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This programme contains
emotional conversations

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around suicide and self harm

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that some viewers
may find upsetting.

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Most of the cases that I see,

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there's usually a business aspect.

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You're not really developing
a personal relationship

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with the people
that you're stealing from.

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For this one...

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This one stood out.

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Tacoma woman defrauded friends
of more than $0.5 million.

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You don't want to admit that you...

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...fell for it.

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It's manipulation.

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It's pulling on the heartstrings
of people who actually care.

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Ugh! I just... I'm sorry.

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The amount of harm that she caused

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in all of these amazing
communities...

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...is frightening.

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It's really scary.

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So Seattle is
a really, really nerdy city.

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We have a really vibrant comic book
and anime convention scene.

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A lot of introverts. The weirder,
more niche stuff that you're into,

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the more interesting you are.

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The burlesque in Seattle is
very vibrant.

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It's really neat.

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There's a big geek type of scene
in Seattle.

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You're part of one community.

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You have your toes in
some of these other communities.

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It's a group of fantastic misfits.

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My name is Aaron.

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I'm a software engineer.

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Specifically,
I'm a video game programmer...

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...programming how the characters
move,

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how the controls work,

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stuff like that.

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I really enjoy making things
that make other people happy.

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And when I'm not at work,

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I am an Eagle Scout.

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I really like to volunteer
and be of service

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and kind of help my community out.

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My graduating class literally
had one woman in it

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because it was big, nerdy school,
so not a lot of women went there.

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So back in 2007, I would say

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I was definitely looking
for a relationship.

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I was kind of aware of what
a disaster it can be, dating.

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So, one day I was going through
craigslist,

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and I came across this ad.

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It was essentially a rant
about how white guys in Seattle,

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which is the primary demographic
here, weren't really interested,

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or were afraid to date, black women.

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My first message, honestly,
was apologetic.

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So we're conversing a little bit.

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We send a couple pictures
back and forth.

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It was such a big deal to get
a date, at that point!

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We met at the off-leash dog park.

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I was terrified of dogs.

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My first impression of Sabrina
was she was super-cute.

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She was nerdy, was into
all the same things that I was.

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We were just chatting about anime,
comic books.

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It was a breath of fresh air
meeting a woman like that.

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She was finishing up her
double bachelor's

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in Women's Studies
And Public Health,

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going to go to med school, hopefully.

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Just really awesome.

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Sabrina and I just kind of
started hanging out more.

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I would go over to her apartment,

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and she came over to mine
a couple of times.

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We went on just movie dates.

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Sabrina made me feel, like,
appreciated and wanted.

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And that...

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Because we had so many nerdy things
in common,

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it made me feel less alone.

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Like, it made me feel like there was

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the possibility of feminine
companionship

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with someone who was also into
all the nerdy stuff I was into.

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Because I wasn't used to that.

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And then, like a month or two in...

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...we went to our first
Sakura-Con together.

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It's really an opportunity
to commune with people

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that are into a somewhat niche
interest.

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Anime, comic books.

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Everyone there has a huge amount
of passion.

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Going to Sakura-Con
with a girlfriend was just...

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It was revelatory.

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This was the first convention
like that that I'd really been to,

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so I got to meet all these new,
interesting people,

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and I got to meet them
with my girlfriend.

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Anime conventions are
the world's biggest costume party.

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It's so much fun.

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All can come, all can enjoy,

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and nobody is left out.

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I first met Sabrina the year

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that I was the assistant director
of relations for Sakura-Con.

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She was amazing.

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She was like, this warm,
charismatic,

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like, kind of goofy nerd.

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Kind of like me, you know?

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Like I'm a people person,

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and I really like making
new friends.

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And the whole reason I joined
Sakura-Con to begin with was,

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like, to make more friends.

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Because it's hard to do that
when you're grown-up, right?

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So, I met her and Aaron.

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We would play risk.

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We'd do, like, ridiculous day trips.

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We became really good friends.

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Aaron and Sabrina's relationship,
I thought, was sweet.

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Aaron is just like this muppet
of a guy,

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and, um, and... and Sabrina was just
so, like, cutesy and animated,

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and I thought that they paired
really well together.

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We were both pagan.

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We're both solo practitioners.

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Just as the name implies,

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it's when you practise your worship
by yourself,

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and just kind of have your own altar
and do those kind of things.

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Sabrina met some people
from the Aquarian Tabernacle Church.

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We started going out there
once or twice a month.

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My first impressions of Sabrina,

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she seemed fun, she seemed
energetic.

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She had a positive attitude.

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She brightens things, right.

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When she smiled,

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like, she had a smile
that reached her eyes.

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To be able to worship in a group
setting was just a massive change.

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Really helped to solidify
my connection

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to the new friends we'd made.

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Aaron and Sabrina seemed happy,

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but he seemed to not have a voice,

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um, if that makes any sense.

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Like, he was, he was always quiet,

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and, you know, she was always
like...

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Like, she would be grabbing him
and taking him somewhere.

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She was always in the lead. Right?

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I was very used to the idea
of being the chivalrous boyfriend,

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and she was in college,

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so I was the primary earner
in the relationship.

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So, you know, that was just
a reasonable thing,

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for me to pay for dates, pay for
dinner, I... Stuff like that.

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Sabrina had very expensive taste.

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She only bought her make-up
from MAC or Sephora.

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The clothing that she bought
always was as high-end

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as she could possibly get.

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So about 9 to 12 months in...

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...Sabrina has moved in with me.

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We'd been living together
for a bit, at this point.

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She complained about
her back hurting,

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some other just general pain issues.

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She was supposed to go to
the doctor.

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I was at work, so I couldn't go
with her to the appointments.

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Um, but when I got home...

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...we both sat down on the couch
in the living room.

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She kind of said, "They're pretty
sure I have MS."

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It was terrifying to me

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because that's what killed
my dad's dad.

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I held her.

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We were... We were sobbing
because it's definitely something

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that's going to dramatically
shorten your life.

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I was concerned.

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I have a person very close to me
in the community who has MS.

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I have family members who have MS.

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I don't want to see people
in a situation

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where they have to battle
an illness,

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because it's not a lot of fun.

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My uncle died of multiple sclerosis.

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So, like, I knew a lot about, like,

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the kind of drugs that she was going
to be taking.

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Multiple sclerosis is
a very expensive disease.

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Sabrina was on a lot of medications.

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Depression and anxiety,
had other medications for that.

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The MS diagnosis just increased
the number of medications.

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I was usually paying for it.

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Sabrina almost never had insurance.

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She was supposed to keep
up the payments.

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And the idea was that I would just
pay the co-pays on the medication,

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but I would regularly go to
the pharmacy

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and, oh, her insurance doesn't work
any more.

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And, OK, well, how much
is the medication?

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Oh, it's $450.

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Um, so I would call her.

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RINGING TONE

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She'd be crying.

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She's freaking out and...

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...battling some excuses.

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Eventually she says...

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"We can't get this.

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"I should just kill myself."

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Sabrina was threatening to commit
suicide.

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Like, no, don't do that.

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Trying to talk her down.

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Spend, you know, 20 minutes talking
her down, and then...

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...find the money.

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Which usually meant
spending money I didn't have.

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And, you know, this was monthly.

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I was taking out payday loans,

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taking cash advances
on my credit cards,

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just anywhere I could get
that money.

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Because I was in love.

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I was head-over-heels,

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and this was someone that I didn't
think

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I was going to just stumble
across again.

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When she needed help,
that was my boyfriendly duty.

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Eventually, I get a job at Nintendo.

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Um, Nintendo was a dream job to me.

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When I first got
those business cards

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that said my name on them
with the Nintendo logo, like...

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...you can't put a price
on that feeling of accomplishment,

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of reaching that point in my career,

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as someone who had been playing
Nintendo games since I was four.

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There's a better salary...

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...and just access to the perks...

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...to help keep stuff stable,
for the moment.

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Sabrina had discussed with me,
around the time she turned 25,

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she was supposed to get her
inheritance from her grandfather,

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which was supposed to be 75 grand.

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We did a lot of planning
for our future based

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on that amount of money.

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It gave me the confidence to really
overextend myself credit-wise,

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financially,
because I was assured that,

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you know, we could square all this
in a couple of months.

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The demands kept coming.

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I was trying to get her to a point

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where she could go to med school

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and maybe start balancing
the books a little bit.

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Interferon was brought up.

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Interferon was
a intravenous medication

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that was $700 or $800 a treatment.

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And this was every month or two.

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I got a 50% raise from my job.

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I was like,
"OK, we're going to be good."

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The demands grew with my supply.

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Literally, within a month or two,

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we were living
pay cheque to pay cheque again.

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Sabrina put a lot of pressure on me
to get a new car.

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It couldn't be a used car,

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and it had to be this
very specific model.

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She says that she needs
to have a house.

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I had to ask my parents
for a down payment.

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It was about $15,000.

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It was a big ask.

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We got closer and closer to the date
that the inheritance payment

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was supposed to show up.

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We hit the magic date, and she told
me that her aunt and the lawyers

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who were running the trust embezzled
the last, like, $300,000

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that was in the account.

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That was a gut punch.

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I was dumbfounded.

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Um...

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I'd spent all this money.

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I was so angry with her.

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As it became clearer that Sabrina
wasn't going to get the money,

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she was worried that Aaron
was going to leave her.

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She would threaten self-harm.

253
00:15:57,800 --> 00:15:59,000
She'd lock herself in the bathroom,

254
00:15:59,040 --> 00:16:00,560
and Aaron would call me,

255
00:16:00,600 --> 00:16:03,080
and he'd be like, "I don't know
what to do."

256
00:16:03,120 --> 00:16:04,280
KNOCKING ON DOOR

257
00:16:04,320 --> 00:16:07,200
So I drove down there and we talked
her out of the bathroom together.

258
00:16:07,240 --> 00:16:10,040
And she did it more than once.

259
00:16:10,080 --> 00:16:15,000
I was spending multiple hours
of the work day every day,

260
00:16:15,040 --> 00:16:17,680
trying to talk Sabrina
off the ledge.

261
00:16:17,720 --> 00:16:23,640
You're constantly afraid that
something is going to hit her wrong,

262
00:16:23,680 --> 00:16:25,720
and she's going to die.

263
00:16:25,760 --> 00:16:27,280
It's so stressful.

264
00:16:27,320 --> 00:16:28,320
It's...

265
00:16:30,240 --> 00:16:32,520
Ugh! I just... I'm sorry.

266
00:16:34,480 --> 00:16:37,200
It got to a point where
I wasn't really doing my work.

267
00:16:40,800 --> 00:16:43,600
Eventually, my bosses
had to let me go.

268
00:16:53,000 --> 00:16:56,760
I'm using unemployment and my
savings and my retirement

269
00:16:56,800 --> 00:16:58,320
to pay all the bills.

270
00:16:59,440 --> 00:17:01,720
Sabrina is only paying for Sabrina.

271
00:17:01,760 --> 00:17:04,080
Er, and now I have to find a way

272
00:17:04,120 --> 00:17:07,760
to make an already stretched
budget...

273
00:17:09,040 --> 00:17:11,840
...stretch past its breaking point.

274
00:17:13,200 --> 00:17:17,840
Sabrina started approaching various
friends and acquaintances for loans,

275
00:17:17,880 --> 00:17:21,280
sometimes using my name
as a guarantee

276
00:17:21,320 --> 00:17:23,080
for it getting paid back.

277
00:17:25,440 --> 00:17:29,120
She came up to me and was like,
"I can't afford my MS medication.

278
00:17:29,160 --> 00:17:31,200
"Everything is..." You know,
and she's crying.

279
00:17:31,240 --> 00:17:32,520
And I was really concerned.

280
00:17:32,560 --> 00:17:33,680
I was like, "Oh, my gosh!

281
00:17:33,720 --> 00:17:36,200
"You have a community here
who's looking out for you."

282
00:17:40,120 --> 00:17:42,120
She alienated most of my friends.

283
00:17:42,160 --> 00:17:45,040
She would go to them and beg
for money without my knowing,

284
00:17:45,080 --> 00:17:47,440
and they didn't want to get
in the middle,

285
00:17:47,480 --> 00:17:50,280
so they just stopped talking to me.

286
00:17:50,320 --> 00:17:51,840
I broke.

287
00:17:53,360 --> 00:17:55,320
I had no friends.

288
00:17:56,920 --> 00:17:58,640
I didn't have any money.

289
00:18:00,360 --> 00:18:02,320
I'm $80,000 in the hole.

290
00:18:05,120 --> 00:18:07,520
No-one would loan me money
at this point,

291
00:18:07,560 --> 00:18:10,960
and I'd sold everything I had that
was worth a dime.

292
00:18:15,280 --> 00:18:18,680
There's a term in poker called
pot committed,

293
00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:23,160
which is when you've put
so much money into the pot

294
00:18:23,200 --> 00:18:26,960
that you feel the need to keep going

295
00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:29,760
and keep throwing more money in,
to see the result of the hand.

296
00:18:31,440 --> 00:18:36,320
My only shot of making the rent
was to go to a casino and get lucky.

297
00:18:41,720 --> 00:18:43,760
I took 200 or 300 bucks into the
casino,

298
00:18:43,800 --> 00:18:45,760
and tried to turn it into 1,000.

299
00:18:50,400 --> 00:18:51,960
Terrifying.

300
00:18:55,520 --> 00:18:57,280
Crushing amounts of pressure.

301
00:19:01,240 --> 00:19:03,560
I really felt I needed to get lucky.

302
00:19:09,480 --> 00:19:10,840
I busted out.

303
00:19:12,760 --> 00:19:15,320
I was just in tears on the way home.

304
00:19:17,240 --> 00:19:18,720
I'm screwed.

305
00:19:22,960 --> 00:19:25,200
That... was...

306
00:19:31,280 --> 00:19:33,560
...without a doubt,
the worst time of my life.

307
00:19:46,240 --> 00:19:47,240
Sabrina and I...

308
00:19:48,240 --> 00:19:51,400
...the sexual part of the
relationship had been

309
00:19:51,440 --> 00:19:54,040
pretty nonexistent for a while,
at this point.

310
00:19:57,080 --> 00:19:59,680
Sabrina talked about opening up
our relationship.

311
00:20:00,880 --> 00:20:04,080
Um, I found out, after I agreed
to it,

312
00:20:04,120 --> 00:20:07,160
that it was also to retroactively
forgive her

313
00:20:07,200 --> 00:20:09,600
for making out with
a friend of ours.

314
00:20:11,600 --> 00:20:14,200
Um, that's when I met Kia.

315
00:20:20,200 --> 00:20:24,520
I live in Renton, Washington,
which is just outside of Seattle.

316
00:20:24,560 --> 00:20:28,200
I am a burlesque performer
and producer.

317
00:20:33,440 --> 00:20:34,600
Ah!

318
00:20:34,640 --> 00:20:36,840
Kiya was smart,

319
00:20:36,880 --> 00:20:42,120
and very confident and self-assured.

320
00:20:45,280 --> 00:20:47,320
I met Aaron at a party.

321
00:20:48,880 --> 00:20:52,120
Something that I really enjoyed
about connecting with Aaron was

322
00:20:52,160 --> 00:20:54,360
that the things that
he was passionate about,

323
00:20:54,400 --> 00:20:56,400
he was really passionate about.

324
00:20:59,520 --> 00:21:01,280
We both really nerded out about

325
00:21:01,320 --> 00:21:03,760
the Marvel Cinematic Universe
together.

326
00:21:03,800 --> 00:21:05,480
It was very bonding.

327
00:21:16,840 --> 00:21:20,600
Aaron and I were at this party,
and it was really cool.

328
00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:25,120
I go to grab a couple of drinks
at the bar,

329
00:21:25,160 --> 00:21:31,160
and Aaron is getting, you know,
it's the flurry of text messages.

330
00:21:39,120 --> 00:21:41,440
She said she was locked up
in the bathroom

331
00:21:41,480 --> 00:21:43,480
with a stomach full of pills.

332
00:21:47,400 --> 00:21:49,360
I was just freaking out.

333
00:21:51,680 --> 00:21:53,120
Kia could see that.

334
00:21:53,160 --> 00:21:55,160
We go back to the apartment...

335
00:21:57,320 --> 00:21:59,000
...and just parked on the street.

336
00:22:02,080 --> 00:22:04,480
She said she was locked up
in the bathroom

337
00:22:04,520 --> 00:22:06,320
with a stomach full of pills,

338
00:22:06,360 --> 00:22:08,160
and she'd left to go to dinner.

339
00:22:09,120 --> 00:22:10,760
LAUGHTER

340
00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:14,400
Going out with friends because
she thought I was at the party.

341
00:22:18,360 --> 00:22:20,360
The house of cards just fell apart.

342
00:22:23,160 --> 00:22:25,840
I don't understand how he didn't
see it until that moment.

343
00:22:26,920 --> 00:22:30,600
Aaron, while he was in
this relationship with Sabrina,

344
00:22:30,640 --> 00:22:34,400
it was financial domination
and financial abuse.

345
00:22:42,280 --> 00:22:45,160
I couldn't believe what was
going on.

346
00:22:45,200 --> 00:22:48,480
Sabrina blamed MS for everything.

347
00:22:49,760 --> 00:22:54,160
My very good friend has multiple
sclerosis and she takes Interferon.

348
00:22:55,680 --> 00:22:58,680
Sabrina, the only thing I ever
saw her taking was pills.

349
00:22:58,720 --> 00:23:00,560
She never went for infusions,

350
00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:02,880
and that was fishy to me.

351
00:23:04,320 --> 00:23:06,800
I contact the MS Society.

352
00:23:08,480 --> 00:23:12,120
I told them the medications that
I was told that she was taking...

353
00:23:13,200 --> 00:23:17,080
...and they said,
"That's not what that's for.

354
00:23:17,120 --> 00:23:23,720
"I haven't heard that being used
in a case like this, ever."

355
00:23:28,960 --> 00:23:31,600
I couldn't believe that someone
would make up a story like that.

356
00:23:33,520 --> 00:23:36,240
It's hard enough to have
an invisible disease,

357
00:23:36,280 --> 00:23:40,200
and watch people with this invisible
disease try to navigate the world

358
00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:43,080
when there's people out there
that lie about it.

359
00:23:43,120 --> 00:23:47,720
So, yes, it makes me very angry
on a visceral level.

360
00:23:54,120 --> 00:23:56,280
The next morning, I sat Sabrina
down in the living room

361
00:23:56,320 --> 00:23:58,560
and I told her our relationship is
done.

362
00:24:00,760 --> 00:24:04,960
I'm not going to support
you financially any more.

363
00:24:06,880 --> 00:24:09,720
Ten minutes after she'd left
for work,

364
00:24:09,760 --> 00:24:12,200
there was a moving truck
in the driveway.

365
00:24:15,600 --> 00:24:17,680
I mean, it felt like a heist.

366
00:24:17,720 --> 00:24:20,720
It felt like you had removed
a kidnap victim

367
00:24:20,760 --> 00:24:22,560
from their captor
while they're gone.

368
00:24:24,080 --> 00:24:27,040
It felt like this could be
the end of it, right?

369
00:24:28,160 --> 00:24:30,000
And it was not the end of it.

370
00:24:36,440 --> 00:24:42,080
When Aaron and Sabrina initially
separated, I was relieved.

371
00:24:42,120 --> 00:24:43,760
Now things might calm down.

372
00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:48,600
But then, she started trying to,
like, poison the well against him.

373
00:24:48,640 --> 00:24:51,080
She was spreading rumours
about Aaron.

374
00:24:51,120 --> 00:24:52,960
She was spreading rumours about me.

375
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:54,320
Horrible lies about us.

376
00:24:54,360 --> 00:24:56,680
Just because, like, she felt like

377
00:24:56,720 --> 00:24:59,760
she needed her friends group
on her side.

378
00:24:59,800 --> 00:25:03,800
Sabrina told me that
Aaron beat the crap out of her,

379
00:25:03,840 --> 00:25:07,600
that he was mentally and physically
abusive

380
00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:10,560
and that he was the man
of the household,

381
00:25:10,600 --> 00:25:12,800
and, you know, what he said went.

382
00:25:15,240 --> 00:25:18,160
I was furious with Aaron.

383
00:25:20,080 --> 00:25:21,080
AARON SIGHS

384
00:25:21,120 --> 00:25:22,840
I've never abused anybody.

385
00:25:22,880 --> 00:25:25,640
I've never really gotten in a fight.

386
00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:27,800
I've never raised my hand to anybody
in anger.

387
00:25:28,840 --> 00:25:30,800
But to be accused of that...

388
00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:36,880
...really pushed me over the edge.

389
00:25:43,960 --> 00:25:45,720
He was very depressed.

390
00:25:45,760 --> 00:25:48,400
He was weirdly emotionally stunted.

391
00:25:48,440 --> 00:25:50,680
Like, he would rarely cry.

392
00:25:50,720 --> 00:25:53,120
And I'm just like,
"There's a moment to cry.

393
00:25:53,160 --> 00:25:54,880
"This is a moment to cry."

394
00:25:57,280 --> 00:26:01,760
I essentially ceded all of
our social circles to Sabrina.

395
00:26:03,480 --> 00:26:06,040
I knew she was spreading rumours
about me,

396
00:26:06,080 --> 00:26:11,080
and I had no interest in getting
into public fights about it.

397
00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:17,360
And quite frankly, with the pagan
community, I was a little concerned

398
00:26:17,400 --> 00:26:19,480
that there were a couple
people that might believe her

399
00:26:19,520 --> 00:26:24,880
about... about physical abuse
and try to give me payback.

400
00:26:29,880 --> 00:26:35,480
But as long as I had my relationship
with Kia, I was going to be good.

401
00:26:38,200 --> 00:26:41,560
Kia and I's relationship
proceeded fairly quickly.

402
00:26:41,600 --> 00:26:44,120
We got engaged fairly quickly.

403
00:26:44,160 --> 00:26:45,680
We got married.

404
00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:55,200
It was like stepping through
an airlock.

405
00:26:58,360 --> 00:27:02,960
I was leaving the cold, violent
outer space

406
00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:06,560
and entering this safe haven.

407
00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:14,520
It was like a dream.

408
00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:24,760
When we got married,
Aaron was in debt at least $90,000

409
00:27:24,800 --> 00:27:27,560
that we could document. At least.

410
00:27:29,280 --> 00:27:30,520
Um...

411
00:27:31,520 --> 00:27:32,840
Aaron's debt,

412
00:27:32,880 --> 00:27:34,640
we didn't realise how bad it was

413
00:27:34,680 --> 00:27:38,160
until we started talking
about potentially having a child.

414
00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:40,960
We really wanted to have a child
together.

415
00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:43,600
And I'm like, OK. And so we started
really looking at the numbers.

416
00:27:43,640 --> 00:27:46,600
And I was the first person
to realise that

417
00:27:46,640 --> 00:27:48,800
we were never going to have a baby.

418
00:27:54,400 --> 00:27:57,480
And he couldn't be the one
to say it to me.

419
00:28:02,440 --> 00:28:05,800
My relationship with Sabrina
caused a lot of problems

420
00:28:05,840 --> 00:28:10,080
that I didn't fully address.

421
00:28:13,040 --> 00:28:15,760
It led to a bunch of problems

422
00:28:15,800 --> 00:28:20,440
that inevitably led to the end
of that relationship as well.

423
00:28:26,400 --> 00:28:31,040
She took the future that I thought
I was going to have with this man.

424
00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:45,680
The impact, um...

425
00:28:47,280 --> 00:28:49,680
...emotionally and mentally, that...

426
00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:56,120
...that this inflicted on Aaron
transferred into our... our marriage.

427
00:28:59,520 --> 00:29:04,400
I saved him from this relationship.

428
00:29:06,560 --> 00:29:08,480
But I sacrificed ours.

429
00:29:23,840 --> 00:29:29,760
I am a veterinarian,
and I live in Burien, Washington.

430
00:29:29,800 --> 00:29:31,680
I really don't have a type.

431
00:29:31,720 --> 00:29:34,960
I've dated all genders.

432
00:29:35,000 --> 00:29:37,320
First boyfriend was 6' 5",

433
00:29:37,360 --> 00:29:39,800
and I dated a girl in college

434
00:29:39,840 --> 00:29:43,040
who was not quite five feet tall.

435
00:29:43,080 --> 00:29:46,720
Back in 2017, I met Sabrina
on a dating app.

436
00:29:48,680 --> 00:29:53,240
She lived on Capitol Hill,
which is a pretty expensive area.

437
00:29:53,280 --> 00:29:57,400
It was like packed with
all of her anime stuff.

438
00:29:57,440 --> 00:29:59,440
She always dressed well.

439
00:30:00,600 --> 00:30:03,120
Sabrina was excited about things,

440
00:30:03,160 --> 00:30:05,840
and also kind of endearingly
awkward.

441
00:30:05,880 --> 00:30:07,160
And I think that's really

442
00:30:07,200 --> 00:30:12,000
what kind of made me put down
my defences.

443
00:30:19,480 --> 00:30:22,160
My relationship with Sabrina
became more serious,

444
00:30:22,200 --> 00:30:28,520
partially, I think, because
I gravitate towards caretaking.

445
00:30:28,560 --> 00:30:34,200
I knew that she had some serious
health issues,

446
00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:36,760
and I wanted to support her,

447
00:30:36,800 --> 00:30:41,880
and also, at the time, really focus
on finding, you know,

448
00:30:41,920 --> 00:30:43,720
a long term relationship.

449
00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:54,360
The first time she asked for help
paying for her medication,

450
00:30:54,400 --> 00:30:57,720
it was $700 for the transfusion.

451
00:30:59,960 --> 00:31:03,560
And of course,
I didn't want her to get sick.

452
00:31:03,600 --> 00:31:06,160
So, it was like,
"Of course. I have...

453
00:31:06,200 --> 00:31:09,200
"I can I can do this for you,
so I'm going to."

454
00:31:12,720 --> 00:31:15,600
When, a couple months later,
she told me

455
00:31:15,640 --> 00:31:21,120
that her brother had gone to jail
years ago for marijuana possession,

456
00:31:21,160 --> 00:31:24,560
and he was still paying off
fines of some sort.

457
00:31:24,600 --> 00:31:26,760
She said that if he didn't give them
the money,

458
00:31:26,800 --> 00:31:29,040
that he would potentially go
to jail.

459
00:31:30,360 --> 00:31:34,080
First loan that she asked me
for her brother was around $3,000.

460
00:31:38,840 --> 00:31:42,440
It was kind of a set-up so that,

461
00:31:42,480 --> 00:31:48,040
you know, me giving her that money
would solidify my commitment to her.

462
00:31:52,760 --> 00:31:56,160
Yeah, I don't really see ever
getting that money back.

463
00:32:05,680 --> 00:32:08,400
The Japan debacle is my favourite
thing that's ever happened

464
00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:09,800
in the history of things,

465
00:32:09,840 --> 00:32:12,920
because it just played out
so beautifully.

466
00:32:20,720 --> 00:32:25,160
I get a text message from
a mutual friend of myself and Aaron.

467
00:32:29,160 --> 00:32:32,280
I got a phone call from Sabrina.

468
00:32:32,320 --> 00:32:35,000
She had just checked her bank
account and it was completely empty.

469
00:32:36,240 --> 00:32:39,040
The fact that she had $22,000
in her bank account,

470
00:32:39,080 --> 00:32:41,040
and she had been asking me
for money,

471
00:32:41,080 --> 00:32:43,360
was a little bit surprising.

472
00:32:45,320 --> 00:32:49,680
Everyone kind of hops
on their social media to figure out

473
00:32:49,720 --> 00:32:51,600
what is going on.

474
00:33:00,440 --> 00:33:01,960
We were driving in the car,

475
00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:03,800
my friend Colleen was in
the backseat

476
00:33:03,840 --> 00:33:05,360
and she was flipping
through Facebook.

477
00:33:05,400 --> 00:33:09,000
And Colleen goes, "Oh, my God!
Sabrina's going to kill herself!"

478
00:33:09,040 --> 00:33:10,760
And I was like, "What?"

479
00:33:18,240 --> 00:33:20,080
Sabrina is threatening to commit
suicide.

480
00:33:20,120 --> 00:33:22,160
Threatened to kill herself.

481
00:33:22,200 --> 00:33:24,280
Oh, my God, she just said
that she's going to throw herself

482
00:33:24,320 --> 00:33:25,800
in front of a train in Japan,

483
00:33:25,840 --> 00:33:27,520
and all this stuff is happening,

484
00:33:27,560 --> 00:33:29,360
and she's stuck there,
and she has no money.

485
00:33:29,400 --> 00:33:31,840
Somebody stole all of this money
from her bank account.

486
00:33:31,880 --> 00:33:32,960
"I'm sick with MS.

487
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:34,400
"I don't have any more of my
medication.

488
00:33:34,440 --> 00:33:35,800
"I can't get home."

489
00:33:38,000 --> 00:33:40,360
I gave her an excuse for why
I couldn't give her the money.

490
00:33:40,400 --> 00:33:44,880
She went from being very sweet
and helpless

491
00:33:44,920 --> 00:33:47,960
to being very vindictive and angry.

492
00:33:49,480 --> 00:33:51,640
Text Sabrina like, "Oh, my God,
are you OK?

493
00:33:51,680 --> 00:33:53,600
"I don't... Please don't do this."

494
00:33:55,360 --> 00:33:56,760
We're going to get this figured out.

495
00:33:56,800 --> 00:33:59,440
I'm, you know, I'm going to start
a GoFundMe.

496
00:34:04,560 --> 00:34:06,960
I had not been in contact with her

497
00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:10,120
in more than three years previous
to that.

498
00:34:10,160 --> 00:34:13,520
I responded to the person posting
the fundraiser.

499
00:34:24,560 --> 00:34:27,240
I shot back like, "How dare you?"

500
00:34:27,280 --> 00:34:30,160
Basically, I told him he was he was
a piece of shit,

501
00:34:30,200 --> 00:34:31,360
and he had no way...

502
00:34:31,400 --> 00:34:33,480
He shouldn't be commenting on this.

503
00:34:34,480 --> 00:34:37,160
And it wasn't a big surprise
that they were siding with Sabrina

504
00:34:37,200 --> 00:34:42,040
because Sabrina knew how to make
herself the victim.

505
00:34:42,080 --> 00:34:43,480
There's a ton of people,

506
00:34:43,520 --> 00:34:46,920
I have no idea who these people
are, who are donating money.

507
00:34:51,240 --> 00:34:53,840
Some random guy just donated $1,000.

508
00:34:57,240 --> 00:34:59,240
And it's growing so quickly.

509
00:35:00,920 --> 00:35:03,120
It was Facebook, so it was easier

510
00:35:03,160 --> 00:35:06,280
for somebody to share it
on both sides. Right.

511
00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:12,080
There was a lot of her asking,
"Have you found anything out yet?"

512
00:35:12,120 --> 00:35:14,360
Like, she was very persistent.

513
00:35:15,680 --> 00:35:18,720
It's classic Sabrina. The
fundraisers, the...

514
00:35:18,760 --> 00:35:23,440
You know, the community is rallying
around Sabrina's financial crisis.

515
00:35:23,480 --> 00:35:25,560
It's nothing new.

516
00:35:25,600 --> 00:35:27,200
When I heard about the message,

517
00:35:27,240 --> 00:35:31,480
I knew pretty much that this was
just Sabrina levelling up.

518
00:35:34,400 --> 00:35:38,320
She had discovered new and fun ways
to steal money from people,

519
00:35:38,360 --> 00:35:41,640
and that this was just her
escalating.

520
00:35:45,200 --> 00:35:46,560
Rain had given Sabrina,

521
00:35:46,600 --> 00:35:48,760
"Hey, here's the username.
Here's the password.

522
00:35:48,800 --> 00:35:50,640
"We can get this switched
over into your name."

523
00:35:50,680 --> 00:35:52,600
When I start seeing things.

524
00:35:56,920 --> 00:35:58,880
I am getting tons and tons
of messages.

525
00:35:58,920 --> 00:36:00,560
People I don't know.

526
00:36:03,560 --> 00:36:08,160
There were a lot of different people
and different groups

527
00:36:08,200 --> 00:36:09,840
all kind of telling the same story.

528
00:36:09,880 --> 00:36:12,200
Something has to ring true. Yeah.

529
00:36:14,520 --> 00:36:17,200
And I was like, "Oh, God! What have
I done? What have I done?"

530
00:36:25,760 --> 00:36:27,600
It was really fascinating to watch

531
00:36:27,640 --> 00:36:29,800
other people who have dealt
with Sabrina

532
00:36:29,840 --> 00:36:32,760
in various different ways
all come to the realisation...

533
00:36:34,440 --> 00:36:38,160
...we're literally watching
the scam play out in real time.

534
00:36:41,120 --> 00:36:43,880
I was in communication with friends
in Japan

535
00:36:43,920 --> 00:36:48,080
who were documenting all the stuff
that happened while she was there.

536
00:36:49,840 --> 00:36:54,120
Sabrina claimed that she spent
the day considering throwing herself

537
00:36:54,160 --> 00:36:56,720
in front of the bullet train in
Japan,

538
00:36:56,760 --> 00:36:59,760
when, in reality, she spent the day
at Disney Tokyo.

539
00:37:01,400 --> 00:37:05,760
At the same time, she was begging
for money from people in the States.

540
00:37:07,720 --> 00:37:13,200
She was spending $1,000 on toys
and stuff to take to bring home.

541
00:37:17,040 --> 00:37:18,280
Thankfully, there's a delay

542
00:37:18,320 --> 00:37:20,520
between when somebody... Yeah.
...donates money

543
00:37:20,560 --> 00:37:23,680
and when the bank says,
"OK, now you can take it out."

544
00:37:23,720 --> 00:37:26,120
Mike switches the... the password.

545
00:37:28,560 --> 00:37:31,480
And I am like, "What the hell
have I just done?"

546
00:37:35,560 --> 00:37:39,760
The pattern of her fraud really
started to emerge, at that point.

547
00:37:44,280 --> 00:37:48,520
Friends in Japan started a website
to document all of this stuff.

548
00:37:49,560 --> 00:37:52,520
It was basically just
a blog website.

549
00:37:52,560 --> 00:37:54,880
They were posting their experiences
with Sabrina,

550
00:37:54,920 --> 00:37:59,720
and then other people were
approaching them with... with stories

551
00:37:59,760 --> 00:38:01,680
that they would post up on there.

552
00:38:07,120 --> 00:38:09,160
A friend of mine tagged me in it.

553
00:38:09,200 --> 00:38:12,000
I read the whole thing
and I was like, that tracks.

554
00:38:12,040 --> 00:38:15,120
That's... That is Sabrina Taylor.

555
00:38:20,520 --> 00:38:23,280
After a lot of freak out,

556
00:38:23,320 --> 00:38:24,880
I had to pay everybody back.

557
00:38:33,200 --> 00:38:36,360
I was angry that she would use
something like suicide

558
00:38:36,400 --> 00:38:37,760
to manipulate people.

559
00:38:37,800 --> 00:38:42,680
And I was sad that she wasn't really
as nice as I thought she was.

560
00:38:44,440 --> 00:38:46,600
I was contacted by the FBI.

561
00:38:48,640 --> 00:38:51,840
I gave a bunch of information
to the agent in charge.

562
00:38:53,080 --> 00:38:56,720
A lot of times, the difficulty
in fraud investigations is

563
00:38:56,760 --> 00:38:59,640
determining where the money came
from and where it went.

564
00:38:59,680 --> 00:39:00,960
But that was easy.

565
00:39:01,000 --> 00:39:03,440
Tracing the money with Sabrina
was easy.

566
00:39:03,480 --> 00:39:05,200
It went into her bank account,

567
00:39:05,240 --> 00:39:07,160
and it got spent from that account

568
00:39:07,200 --> 00:39:10,440
on things that weren't what she said
she was spending it on.

569
00:39:12,560 --> 00:39:15,200
The difficult part was proving
a negative.

570
00:39:15,240 --> 00:39:18,120
She would say that my brother needs
money to get out of jail.

571
00:39:18,160 --> 00:39:20,560
Now I need to search all of the
prison records

572
00:39:20,600 --> 00:39:22,240
to see was her brother in jail.

573
00:39:23,560 --> 00:39:26,560
The other big lie was that
she had MS

574
00:39:26,600 --> 00:39:28,600
and needed money for medication.

575
00:39:30,040 --> 00:39:32,920
So, once we learned that these big
lies weren't true,

576
00:39:32,960 --> 00:39:34,240
we felt pretty comfortable

577
00:39:34,280 --> 00:39:36,440
that we would get to the point
of charging her.

578
00:39:39,280 --> 00:39:42,600
When the gentleman from the FBI
contacted me,

579
00:39:42,640 --> 00:39:44,520
I almost didn't really believe
that it was real.

580
00:39:46,920 --> 00:39:51,280
I considered myself a pretty smart
person

581
00:39:51,320 --> 00:39:55,040
and just, you know,
admitting to the fact

582
00:39:55,080 --> 00:40:01,160
that someone had taken advantage
of me was... was really hard.

583
00:40:01,200 --> 00:40:05,120
But I just didn't want her
to keep doing it.

584
00:40:07,520 --> 00:40:11,840
The number of people who came
forward was shocking, even to me.

585
00:40:11,880 --> 00:40:13,320
By the end of the investigation,

586
00:40:13,360 --> 00:40:15,800
we'd identified
maybe eight to ten victims

587
00:40:15,840 --> 00:40:19,200
who, collectively, had lost over
$600,000.

588
00:40:23,240 --> 00:40:26,560
You know, charging somebody
federally is a...

589
00:40:26,600 --> 00:40:28,440
It's a big... It's a big deal.

590
00:40:28,480 --> 00:40:32,760
We charged her initially
with four counts of wire fraud.

591
00:40:32,800 --> 00:40:35,360
When Sabrina was arrested, part
of me couldn't believe it.

592
00:40:35,400 --> 00:40:37,840
At the time, I couldn't imagine
a world in which she was going

593
00:40:37,880 --> 00:40:40,560
to actually face some consequences
for her actions.

594
00:40:40,600 --> 00:40:44,680
The amount of money that she took
staggers me.

595
00:40:44,720 --> 00:40:46,600
I can't...

596
00:40:46,640 --> 00:40:49,680
Like, I would never have attributed
that much money

597
00:40:49,720 --> 00:40:50,960
to what she had done.

598
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:52,760
Like, this... It's insane!

599
00:40:52,800 --> 00:40:55,240
It blows my mind,
and I can't believe it.

600
00:40:56,480 --> 00:40:59,840
There was a sense of relief
because I'm like,

601
00:40:59,880 --> 00:41:02,280
Well, maybe we'll finally figure out
where all the money went."

602
00:41:03,280 --> 00:41:05,600
She spent it on travelling
internationally.

603
00:41:05,640 --> 00:41:09,840
She spent it on, um... comic books.

604
00:41:09,880 --> 00:41:12,600
She spent it on beauty products.

605
00:41:12,640 --> 00:41:14,640
You know, she had spent more money
at Sephora

606
00:41:14,680 --> 00:41:16,920
than I think I will ever have spent
in my entire life.

607
00:41:18,160 --> 00:41:20,560
I would say that it was like
she was on vacation.

608
00:41:20,600 --> 00:41:22,760
All of the spending was for fun.

609
00:41:22,800 --> 00:41:26,960
It was, um, living the good life
for four to five years

610
00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:29,240
with really no consequences.

611
00:41:37,960 --> 00:41:40,720
It wasn't a particularly
complex fraud.

612
00:41:41,960 --> 00:41:45,200
It wasn't somebody sitting
in the anonymity of the dark web.

613
00:41:45,240 --> 00:41:48,520
It was really done, you know, interpersonally.

614
00:41:51,400 --> 00:41:54,960
Honestly, seeing Sabrina in court
was a little terrifying.

615
00:41:56,560 --> 00:41:59,800
Part of me was concerned
that she would stand up

616
00:41:59,840 --> 00:42:02,840
and start screaming at me
or call me a liar.

617
00:42:04,520 --> 00:42:08,720
This is probably among the biggest
days of the defendant's life.

618
00:42:10,120 --> 00:42:12,840
There's always kind of a sombre
mood in the courtroom.

619
00:42:15,400 --> 00:42:18,480
Tacoma woman pleaded guilty
and admitted to lying

620
00:42:18,520 --> 00:42:21,880
about her health, employment
and education to get money.

621
00:42:28,240 --> 00:42:30,880
I lied, and I have used people.

622
00:42:30,920 --> 00:42:35,440
I have no way of atoning verbally
for the things that I have done.

623
00:42:35,480 --> 00:42:37,840
I'm aware of the pain
that I have caused.

624
00:42:39,960 --> 00:42:43,200
I know that I have made people
hurt in ways

625
00:42:43,240 --> 00:42:45,200
that no-one should be made to hurt.

626
00:42:47,600 --> 00:42:50,640
I am more ashamed than I can ever
admit,

627
00:42:50,680 --> 00:42:55,320
and I cannot tell you, from the
bottom of my heart, how sorry I am.

628
00:42:59,440 --> 00:43:01,080
27 months in prison.

629
00:43:01,120 --> 00:43:03,320
That's the sentence federal
prosecutors suggested

630
00:43:03,360 --> 00:43:04,800
for Sabrina Taylor,

631
00:43:04,840 --> 00:43:08,080
who defrauded friends of more
than $0.5 million.

632
00:43:09,840 --> 00:43:12,120
Sabrina said she felt sorry

633
00:43:12,160 --> 00:43:17,200
in her plea to the court for
leniency, but I don't believe it.

634
00:43:18,400 --> 00:43:24,440
The fact that she continued the same
scams that she was running on me

635
00:43:24,480 --> 00:43:27,920
for years afterward

636
00:43:27,960 --> 00:43:32,920
just shows that there's
no conscience there.

637
00:43:37,400 --> 00:43:41,880
You know, it's made me a little more
wary of taking

638
00:43:41,920 --> 00:43:44,520
what someone says at face value.

639
00:43:46,800 --> 00:43:48,880
She told people she was sick.

640
00:43:50,880 --> 00:43:56,400
It takes a special kind of terrible
human to take it that far.

641
00:44:00,560 --> 00:44:02,640
She did it because she could.

642
00:44:03,800 --> 00:44:05,920
Then when she found out how easy
it was

643
00:44:05,960 --> 00:44:08,080
to talk somebody out of their money,

644
00:44:08,120 --> 00:44:10,320
that she kind of got addicted to it.

645
00:44:12,320 --> 00:44:14,040
What I took issue with is the fact

646
00:44:14,080 --> 00:44:16,200
that she was targeting a group of
individuals

647
00:44:16,240 --> 00:44:17,560
who are also marginalised.

648
00:44:17,600 --> 00:44:20,480
The majority of her victims
were involved,

649
00:44:20,520 --> 00:44:22,920
were part of the LGBTQ plus
community.

650
00:44:22,960 --> 00:44:27,000
And to me, I found that
to be really predatory.

651
00:44:27,040 --> 00:44:29,000
These were people that were looking
for connection,

652
00:44:29,040 --> 00:44:32,560
looking for relationships,
not always completely accepted

653
00:44:32,600 --> 00:44:35,080
in what... what is deemed normal.

654
00:44:35,120 --> 00:44:38,280
And it's like she picked them
on purpose,

655
00:44:38,320 --> 00:44:40,360
and... and knew that they wanted that
companionship,

656
00:44:40,400 --> 00:44:41,720
knew that they were needing that.

657
00:44:41,760 --> 00:44:43,840
And that's how she exploited them.

658
00:44:45,520 --> 00:44:49,040
Since Sabrina, I don't trust
people as easily.

659
00:44:50,360 --> 00:44:52,680
I try to be very involved
in the queer community,

660
00:44:52,720 --> 00:44:55,680
and there's a lot of people
who are...

661
00:44:56,840 --> 00:45:00,760
...struggling and asking for money
and support.

662
00:45:00,800 --> 00:45:02,040
And... I'm sorry.

663
00:45:08,760 --> 00:45:10,760
I still want to help people.

664
00:45:11,760 --> 00:45:15,840
But I don't know
if they're just another Sabrina.

665
00:45:20,840 --> 00:45:22,760
She took dreams.

666
00:45:26,280 --> 00:45:28,120
She took hope from people.

667
00:45:29,200 --> 00:45:32,560
She created wedges and divides

668
00:45:32,600 --> 00:45:37,160
between all of these amazing
and vibrant communities.

669
00:45:37,200 --> 00:45:38,960
Genuine hurt and harm

670
00:45:39,000 --> 00:45:43,280
that she caused people mentally
and emotionally.

671
00:45:59,280 --> 00:46:03,600
Financially, the final total
was just shy of 100,000.

672
00:46:05,200 --> 00:46:08,200
I can't put a price
on the emotional toll.

673
00:46:10,680 --> 00:46:15,160
I could win the lottery next week
and square all of my debts.

674
00:46:15,200 --> 00:46:17,800
No amount of money will...

675
00:46:20,560 --> 00:46:21,880
...ever...

676
00:46:23,280 --> 00:46:29,520
...get that amount of trust
that I had in other people back.

677
00:46:50,560 --> 00:46:53,560
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