7 Folgen
Sympathy Pains iHeart True Crime
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- Gesellschaft und Kultur
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3.0 • 2 Bewertungen
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Hosted by Laura Beil (Dr. Death, Bad Batch), Sympathy Pains is a six-part series from Neon Hum Media and iHeartRadio. For 20 years, Sarah Delashmit told people around her that she had cancer, muscular dystrophy, and other illnesses. She used a wheelchair and posted selfies from a hospital bed. She told friends and coworkers she was trapped in abusive relationships, or that she was the mother of children who had died. It was all a con. Sympathy was both her great need and her powerful weapon. But unlike most scams, she didn’t want people’s money. She was after something far more valuable.
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Bethany
Sarah shows up at a Texas camp for people with disabilities in the fall of 2015 in a power wheelchair, seemingly unable to move her body. During the week of camp, counselor Bethany Turner takes care of Sarah’s every need, bathing her, and even changing her menstrual pads. After camp is over, they speak almost daily. Then one day, Bethany gets a shocking call from the camp.
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Erin
This time, at a summer camp in California, Sarah Delashmit is a counselor. She becomes fast friends with Erin Johnson, a 23-year-old woman who was born with cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. Over the next decade, Erin supports Sarah, from afar, through setback after setback: a brain tumor, an Ebola infection, and multiple children born prematurely and dying. Erin mourns Sarah’s losses as if they were her own, and ultimately faces an even greater devastation.
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Liz
Liz Hickox works in financial services and volunteers for a breast cancer charity. At a bike ride for young survivors, she meets Sarah, who says she has stage 4 metastatic disease. Liz and her husband Brian welcome Sarah into their winter home in Florida and help her train for a triathlon– her single goal before she dies. After they discover the truth, they find other victims of Sarah’s scams and together vow to get her help, turning to an unlikely person: Dr. Phil.
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Andrea
Liz, Brian and Bethany confront Sarah on national television. Dr. Phil arranges psychiatric care for Sarah, after she leaves the set. Meanwhile, Andrea Smith, a stay-at-home mom in South Carolina, has been tracking Sarah across the internet for 20 years, warning non-profits not to allow her into their communities. Andrea even went to the police when Sarah was in college. Sarah’s past is about to catch up with her.
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Truth
Across the country, people who have known Sarah see the Dr. Phil show and learn the scope of her lies. Victims call police, who say they cannot prosecute Sarah because “it’s not a crime to fake cancer.” Soon, federal prosecutors learn of crimes they can prosecute Sarah for. But should her mental state be considered in the search for justice?
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Justice
Laura gets a call from a relative who provides insight into Sarah's past. Sarah has her day in court. Her victims have the chance to say their piece, but still struggle to make sense of what happened to them. The judge issues a surprising sentence.
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Kundenrezensionen
The moderator needs to lighten up the narrating
I give this podcast 1 star because I am hoping the producer/writer/someone will see this review.
Imo Laura Beil certainly has an eye for interesting stories - even though she isn’t the first to tell the stroy.
However, I find her way to narrate the story utterly annoying, either antiquated or just very bad… for me extremly annoying. If someone could explain to me why she does it, I would be very thankful.
Is there any way that she could read more naturally, not as if she was a 3. grader reading out loud.
If you are as annoyed as me, but find this kind of stories interesting, I invite you to listen to « Something Was Wrong ». Tiffany Reese, the moderator, is herself a survivior of an abusive relationship and does a much better job at narrating.
Sorry for the bad review… it had to be said.
although tye podcast “Something was wrong” also tells a similar story about a woman who acted like she was ill to attract attention, and other st