 00:21:07,808 --> 00:21:09,685 to come visit me with her bike. 337 00:21:11,020 --> 00:21:13,063 ♪ 338 00:21:14,315 --> 00:21:15,983 [Elisabeth] Sarah showed up at our house, 339 00:21:17,359 --> 00:21:19,028 and she had a bike in a bike box. 340 00:21:20,529 --> 00:21:23,032 One of the things that the Young Survival Coalition 341 00:21:23,157 --> 00:21:26,368 does is if you don't have a bike, they would donate 342 00:21:26,494 --> 00:21:29,204 nice bikes so you could participate. 343 00:21:29,205 --> 00:21:33,083 So Sarah had applied for one of these donated bikes 344 00:21:33,209 --> 00:21:34,376 and been given a bike. 345 00:21:35,795 --> 00:21:38,713 When she took her bike out of the box, I said, 346 00:21:38,714 --> 00:21:39,798 "Well, that's interesting. 347 00:21:39,799 --> 00:21:42,593 "That's not the bike that our charity gave you. 348 00:21:42,718 --> 00:21:44,053 Where did that bike come from?" 349 00:21:45,304 --> 00:21:47,138 And she told me that 350 00:21:47,139 --> 00:21:51,560 Southwest Airlines had lost that bike when she flew home 351 00:21:51,685 --> 00:21:53,144 from the charity ride, 352 00:21:53,145 --> 00:21:56,065 and they had given her an insurance claim, 353 00:21:56,190 --> 00:21:57,608 and she went out and bought this bike, 354 00:21:58,818 --> 00:22:00,152 which was a little bit nicer. 355 00:22:04,198 --> 00:22:07,409 After that point, a Google search of her name 356 00:22:07,535 --> 00:22:11,455 turned up the fact that she had lost her nursing license 357 00:22:11,580 --> 00:22:15,250 in Oklahoma and Virginia was the official notice 358 00:22:15,251 --> 00:22:16,668 from the nursing board saying 359 00:22:16,669 --> 00:22:20,421 that she had faked pregnancies not once, but twice. 360 00:22:20,422 --> 00:22:22,800 It became apparent that her cancer was fake. 361 00:22:25,427 --> 00:22:28,847 Just when you think there could be nothing worse than cancer, 362 00:22:28,848 --> 00:22:32,935 she created a situation to divert my attention to her, 363 00:22:33,060 --> 00:22:34,520 and that became the stalker. 364 00:22:36,230 --> 00:22:37,438 She told me about the stalker 365 00:22:37,439 --> 00:22:39,607 was texting her that she's in love with her husband 366 00:22:39,608 --> 00:22:42,570 and they're gonna be together after Sarah's gone. 367 00:22:43,946 --> 00:22:46,614 Sarah isn't pretty enough for him anyway. 368 00:22:46,615 --> 00:22:49,033 She told me that the stalker knows how to cut the brakes 369 00:22:49,034 --> 00:22:51,995 on a car and make a death look like an accident. 370 00:22:51,996 --> 00:22:53,414 The FBI was involved. 371 00:22:54,874 --> 00:22:58,002 They wanted to set up a trap for the stalker. 372 00:22:58,127 --> 00:23:00,796 And they wanted Sarah to go to a store 373 00:23:00,921 --> 00:23:03,172 in O'Fallon, Illinois, 374 00:23:03,173 --> 00:23:06,342 and just shop to try to lure her out. 375 00:23:06,343 --> 00:23:10,514 And would I FaceTime with her during that time 376 00:23:10,639 --> 00:23:13,641 that she was gonna be bait walking around the store. 377 00:23:13,642 --> 00:23:15,019 So she just looks like an average shopper. 378 00:23:15,144 --> 00:23:18,147 And I said, "Yeah, OK, sure." And after about 45 minutes, 379 00:23:18,272 --> 00:23:19,648 she went out into the parking lot. 380 00:23:21,483 --> 00:23:23,526 She said, "Lis, I see her." 381 00:23:23,527 --> 00:23:26,947 And at that moment, I said, "Sarah, run." 382 00:23:27,990 --> 00:23:29,532 I was never more scared at that moment. 383 00:23:29,533 --> 00:23:31,368 I don't know where to tell her to go. 384 00:23:31,493 --> 00:23:33,495 She told me that shots had been fired, 385 00:23:35,164 --> 00:23:36,165 and then the call dropped. 386 00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:41,837 And maybe about five minutes go by, and she called back. 387 00:23:41,962 --> 00:23:43,714 And she said, "They got her. 388 00:23:43,839 --> 00:23:45,256 She's been apprehended." 389 00:23:45,257 --> 00:23:49,178 She said, there were, you know, seven bullet shot, 390 00:23:49,303 --> 00:23:51,387 you know, five people were injured 391 00:23:51,388 --> 00:23:53,349 and that a bullet hit her in the knee. 392 00:23:53,474 --> 00:23:55,851 Like, this-- this is crazy. 393 00:23:57,728 --> 00:24:00,564 There was nothing in the media about it, 394 00:24:00,689 --> 00:24:02,066 and that just struck me as odd. 395 00:24:04,193 --> 00:24:05,736 Then a couple of calls made, 396 00:24:05,861 --> 00:24:08,446 one to the Highland Police Department, saying, like, 397 00:24:08,447 --> 00:24:10,698 "Hey, did this happen?" 398 00:24:10,699 --> 00:24:13,117 And the Highland Police laughed. 399 00:24:13,118 --> 00:24:14,995 He's like, "That never happened." 400 00:24:16,914 --> 00:24:20,875 I felt taken advantage of. It was pissed off. 401 00:24:20,876 --> 00:24:24,420 These are not the acts of someone who is sane. 402 00:24:24,421 --> 00:24:26,382 I was very afraid of her. Terrified. 403 00:24:29,218 --> 00:24:31,719 I think at that point, it was just all about getting 404 00:24:31,720 --> 00:24:34,264 information, going down every rabbit hole. 405 00:24:36,433 --> 00:24:38,894 Like, understanding what her past was like. 406 00:24:41,105 --> 00:24:45,441 [Sarah] Sarah grew up in a suburb in Illinois called Highland. 407 00:24:45,442 --> 00:24:48,111 Her parents divorced when she was a baby, and her dad 408 00:24:48,112 --> 00:24:49,278 was a long-haul trucker, 409 00:24:49,279 --> 00:24:51,198 so he wasn't around a whole lot. 410 00:24:53,659 --> 00:24:57,286 In speaking to people close with Sarah, there is some 411 00:24:57,287 --> 00:25:01,417 element of trauma that she's experienced in her past 412 00:25:01,542 --> 00:25:03,085 that has 413 00:25:04,294 --> 00:25:08,756 led her to think that lying is more comfortable 414 00:25:08,757 --> 00:25:10,092 than the truth. 415 00:25:10,217 --> 00:25:14,096 Her aunt told us about Camp Summit. 416 00:25:14,221 --> 00:25:17,099 She told us how that ended with the pastor confronting her. 417 00:25:18,851 --> 00:25:20,935 She said, "She'd been at it since high school, 418 00:25:20,936 --> 00:25:23,313 you know, with a story of one kind or another." 419 00:25:24,940 --> 00:25:28,444 So that opened up a whole other channel to meet other victims. 420 00:25:31,780 --> 00:25:33,991 I got a phone call from Lis. 421 00:25:34,116 --> 00:25:37,035 We were all definitely very fired up, like, "We have to do 422 00:25:37,036 --> 00:25:39,871 "something because she's gonna go do this to other moms, 423 00:25:39,872 --> 00:25:42,249 other women, other people's children." 424 00:25:43,792 --> 00:25:47,171 [Elisabeth] I tried to wrap my head around, "This woman is not OK." 425 00:25:49,089 --> 00:25:50,966 And she needs help. 426 00:25:51,091 --> 00:25:54,886 And, you know, on a really crazy thought, I was like, 427 00:25:54,887 --> 00:25:57,013 "You know what?" I'll just throw a call out to 428 00:25:57,014 --> 00:25:59,308 Dr. Phil and see if he'll take this on himself. 429 00:26:01,727 --> 00:26:02,978 [Bethany] Lis and I were already on stage. 430 00:26:03,103 --> 00:26:05,688 Sarah starts walking down, and I almost looked at Dr. Phil 431 00:26:05,689 --> 00:26:08,399 and said, "This isn't the same person." 432 00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:11,360 I didn't mean to hurt you guys the way that I did. 433 00:26:11,361 --> 00:26:14,031 Just such a compulsion that I couldn't control. 434 00:26:14,156 --> 00:26:17,742 [Dr. Phil] Are you saying that your lying is an irresistible impulse? 435 00:26:17,743 --> 00:26:19,035 I can't resist it. 436 00:26:19,036 --> 00:26:22,039 No matter what I do, it just takes over my life. 437 00:26:22,164 --> 00:26:24,166 Even when I tell myself I wanna choose to be honest, 438 00:26:24,291 --> 00:26:27,043 I cannot be honest with myself or with people. 439 00:26:27,044 --> 00:26:29,337 So you are a total sociopath. 440 00:26:29,338 --> 00:26:31,340 [suspenseful music playing] 441 00:26:33,509 --> 00:26:37,387 So at the end of the episode, she agreed to go to a mental 442 00:26:37,513 --> 00:26:39,889 health treatment facility that Dr. Phil had set up. 443 00:26:39,890 --> 00:26:42,016 And so she left the show and went straight to that 444 00:26:42,017 --> 00:26:44,185 facility in Southern California. 445 00:26:44,186 --> 00:26:45,770 And then to find out a few weeks later, 446 00:26:45,771 --> 00:26:49,483 she left the facility and just went back home. 447 00:26:52,194 --> 00:26:54,238 ♪ 448 00:26:57,616 --> 00:27:00,702 I got a Facebook message from my friend Mary. 449 00:27:00,828 --> 00:27:02,579 She sent me a clip to 450 00:27:02,704 --> 00:27:05,414 the Dr. Phil show, and she said, "Oh, my God, doesn't this sound 451 00:27:05,415 --> 00:27:07,750 like crazy Sarah?" So I watched it, and I said, 452 00:27:07,751 --> 00:27:09,545 "[bleep] me, it's her." 453 00:27:09,670 --> 00:27:13,548 I posted on the Dr. Phil Facebook. 454 00:27:13,549 --> 00:27:16,093 I've been chasing her around since 2006. 455 00:27:16,218 --> 00:27:18,261 Everybody beware Sarah Delashmit. 456 00:27:18,262 --> 00:27:20,304 And because I used her last name, 457 00:27:20,305 --> 00:27:23,766 Beth and Lis knew that I knew her. 458 00:27:23,767 --> 00:27:25,269 And they Facebook messaged me and said, 459 00:27:25,394 --> 00:27:27,770 "What do you mean 2006?" 460 00:27:27,771 --> 00:27:29,773 And I said, "Oh, man, let me tell you a story." 461 00:27:35,154 --> 00:27:37,156 [soft, heavenly music playing] 462 00:27:48,208 --> 00:27:50,668 [Andrea] My friend has a personality theory that everybody 463 00:27:50,669 --> 00:27:52,503 is a Winnie the Pooh character. 464 00:27:52,504 --> 00:27:54,047 And I said, "Well, which one am I?" 465 00:27:54,173 --> 00:27:56,049 He said, "Oh, you're Kanga, because everybody 466 00:27:56,175 --> 00:27:57,509 "you care about, you adopt them, 467 00:27:57,634 --> 00:27:59,886 "you put them in your pocket and hop around with them. 468 00:27:59,887 --> 00:28:00,928 "You know, you're a very protective, 469 00:28:00,929 --> 00:28:01,930 like, mother figure." 470 00:28:03,891 --> 00:28:06,351 But the other thing about me is that I'm also very dangerous. 471 00:28:07,603 --> 00:28:08,979 If you piss me off, I'm done with you. 472 00:28:10,647 --> 00:28:13,232 I had myself drawn as a kangaroo, 473 00:28:13,233 --> 00:28:14,318 but with a scorpion's tail. 474 00:28:16,028 --> 00:28:17,029 I'm Andrea Smith. 475 00:28:20,991 --> 00:28:23,743 ♪ 476 00:28:23,744 --> 00:28:27,206 [Andrea] I was a stay-at-home mom in a little town outside 477 00:28:27,331 --> 00:28:28,832 of Greenville, South Carolina. 478 00:28:31,793 --> 00:28:35,588 And one day, an old friend had posted that they had just lost 479 00:28:35,589 --> 00:28:39,760 their four-month-old daughter to SMA. 480 00:28:39,885 --> 00:28:42,470 SMA stands for spinal muscular atrophy. 481 00:28:42,471 --> 00:28:45,432 It's a progressive degenerative disease that causes muscle 482 00:28:45,557 --> 00:28:48,268 weakness and wasting away. 483 00:28:48,393 --> 00:28:50,395 It can be terminal at a very young age. 484 00:28:51,897 --> 00:28:53,648 [Andrea] I started reading all these kids' stories. 485 00:28:53,649 --> 00:28:57,401 And after a month, I was like, "I feel like I need to get 486 00:28:57,402 --> 00:29:01,656 involved somehow." So I organized two gatherings. 487 00:29:01,657 --> 00:29:05,660 In 2006, Andrea's a volunteer in the SMA community. 488 00:29:05,661 --> 00:29:10,248 She's helping manage this chat. And a woman named Connie joins. 489 00:29:10,249 --> 00:29:14,920 And she expresses extreme concern, devastation over 490 00:29:15,045 --> 00:29:18,423 a recent diagnosis of her son, Drake. 491 00:29:18,548 --> 00:29:21,260 [Andrea] There were pictures that she posted that said, 492 00:29:21,385 --> 00:29:22,844 "This is Drake. Isn't he cute?" 493 00:29:24,888 --> 00:29:27,599 A few weeks after Connie joined the chat, 494 00:29:27,724 --> 00:29:31,811 Megan joined the chat. Megan was mom to a little girl. 495 00:29:31,812 --> 00:29:36,149 And at some point, Connie and Megan were talking 496 00:29:36,275 --> 00:29:37,858 to each other, but their grammar, 497 00:29:37,859 --> 00:29:40,778 their terms of phrase were the same. 498 00:29:40,779 --> 00:29:44,616 They both misspelled the same common word the same way. 499 00:29:44,741 --> 00:29:48,161 "Tomarrow." T O M A R R O W. 500 00:29:48,287 --> 00:29:49,955 From, you know, Drake and Connie. 501 00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:51,290 And then, 502 00:29:51,415 --> 00:29:53,834 "Oh, Lily is so beautiful. Have a great birthday." 503 00:29:53,959 --> 00:29:55,001 Tomarrow. 504 00:29:55,002 --> 00:29:59,797 T O M A R R O W, love Megan and Brooke. 505 00:29:59,798 --> 00:30:00,840 And I'm like, "Oh my God, 506 00:30:00,841 --> 00:30:02,174 this bitch is talking to herself." 507 00:30:02,175 --> 00:30:05,304 [suspenseful music playing] 508 00:30:05,429 --> 00:30:08,681 So I got one Connie email and I got one from Megan email. 509 00:30:08,682 --> 00:30:10,976 I extended the headers and lo and behold, they were both 510 00:30:11,101 --> 00:30:12,311 in the same IP address. 511 00:30:12,436 --> 00:30:13,477 I felt really comfortable 512 00:30:13,478 --> 00:30:15,355 saying Megan and Connie were the same person. 513 00:30:16,398 --> 00:30:20,192 We were able to track the IP addresses to Sarah Delashmit 514 00:30:20,193 --> 00:30:22,653 in Highland, Illinois. 515 00:30:22,654 --> 00:30:26,700 So you need to understand that at this time, Sarah's actually 516 00:30:26,825 --> 00:30:29,744 21 years old, living with her mother, whose name is 517 00:30:29,745 --> 00:30:34,707 Connie, the same name that appears in this SMA chat room. 518 00:30:34,708 --> 00:30:37,544 And this is at the same time she's met Erin 519 00:30:38,587 --> 00:30:42,882 and told Erin that she has a sister named Gabby with SMA. 520 00:30:42,883 --> 00:30:44,593 So she's carrying on this 521 00:30:45,761 --> 00:30:49,764 deceptive SMA behavior in two different places, 522 00:30:49,765 --> 00:30:51,558 one with Erin and one in the chat room. 523 00:30:53,852 --> 00:30:55,519 [Andrea] And that's when we started looking at 524 00:30:55,520 --> 00:30:58,023 the other chat boards, and we found her everywhere. 525 00:31:00,359 --> 00:31:04,028 She had been active on the Muscular Dystrophy Association chat boards, 526 00:31:04,029 --> 00:31:06,906 claiming she either had herself 527 00:31:06,907 --> 00:31:10,410 or had children with various forms of muscular dystrophy. 528 00:31:10,535 --> 00:31:14,331 There's something-- there's something not right in there. 529 00:31:17,042 --> 00:31:19,086 And I didn't think about her for years after that, 530 00:31:19,211 --> 00:31:20,545 until the Dr. Phil show. 531 00:31:22,047 --> 00:31:24,674 I wasn't surprised at all that her behavior had escalated. 532 00:31:27,052 --> 00:31:28,470 And it's gonna continue to get worse. 533 00:31:29,513 --> 00:31:31,598 I think Sarah is a dangerous sociopath. 534 00:31:33,350 --> 00:31:35,226 So I got in touch with Lis and Beth, and they said, 535 00:31:35,227 --> 00:31:36,561 "Like, we don't know what to do to stop her." 536 00:31:36,686 --> 00:31:38,229 And I said, "We need to call the cops." 537 00:31:38,230 --> 00:31:39,438 What are the cops gonna do? 538 00:31:39,439 --> 00:31:41,899 It's like, "Well, because of the bike that she got, 539 00:31:41,900 --> 00:31:43,276 you know, maybe you can get her for a fraud." 540 00:31:46,029 --> 00:31:47,989 ♪ 541 00:31:50,158 --> 00:31:52,452 I'm Officer David Brines. 542 00:31:52,577 --> 00:31:53,994 I've been with the Highland Police Department 543 00:31:53,995 --> 00:31:55,789 approximately 17 years. 544 00:31:56,873 --> 00:31:58,458 After the Dr. Phil show aired, 545 00:31:58,583 --> 00:32:01,127 I received a call from a lady named-- 546 00:32:01,128 --> 00:32:02,129 Andrea Smith. 547 00:32:03,922 --> 00:32:06,924 Andrea had stated that Sarah had received a bike donated 548 00:32:06,925 --> 00:32:11,178 to her charity bike ride for the Young Survivors Coalition. 549 00:32:11,179 --> 00:32:14,348 The value of that bike was approximately $650. 550 00:32:14,349 --> 00:32:16,935 At this point, we called a local FBI agent. 551 00:32:17,060 --> 00:32:19,062 ♪ 552 00:32:20,814 --> 00:32:22,816 [Scott speaking] 553 00:32:26,862 --> 00:32:28,280 My name is Scott Verseman. 554 00:32:28,405 --> 00:32:30,823 I'm the chief of the Fraud and Corruption Section 555 00:32:30,824 --> 00:32:32,451 for the United States Attorney's Office 556 00:32:32,576 --> 00:32:33,952 for the Southern District of Illinois. 557 00:32:35,412 --> 00:32:39,499 The harm that Sarah Delashmit caused was phenomenal. 558 00:32:39,624 --> 00:32:42,627 What she stole went way beyond monetary value. 559 00:32:42,752 --> 00:32:46,672 She stole and harmed the emotions of people, 560 00:32:46,673 --> 00:32:48,466 a lot of very, very good people 561 00:32:48,467 --> 00:32:50,552 who were trying to do very, very good things. 562 00:32:52,804 --> 00:32:57,224 So the FBI is investigating how she obtained two bicycles. 563 00:32:57,225 --> 00:33:00,895 One bicycle was donated to her with travel expenses 564 00:33:00,896 --> 00:33:03,647 by the Young Survival Coalition. 565 00:33:03,648 --> 00:33:05,316 They believe she's a cancer survivor. 566 00:33:05,317 --> 00:33:10,530 The other bicycle she bought on EBay, it's about $4,500, 567 00:33:10,655 --> 00:33:12,491 and she used her mother's credit card, 568 00:33:12,616 --> 00:33:15,535 and then intentionally lied to the bank that it was 569 00:33:15,660 --> 00:33:18,955 an unauthorized transaction, and she kept the bike. 570 00:33:21,666 --> 00:33:24,544 [Scott] The FBI obtained a search warrant for 571 00:33:24,669 --> 00:33:28,714 Sarah Delashmit's residence in Highland, Illinois. 572 00:33:28,715 --> 00:33:31,384 The agents were able to recover the triathlon bicycle from 573 00:33:31,510 --> 00:33:33,928 her house, so that was conclusive evidence that 574 00:33:33,929 --> 00:33:36,181 that she had lied to the credit card company. 575 00:33:38,433 --> 00:33:41,353 Grand jury returned an eight-count indictment, 576 00:33:41,478 --> 00:33:45,357 four counts of wire fraud, one count of mail fraud, 577 00:33:45,482 --> 00:33:47,359 and three counts of aggravated identity theft. 578 00:33:49,236 --> 00:33:53,406 In October 2020, Sarah pled guilty and was sentenced 579 00:33:53,532 --> 00:33:55,825 to 18 months in federal prison. 580 00:33:58,870 --> 00:34:02,374 [Bethany] When Sarah pled guilty, I think we all kind of 581 00:34:02,499 --> 00:34:06,085 crossed our fingers, hoping that that sentence would 582 00:34:06,086 --> 00:34:08,880 make everything a little bit healthier. 583 00:34:11,550 --> 00:34:14,886 [Sarah] Sarah was released from prison in 2022. 584 00:34:16,346 --> 00:34:18,890 You know, she's got this, what should be, 585 00:34:19,015 --> 00:34:21,726 personally, a devastating humiliation. 586 00:34:22,727 --> 00:34:25,813 Instead of seemingly learning anything from it from that, 587 00:34:25,814 --> 00:34:26,815 she moves on. 588 00:34:29,025 --> 00:34:31,736 Sarah is back in Highland, Illinois, where she lives 589 00:34:31,861 --> 00:34:35,073 with her mother. And Sarah has a baby. 590 00:34:40,370 --> 00:34:42,288 [Beth] So Sarah gets out of prison. 591 00:34:42,289 --> 00:34:44,748 She goes back to Highland, Illinois, and moves in 592 00:34:44,749 --> 00:34:47,377 with her mother. Has a baby of her own. 593 00:34:48,628 --> 00:34:50,046 [Andrea] Some advice to whoever knocked her up. 594 00:34:51,214 --> 00:34:52,507 Don't stick your [bleep] in the crazy. 595 00:34:54,050 --> 00:34:57,387 But the question is, has Sarah Delashmit been rehabilitated? 596 00:34:57,512 --> 00:35:00,556 Has prison deterred her from future conduct? 597 00:35:00,557 --> 00:35:02,308 I don't think so, because she's 598 00:35:02,309 --> 00:35:04,603 joined this mom's group in Highland, Illinois. 599 00:35:05,812 --> 00:35:08,564 So here we go again. 600 00:35:08,565 --> 00:35:10,609 ♪ 601 00:35:12,402 --> 00:35:13,612 I'm Ansley. 602 00:35:13,737 --> 00:35:15,071 I'm a producer on "The Curious Case of..." 603 00:35:15,196 --> 00:35:17,824 and I've been investigating the Sarah Delashmit case. 604 00:35:19,826 --> 00:35:23,455 I had been contacting Sarah Delashmit for a few weeks 605 00:35:23,580 --> 00:35:25,414 with very limited response. 606 00:35:25,415 --> 00:35:29,586 So I ended up going to Highland, Illinois myself 607 00:35:29,711 --> 00:35:32,004 and knocking on her door. 608 00:35:32,005 --> 00:35:35,466 Her mother answered and came to the door and brought 609 00:35:35,467 --> 00:35:36,926 Sarah to me. 610 00:35:37,052 --> 00:35:41,931 We spoke on her stoop for 30 minutes. 611 00:35:43,516 --> 00:35:46,018 Yeah, it was just kind of instant panic from her and just 612 00:35:46,019 --> 00:35:48,146 kind of saying that she just wants to move on with her life 613 00:35:48,271 --> 00:35:51,815 and put this in the past. There were a lot of tears. 614 00:35:51,816 --> 00:35:53,276 I did hug her to calm her down. 615 00:35:54,986 --> 00:35:57,280 She just kind of repeated the same statements over 616 00:35:57,405 --> 00:36:00,532 and over again, that she has changed, she's moved on, 617 00:36:00,533 --> 00:36:03,787 she wants to move on, nobody's letting her move on. 618 00:36:03,912 --> 00:36:06,664 I did get the impression that she wanted me to feel 619 00:36:06,665 --> 00:36:08,124 for her in some way. 620 00:36:09,876 --> 00:36:15,214 I think she wants this national story to go away, and she wants 621 00:36:15,215 --> 00:36:17,801 to protect her current job that she has now. 622 00:36:43,576 --> 00:36:47,871 [Ansley] And I do believe that Sarah is in some ways trying to continue 623 00:36:47,872 --> 00:36:51,042 this behavior because I did identify, you know, 624 00:36:51,167 --> 00:36:56,172 a couple mom groups or a Bible study across town that she had 625 00:36:56,297 --> 00:36:57,340 started to infiltrate. 626 00:37:00,927 --> 00:37:02,971 [woman singing opera] 627 00:37:19,779 --> 00:37:24,032 This is the plaque that I got for being inducted into 628 00:37:24,033 --> 00:37:27,120 the Music Hall of Fame in Valmeyer, Illinois. 629 00:37:28,288 --> 00:37:29,289 That's right. 630 00:37:30,498 --> 00:37:32,500 [fun music playing] 631 00:37:34,377 --> 00:37:35,794 My name is Paige. 632 00:37:35,795 --> 00:37:38,882 I have lived in Highland for about seven years. 633 00:37:39,007 --> 00:37:42,927 I am in a group on social media that is for the moms 634 00:37:43,052 --> 00:37:44,429 of Highland. 635 00:37:44,554 --> 00:37:46,389 You know, they say it takes a village to raise a child, 636 00:37:46,514 --> 00:37:47,724 and they're not kidding. 637 00:37:52,979 --> 00:37:57,942 I met Sarah Delashmit in October, 2024. 638 00:37:58,067 --> 00:38:00,028 She had her very small child. 639 00:38:02,155 --> 00:38:05,491 Sarah was talking about how she's an older first time mom, 640 00:38:05,492 --> 00:38:09,078 because she experienced 10 years of IVF treatments 641 00:38:09,204 --> 00:38:10,747 and infertility, so she was 642 00:38:10,872 --> 00:38:12,081 hoping to make some mom friends. 643 00:38:15,043 --> 00:38:20,256 She told me that her husband was a pilot for UPS, 644 00:38:20,381 --> 00:38:22,758 so he wasn't home very often. 645 00:38:22,759 --> 00:38:23,967 [baby crying] 646 00:38:23,968 --> 00:38:26,888 [Paige] So she spent a lot of time alone with the baby. 647 00:38:27,889 --> 00:38:30,809 I told her she was a strong example 648 00:38:30,934 --> 00:38:32,727 of what a mother can be. 649 00:38:34,521 --> 00:38:36,814 Please don't show the world my boob. 650 00:38:36,815 --> 00:38:38,023 That would be great. Thanks. 651 00:38:38,024 --> 00:38:39,442 [baby coos] 652 00:38:42,946 --> 00:38:45,781 [Paige] And then I noticed that when I would tell her something 653 00:38:45,782 --> 00:38:50,411 about my experience as a mom, she would echo what I had said. 654 00:38:53,248 --> 00:38:55,332 Like my breastfeeding journey. 655 00:38:55,333 --> 00:38:58,126 I had a pretty significant oversupply. 656 00:38:58,127 --> 00:39:00,337 So I would be nursing him 657 00:39:00,338 --> 00:39:03,174 and still pumping about four times a day. 658 00:39:03,299 --> 00:39:05,134 And she said that's what she was currently going 659 00:39:05,260 --> 00:39:07,345 through, that she had this oversupply and 660 00:39:07,470 --> 00:39:09,639 she was nursing her baby, but 661 00:39:09,764 --> 00:39:11,140 then she was still having to pump 662 00:39:11,266 --> 00:39:13,308 about four times a day. 663 00:39:13,309 --> 00:39:18,481 Then she made a post in a breast milk group looking 664 00:39:18,606 --> 00:39:19,983 for breast milk donations. 665 00:39:21,025 --> 00:39:25,154 It's like, "Oh, that's not what a mom with an oversupply does." 666 00:39:25,280 --> 00:39:28,907 And also, I had never seen her nurse, her child. 667 00:39:28,908 --> 00:39:30,409 It was only bottles. 668 00:39:30,410 --> 00:39:33,872 She was just taking pieces of my story and making them 669 00:39:33,997 --> 00:39:37,583 her own, and I wasn't even sure if what she was telling me 670 00:39:37,584 --> 00:39:39,001 was the truth. 671 00:39:39,002 --> 00:39:41,545 I was noticing more inconsistencies. 672 00:39:41,546 --> 00:39:45,424 Like, Sarah originally told me her husband was a UPS pilot, 673 00:39:45,425 --> 00:39:48,677 and then I overheard her telling a completely 674 00:39:48,678 --> 00:39:52,140 different story to somebody who was 20 feet away from me. 675 00:39:53,474 --> 00:39:56,518 I honestly don't know if Sarah will ever stop lying 676 00:39:56,519 --> 00:39:59,188 and just be happy with the way that her life is. 677 00:39:59,314 --> 00:40:03,525 That's what I want for her, but I have no idea if that's 678 00:40:03,526 --> 00:40:05,194 what she'll come around to. 679 00:40:05,320 --> 00:40:06,487 [dark chords play] 680 00:40:08,448 --> 00:40:12,243 Sarah needs people who want to help, places where there's 681 00:40:12,368 --> 00:40:14,244 a wellspring of compassion. 682 00:40:14,245 --> 00:40:16,956 Those are the places that she turned into hunting grounds. 683 00:40:19,876 --> 00:40:23,254 I think that the people that she's come in contact with 684 00:40:23,379 --> 00:40:27,758 recently just kind of like eyes wide shut, you know? 685 00:40:27,759 --> 00:40:29,927 This kind of stuff doesn't happen in Highland, Illinois. 686 00:40:29,928 --> 00:40:31,012 Well, yes, it does. 687 00:40:32,805 --> 00:40:33,848 And it will happen again. 688 00:40:35,183 --> 00:40:39,311 [Sarah] The victims in her wake feel very strongly about the things 689 00:40:39,312 --> 00:40:43,732 that she has done to them. They keep tabs on her. 690 00:40:43,733 --> 00:40:44,776 I think she should get locked up 691 00:40:44,901 --> 00:40:46,027 away for the rest of her life. 692 00:40:48,071 --> 00:40:49,530 Yeah, she's a danger to society. 693 00:40:51,240 --> 00:40:53,618 I will never take my foot off her neck. 694 00:40:55,161 --> 00:40:56,412 I will always know where she is 695 00:40:57,497 --> 00:40:59,247 and what she's up to. 696 00:40:59,248 --> 00:41:02,250 When it comes to Sarah, her documented history 697 00:41:02,251 --> 00:41:05,170 of deceit, that's gonna follow her all her life. 698 00:41:05,171 --> 00:41:07,632 So she may say she's changed, but the question is-- 699 00:41:08,758 --> 00:41:10,134 has she really changed or has 700 00:41:10,259 --> 00:41:13,596 she just found another way to deceive someone? 701 00:41:14,639 --> 00:41:16,139 [Andrea] I've been tracking this crazy broad 702 00:41:16,140 --> 00:41:17,600 around the internet for 20 years 703 00:41:19,102 --> 00:41:21,104 because the only way to stop her from doing something that's 704 00:41:21,229 --> 00:41:23,606 going to eventually harm somebody, really harm somebody, 705 00:41:23,731 --> 00:41:26,317 is being treated and or put in a box. 706 00:41:27,318 --> 00:41:28,486 One of those two things. 707 00:41:28,611 --> 00:41:31,155 And if she's not gonna get treated, I wanna make sure 708 00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:32,281 that she's in that box.