How Stolen Valor Was Discovered
Sarah Jane Cavanaugh
There has been quite a bit of news coverage about Sarah Cavanaugh being charged with Stolen Valer for her alleged scheme to defraud people out of money posing as a wounded Marine.
We wrote about her here: https://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=123957
This article, however, takes a different slant and focuses on how observant people questioned her story and brought light to it.
How Sleuths Blew the Lid on Accused Purple Heart Fraudster
VA social worker Sarah Jane Cavanaugh delivered an Oscar-worthy performance as a wounded Marine dying of lung cancer—until two actual veterans grew suspicious.
A New England woman is accused of posing as a combat-wounded Marine Corps veteran and defrauding various charities out of hundreds of thousands of dollars while faking Stage IV cancer she falsely claimed was due to toxic exposure from burn pits in Iraq as well as an IED blast in Afghanistan.
Sarah Jane Cavanaugh, 31, claimed she was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star while serving in the Marines from 2009 to 2016, according to a complaint unsealed Monday in Rhode Island federal court. The feds say Cavanaugh, who never served but held down a job as a social worker at a Veterans’ Affairs Medical Center in Providence, falsified official documents she pilfered from patients at the VA to make her story more realistic. To complete the alleged ruse, Cavanaugh talked her way into a position as commander of her local VFW, even emceeing an event last year to mark the opening of the state’s Purple Heart Trail.
Later…
Cavanaugh turned in an Oscar-worthy performance, said Chelsey Simoni, a registered nurse, Army veteran, and the executive director of the HunterSeven Foundation, a Rhode Island-based charity that advocates for post-9/11 veterans suffering from cancer and other serious medical conditions. But after doing a bit of digging, Simoni eventually realized something wasn’t right about Cavanaugh, who appeared in full Marine Corps uniform at multiple veterans’ events, and in January Simoni took her concerns to authorities.
When U.S. Marine Corps Major Thomas Schueman first met Cavanaugh a few years back, he was impressed. She appeared “very compelling, she said all the right words, had all the lingo down,” Schueman recalled.
Then…
“Once or twice, something raised a red flag, but there was something about her that made me push the ‘I believe’ button and move past it,” Schueman said. “She said she was a female veteran, and you want to see this great story out of this female veteran.”
Later on, a hospital bill appeared odd, and a supplied DD-214 had discrepancies – namely a Social Security number that wasn’t Cavanaugh’s.
By the end of the day, Schueman felt he “knew for a fact” that Cavanaugh didn’t have a Purple Heart or a Bronze Star, and that the Social Security Number on her DD-214 wasn’t hers. When Schueman gave her a chance to come clean, he said Cavanaugh insisted the “deep state” was out to get her.
“She had the audacity to call me 24 hours later and ask if I was able to get the money from the donor,” said Schueman, who told Cavanaugh that he was going to have to “pause” the hiring process until he could get to the bottom of things.
On Jan. 27, Simoni called the VA Medical Center in Providence to report Cavanaugh.
A very common reaction is to dismiss oddities because it is hard to believe someone would have the audacity to perpetrate such a lie, but eventually, we can accept the fact that people lie.
Category: Bronze Star, Marine Corps, Marines, Purple Heart, Stolen Valor
The thought of “Come on, would someone lie to that degree?” comes to mind to which the unfortunate response is yeas.
After all, just look no further than the False Commander “Phony” Phil Monkress (CEO of All-Points Logistics).
When Schueman gave her a chance to come clean, he said Cavanaugh insisted the “deep state” was out to get her.
Beware the “deep state” – there are a lot of people that were brought down over it.
1st is deep state, next is sheep dipped!
Next is usually something like “My records are classified, and only the White House can authorize disclosure…” or some ka-ka like that.
Don’t forget the fire. Oh wait, her fake service was too recent to use the fire as an excuse for lack of service records
It pains me that I can’t talk about it.
Fight through it. I want to live vicariously through your swindle fantasies and stolen stories.
Except on Facebook.
Or on a bar stool.
Facebook is a SCIF.
Fifth Level Top Secret Codeword clearance only, can’t tell ya.
Or “You’d need a ‘Q’ Level Top Secret Clearance to be able to access my records…”
Don’t forget the secret decoder ring.
Next up: “I was court-martialed for a war crime I didn’t commit.” 😀
I always thought there were a few missing members of the A-Team.
You could Google “the girls of the A Team.” But DO NOT google it on your work computer. Legal Notice: with that warning, I’m not responsible for you getting fired for accessing pRon at work if you do.
And now survive as a mercenary in the Los Angeles underground. If you are desperate enough, maybe you can hire The Dutch Rudder Gang.
“They want to get rid of me because I know too much.”
It’s bad enough when the Sarah Cavanaughs if the world show up at the annual Golden Corral feeding frenzy, or take that sweet discount (and parking space) at Lowe’s. A simple pimp-slap and public mockery is usually sufficient punishment in those cases.
But when they engage in defrauding taxpayers and charitable organizations, I hope that sentences start getting tougher. Too much of this nonsense happening nowadays.
Rant complete.
I don’t even think about showing up to the Golden Trough feeding frenzy.
Hard pass even without a crowd.
Are they going to have another brawl when the steak runs out? That was classic!
Enjoy prison.
Oddly we had a few of these actors while I was waiting for my paperwork giving me the boot
At Fort Lewis a few were definitely Oscar worthy
It’s obvious that such people have no imagination.
I can convince people that I was in Space Fleet, that I was a certified Space Shuttle Door Gunner, all that stuff, because I have all that patch and badge stuff, and they’re so disappointed when I dump the sci-fi stuff and wear jeans and a tee shirt instead.
It’s also fun to pretend to be a member of the Court of the Queen at the Ren Faire, but then you have to wear a hoop shirt, 7 petticoats, a bodicer over a corset, and enough layers to scare the laundry maids. And since the sleeves are pinned on instead of sewn on, you need help with that, too.
Life is fun when you’re playing dress-up. Trying to profit from it only works at the RenFaires, where people sell really good stuff to eat like beef or chicken pasties, mushrooms stewed in garlic and wine, and the inimitable corn dog on a stick.
“to be a member of the Court of the Queen at the Ren Faire, but then you have to wear a hoop shirt, 7 petticoats, a bodicer over a corset, and enough layers to scare the laundry maids. And since the sleeves are pinned on instead of sewn”
Challenge accepted. Petticoats at dawn.
Thank you for giving me a good giggle this early in the day! 😊 😊 😊
Better add a pair of them authentic, crotchless pantalettes, 5JC. You wouldn’t want to be accused of packing a “concealed weapon”. The hoops? They’re generally “boned”.
Dont make me open my secret closet.
She can play dress up for me… but I’m gonna need a bottle of Jameoh and some West Point Fun Powder™.
We busted a poser who tried to join our Purple Heart chapter. So we told him to come to our meeting and we will induct him. So, not only did the FBI show up, but he brought his Father-in-Law to watch him being inducted. Instead, he was led away in handcuffs and is now serving hard time. Not because of the Stolen Valor but he was fraudulently awarded government contracts.
Yo gave a poser a “perp walk” in front of a Family Member, what a cool happy ending!
Definitely something that his Father-in-law will never forget. Must have made for an interesting conversation with the daughter, “Honey, I told you he was a pice of shit!”
The Phil Monkressity of that statement cannot go overlooked….
I forgot to mention that his FIL was a Sergeant Major (E-9) in the army.
All-Points Logistics needs to upgrade its training program.
How many veterans are denied or rubber-stamped too low while Secret-Squirrels and Top Secret Navy Seals get 100% and other benefits?
Question – Does this VG/TAH page
on Military Records / FOIA need 2022 updating?
Or, is there another website / webpage
with fairly easy “do it yourself” instructions,
that anyone can just plop the link (with minimal manual typing)
to the many on FaceBook and elsewhere
who are asking about newly suspected local phonies?
The US Gov’t has slowed down (with FOIA requests),
but the phonies haven’t.
I am happy to drop links to this page, and the MP “Report Stolen Valor” page,
but it would be easier (and quicker) without all the additional typing.
It would also spare the staff(s) at MP and VG a lot of incoming.
Thanks.
[Military Records]
https://valorguardians.com/blog/?page_id=39605
We’re still getting a lot of submissions, but they are dating scams, no evidence of public claims, weak cases, etc. There is a lot of time spent with education as to what we require to open up a case.
The input form is still valuable since it prompts them for the information we need. Without it, there is a lot of back and forth to get what we need.
The following is extremely common…
EMAIL:
Hey, I have somebody I think is a fake, but I don’t want my name associated with it and I don’t want them to get in a lot of trouble. Can you tell me how all of this works and can you assure me my name is kept out of it.
(no details or name of person, just that they “have” someone)
ANSWER: Please use submission form. We never disclose information on an informant, nor do we even admit that there was a submission at all.
sbalm,
Thanks.
In the SV groups & pages on the Book of the Fake,
I often help those who post about suspected phonies,
differentiating between the dating scams,
the stolen photo 3rd world imposter accounts
(often Nigeria or Soviet Bloc countries),
and the actual in person USA based phonies.
I always remind to include ALL physical evidence,
such as photos, texts, PMs, screenshots, video, news stories, etc.,
and that “verbals don’t cut it” when reporting a suspected phony to MP.
It’s my thought, that many who post on the Book of the Fake, looking for help, can actually do it on their own,
if they knew how, and bothered to follow instructions,
especially those who are short on evidence.
This would alleviate MP & VG of some of the wasted time traffic.
Then again, that’s a lot of work.
Work that VFW Posts and other veterans orgs
often won’t do for themselves.
Either due to laziness, ineptitude, or
unwillingness to find and follow FOIA instructions.
There’s a factor missing from these stolen valor stories, though, and that in order for the fakers to succeed, they need a gullible sucker who so badly WANTS the story they’re selling.
That’s the real talent.
Anybody can say “I was a Special Force Recon SEAL Sniper Medal of Honor Fighter Pilot over Macho Grande” as they line up for their free meal at Applebees on November 11th.
But telling someone a story they DESPERATELY want to believe is the best way of telling a lie. It’s right up there with “sexy women want to send you naked pictures” emails to every middle-aged computer geek on the internet. Who WOULDN’T want that to be true?
That’s why Cavanaugh got away with so much crap. People in the news media and ieven in the VFW WANTED a story exactly like hers: Wounded FEMALE Marine combat vet dying of cancer. She covered every square on the “empathy” bingo card so OF COURSE they looked the other way.
I might have missed this along the way, but was she ever in the USMC?
Nope. The only uniform she’s ever worn is a prison uniform.
She used her position in the VA and her access to real veterans to fabricate a convincing story. She actually stole one guys DD-214 and modified it into her own fake DD-214. Literally “stolen valor.”
Got it.
Dude, that is low. Ain’t much lower one can limbo under that bar.
The dumb scrunt didn’t even bother to change the real veteran’s SSN on the stolen DD-214, so when the aforementioned suspicious major checked the records, he found it wasn’t even her SSN.
Correction: Obviously she’s “worn” a USMC uniform. Should have said “the only uniform she’s EARNED is a prison uniform.” 😉
In her case, that is a costume not a uniform.
Shack. Well said.
This is exactly why so many innocent, yet gullible, women get duped by POSers. They desperately want those blabbering assclowns to be the “war heroes” that they falsely claim to be.
I was on a regional flight on Monday, 30 minute hop, when 2 rows behind me I heard a guy bragging to the guy sitting next to him how he was SF, Airborne RECON, and how he was in the stan. What guy didn’t know was his seat mate was a retired MSgt of Marines, and all I heard from him was “you’re a phony, never a Marine and you need to stop talking to me before I throw you out of this plane, then you can prove your Airborne training”. I laughed so hard I spit out my complementary peanuts! Poser was quite rest of the flight, and made a B line for the terminal exit when we landed. I thanked the retired MSgt, and we both laughed about it!
No CAR on her uniform, yet a V device on her Bronze Star.? Her story would have fallen apart sooner or later.
P.S. I was a Doc so I know Marines would never let a uniform error like that slide in a million years.
Yep. No CAR or SSDR, and appears to be lacking a NDSM.
…and her EGA’s are pointed outboard.