All Episodes

May 5, 2025 3 mins

Sarah was everything people wanted her to be—until she wasn’t. 


Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah is available wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe to Pushkin+ to binge the entire season, ad-free. Find Pushkin+ on the Deep Cover show page in Apple Podcasts or at Pushkin.fm.

Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin
Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.fm/plus

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Pushkin. She was a decorated veteran, a marine who saved
her comrades a hero.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
She had been in a convoy and her vehicle was
hit by an ID. The door from the humphe like
crushed her hip.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
I was just like, goodness, gracious, the amount of tragedy
in trauma. I just resolved like I am gonna do
everything that I can do to help you.

Speaker 4 (00:48):
She was stoic, modest, tough, someone who inspired people.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
I liked her. I liked her a lot. She worked
really hard and she was really humble. She was injured
and everybody knew it, but she was still running.

Speaker 4 (01:06):
I distinctly remember her saying, if I'm going to have
to have my leg amputated, then I'm gonna make this
bitch give me every last ounce of what it's got
to give.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
There were also moments when she said things that seemed
a little off or just didn't add up, but no
one called her on it, at least not at first.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
That's kind of like if you had a friend that
told you that she'd had a miscarriage, the very last
thing that you're going to do to that friend while
she's crying about losing a baby is ask her if
that actually happened. Everyone thought they knew her until they didn't.

Speaker 5 (01:50):
Picked up the phone just to check my messages before
I went back to work, and that she said, you
need to come home. The FBI is here.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
I remember sitting on her couch and asking her, is
this real?

Speaker 3 (02:02):
Is this real? Is this real? Is this real?

Speaker 6 (02:04):
I just couldn't wrap my head around what kind of
person would do that to another person that was getting treatment,
that was, you know, dying.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
This is a story all about trust and about a
woman named Sarah Cavanaugh.

Speaker 5 (02:23):
When you live two separate lives for so long, it
feels normal.

Speaker 4 (02:28):
Who's decided to share her side.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Of the story.

Speaker 5 (02:31):
I've always been told I'm a really good listener, right,
and I maximize that people. When you create space, people
fill that space.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
I'm Jay Calburn and I'm Jess McHugh. Deep Cover the
Truth about Sarah, coming May twelfth from Pushkin Industries
Advertise With Us

Host

Jake Halpern

Jake Halpern

Popular Podcasts

Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

The Burden

The Burden

The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2026 iHeartMedia, Inc.