- Liz and Brian met Sarah at a charity bike ride, believing she was a cancer survivor and young mum in need of support, they became fast friends
- Over time, Sarah drew them in with dramatic claims, but cracks began to show in her stories
- Digging deeper, the couple discovered Sarah had fabricated multiple illnesses, a child, and even a husband
When Liz and Brian Hickox attended a charity bike ride in 2018, they had no idea of how their lives were about to change.
Both keen cyclists, the couple from Newport, US, were volunteering at the event which had been organised by Young Survival Coalition, a charity that supports young adults with cancer.
It was there they met flight attendant Sarah Delashmit, a mum and breast-cancer survivor. When Sarah crossed the finishing line, Liz and Brian agreed to take a photo of her.
Not long after, Sarah sent the couple a message on Facebook, letting them know that her cancer had progressed from stage three to four.
That Christmas, Sarah also sent a card that included photos of her 14-month old baby daughter.
Moved by Sarah’s tough journey, Liz posted her a plush blanket to bring comfort throughout her chemotherapy treatment.
Soon, Liz and Brian were messaging Sarah multiple times a day – the kind-hearted pair wanted to help their new friend through her sickness.
It meant the world to Sarah, who told Liz she felt like a sister.
Then, one day at the beginning of 2019, Sarah phoned the couple and asked if she could stop over in their holiday home that they were renting.
They didn’t have the space, but organised for Sarah to stay with Liz’s parents who lived nearby.
It was an emotional weekend as the couple bonded with Sarah, discussing her illness and the potential prospect of leaving her husband, James, alone to raise their baby girl.
The idea seemed unthinkable.
In a bid to help ‘James’, Brian reached out to him on Facebook and they started messaging about the tough situation that Sarah and her family were enduring.
Just five days after the first visit, Sarah attended a triathlon that Liz’s mum was competing in. Sarah claimed that she wanted to support her ‘mum’ who’d been so hospitable to her.
Despite not being invited, the following weekend, Sarah turned up at their home again. They’d told Sarah they’d be busy hosting friends, but she ignored this.
On the fourth weekend, Liz outright told Sarah she couldn’t visit that weekend, as she needed to focus on her bike ride training and catch up with mates.
Sarah understood and stayed home.
Then came disturbing messages.
She told Liz that she was being stalked by a woman who was obsessed with James.
Within weeks, things had really amped up. Sarah called the couple in a panicked frenzy, saying that the stalker was chasing her with a gun at a local department store.
Then the line went dead.
When Sarah got back in touch minutes later, she told Liz and Brian that she was in an ambulance as the stalker had shot her in the knee. Sarah claimed that there were seven other victims but the police had managed to catch the stalker.
She even sent photos of her bruises and wounds.
Alarm bells started to ring when Liz and Brian noticed that no TV stations were covering the incident. Checking in with a friend who worked in law enforcement, they confirmed that the shooting never happened.
But why on earth would Sarah, who was already facing so much adversity, make something so sinister up?
Searching Sarah’s name online, Brian made a shocking discovery.
Sarah had surrendered her nursing license in 2014 after pretending to be pregnant. She’d even gone as far as creating a fake bump with pillows and showing an ‘ultrasound’ to co-workers.
Sarah eventually admitted to faking the pregnancy.
Digging deeper, Brian found multiple Facebook accounts for Sarah. He realised the profile they spoke to her on only had 18 friends and they were all from the couple’s social circle.
On one of the profiles, he came across Sarah’s aunt and phoned her, explaining everything.
‘I have a lying addiction,’
Shockingly, the aunt revealed Sarah had never had cancer – she didn’t have a child or husband, either. The man Liz and Brian had exchanged messages with had been Sarah all along.
Through Facebook, Brian found countless of other victims that Sarah had lied to.
Desperate for answers and to stop Sarah from lying to more people, the couple wrote to the producers of a TV show, asking for their help.
Sarah agreed to appear on the show and in March 2019, filming took place.
In the episode, Sarah said ‘I have a lying addiction,’ adding that she couldn’t remember the last time she met someone and told them her real truth.
‘I’ve done all kinds of measures to make my life seem more exciting,’ she said. ‘Everybody wants to have that perfect life. All my friends were getting married, and I was feeling left out.’
She revealed that she had bought wigs, a wheelchair and other props to convince people that she was sick. Multiple charities had also donated expensive bike gear to Sarah.
Not only had she duped Liz and Brian into thinking she had cancer, Sarah had convinced others that she was ill with genetic disorders.
The TV appearance prompted other victims of Sarah’s to come forward to the police.
It emerged that Sarah had lied to one charity, claiming she had muscular dystrophy. Her lies meant the charity had given her $3,885.
Sarah had even attended a camp for children and adults with disabilities. There, she confined herself to a wheelchair, relying on others to dress and bath her, despite being able to walk and care for herself.
‘The woman has wrecked havoc with my life, as well as the lives of so many people we know and care about’
She also struck up a friendship with Erin Johnson, who has cerebral palsy.
Over their decade-long friendship Sarah claimed to have multiple illnesses and three types of cancer.
In Skype sessions, she even pretended to have seizures and sent a video of herself on a ventilator.
Sarah had also received a further $1,500 from another charity that believed she had breast cancer.
Police charged Sarah Delashmit with four charges of wire fraud and one of mail fraud.
In October 2020 Delashmit appeared in the US District Court for the Southern District of Illinois and pleaded guilty for the offences which occurred between 2015 and 2019.
However, evidence admitted to court showed she’d been scaming others as far back as 2006.
In January 2021 Sarah Delaschmit, 35, was sentenced to 18 months in jail, along with three years of court supervision after her release. Delashmit was also ordered to pay a $1,942 fine and $11,850 to her donors.
During the sentencing, Judge Staci Yandle said, ‘She exploited people’s trust, their kindness, their sympathy and their generosity for her own benefit.’
Speaking to the Belleville-News Democrat, Brian said, ‘It’s almost laughable when you’re looking at it from the outside in. [But] it’s so different when it happens slowly,’ comparing Sarah’s lies as ‘like a boa constrictor, where it’s so slow.. becoming tighter and tighter, ad then it’s too late.’
‘The woman has wrecked havoc with my life, as well as the lives of so many people we know and care about, and even people we don’t know and care about,’ Liz added.
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