Chapter 5 — Faith in the Truth
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After going through the first three years of the blog, in fact, checking everything I could, I put together a log of everything that I did, all the steps that any time I talked to someone, I logged in and kept track of everything. And then I contacted san has a police department, the financial fraud division, detective house Martinez.

I saw this directly across from, demanded, and he says on, so you're Martinis here. I am nice to meet you.

I'm charlie webster. You're listening .

to ander.

In two thousand twelve, a massy Riley told the world he was diagnosed with cancer for the first time on her blog linford and socket. But IT actually wasn't the first time she's been diagnosed. SHE told her friends lee sentence Steve barry way back in twenty ten, two years before the blog even started, that he had cancer. So how long did you know now before you found out .

he'd got cancer? At least two months?

How did he tell you? So remember .

this conversation, choose picking just up my house. And I happened to mention about a fundraiser for a family at the school that had just taken place. IT was one of their classmates, and the father had brain cancer, and he'd grown up in town.

He was very beloved number of the community. So IT raised one hundred thousand dollars, and I told her about that for the family. The very next morning, he called me to tell me that he had cancer too. That just blow .

me away and I I was surprised.

Why didn't SHE um why didn't SHE tell me before? Now I mean, this is a big thing. SHE had called me the next day, told me he had cancer. Sh'd been fighting IT for a while.

She's been on chemotherapy treatment and SHE didn't think he was going to a have children and literally within two days, i'm picking up juice for school because AManda was too sick from chemotherapy. But I just think she's just told me this, I guess right after and I I kind of thought, I wonder you know wonder yeah I don't know but I I didn't I didn't make sense to me. There were always these little things that you do that didn't make sense and that's like, okay, she's been at our house. We've talked so many time, she's i've been to court with him twice. How come he failed to tell .

me he has cancer among his husband? Cory eventually confided in Steve that .

a Manda has staged for she's progressed to stage for cancer and like, oh my god, so sorry and he was saying that they're telling her that he doesn't have much time. IT just sort of blew us away.

But when AManda fell pregnant with her first child.

SHE told lisa the pregNancy is reversing the disease.

but so he said the .

pregNancy is reversing the cancer. IT was easy to just forget about these people and just forget about them and just go on with our lives. After we went through that awful feeling that we went through, they were gone. We moved on with our lives and we forgot that they even existed.

Fast forward to twenty fifteen. AManda now has two kids, Carter and the Youngest corner, the miracle baby, her bones daughter gesa was living with her and curry. Though the custody battle was still raging through the courts, a moder's blog was her constant and so were her followers as well as her own journey. SHE posted resources, support services and inspirational content.

The Grace and love of everyone who has my back is unfathomable. I had so many people fighting for me when I started, but the small circle has dramatically grown beyond the city or even the state. We are an army, an army against cancer, and that is bad us. I still believe in god and his miracles. My faith hasn't waive red, and that's not changing.

Now.

church and her Christian faith was such a big part of AManda er's life and support network here to review this should put .

that update out for us. And I just devastating. I broke my heart that someone who was so strong and had battled for so long and got cleared was somehow back into that mess again.

IT didn't seem fair. I didn't seem right. I was angry that that could happen to her again. Just is not fair for a Young mom to have to go back into that again.

I definitely reached out.

Let her know that I love her and i'm here for her. And anything he needs to just let me know. I was a poor college student at the time, so I didn't have two means to give. I tried to be there for her as best I can and get the word out. And so it's kind of part of way I would speak more openly about him and and her journey to hope that other people who maybe could give would be able to do because I wasn't financially able to.

Shares may not have had the finances, but SHE tried to help AManda in any way he could through Christmas Carolling community events and just being there. This is a message that AManda posted for her followers, thanking everyone for their support, and he gives her is a special mention. This is real audio of AManda.

There were so many blessings that we received this year for team AManda. They is basically sell our entire tree full of presence for the kids and for us, and give card and financial donations and IT. So beautiful and so selfless and words can't describe how amazing that makes us feel to use from church who doesn't want credit. But too bad you're getting credit. Thank you, and merry Christmas.

Tell me about the Christmas .

Carol that's produce a Jackson. You can hear that .

was a really a cute one, actually, probably a group of thirty or thirty five of us. We drove up to her house around Christmas time, and people had donated some gifts and dropping off. Her kids came out thank Christmas Carol and try to bring some joy as little boy's lives, as they were dealing with whatever IT was inside their house.

And kids were smiling. They're really excited and and that was giving us hugs, you know, thank you so much. Remember her Carrying a little bit where there they were very excited.

I mean, especially because most of us had gone were people that did love them and had been close with her and her family. So immediately they saw us and they just saw, you know, extended family. Essentially, IT was very sweet time.

I even still have a picture of all of us with little sand to hat outside of her house dropping at all. I am someone who has so much empathy in my heart for other people, especially if they're suffering and struggling. So to be able to be part of that, not only to just be there for the Mandate myself, but to be surrounded by other people who have that much love in their hearts, is very different. I remember red just feeling so joyful that we could make some type of a difference.

The community kept running around AManda. Fund raising for their close friend became a good excuse to put on an event. Each one had a way to raise funds for hashtag team. AManda, next, on the calendar AMandas third of birthday, a tax max chain of restaurants chillers.

You can probably find a chill is down the street from you.

four of them near. AManda got together to support .

her hashtag team. AManda has been busy as ever. The incredible hader Allison has organized a support AManda event at t on my thirty eighth birthday. If you eat at any of four bay area chilies, one percent of your bill will be donated to our family to help pay bills, medical debt, complete bucketful items and put money away. For korean, the kids, when times get hard in the future.

that was that truly, basically, you just show up and you have dinner on a specific night and I want to say was probably like a thursday or something is very, very part of whatever you spent on your meal at that restaurant that night. If you mentioned that you're there for that. I went at AManda.

A huge thank you to all fortune's locations that hosted a fundraiser for our family as well as the hundreds of people and dozens of servers that participated. IT was a wonderful way to spend my birthday. Two locations have turned in their totals, raising over six hundred and fifty dollars.

I mean, throwing a birthday party at t bs for her. That's where we went. Chris boss was there. His wife was there. Amy paid for their dinner because koi haven't band that you then have enough money.

Mahatma babysitter was one of the many on the invite list.

I remember there was a little argument that the amounts I don't have enough money at, if you can have IT, I can't believe your boss again, leaving without paying for his dinner with his wife. And he left before the dinner was even over. And they did the boss and the wife left before the whole thing was even over.

And among this is I can visited and pay for IT, and I don't have enough to pay for IT. And my cursing, one of the moms we said is okay. We covered. We walked to the back and got money .

to pay for IT. I can .

believe we ta, we were invited to a party, 然后 only we pay for our own。 We pay for her boss and the boss's wife and her brother. Like, hello, her brother was there too. It's crazy.

The idea was that he just needed to make IT to thirty. This was her big bash at the end of her life. SHE was opposed to die so many times, so many times. IT was terminal. IT was a miracle linzie .

der from a monthermer chage SHE put .

together a segment for a video that played at a woman's conference at the church about her being terminal with cancer, but still finding and leaning on jesus.

Huge deal .

with the number of people watching this. People were crying at their tables, thinking about how this woman was gonna a disappear. There were people in the church that were very gifted with video production.

They were usually the people putting together the announcements, which at this larger church were very like high production. So what he did was decide to collaborate with AManda and make a video to the song, a fight song. I remember in the videos at the fire department that are all holding science. This is a couple dozen people holding signs for AManda. I'm actually in IT holding a sign that says, team AManda.

Here is the new video we did, the hashtag team, AManda science. We were hoping and praying we would get ten people willing to go in front of a camera in support of me. We ended up with ninety two photos. Ninety two photos.

IT was february .

two thousand fifteen. And that song by radio platting, the fight song was really, really popular. IT was on the radio a lot.

IT was the song that AManda made for her inspirational music video, her fight song, her cancer fight video in the fight song. Is that the take back here? IT was super moving. IT was empire IT just lift to you and you're in her corner.

And when I came out, I was just once again marvel a little bit more star struck because now this person was, you know, in a music video on the beach.

What was the reaction to the video .

when he went out more of affirmations? ferman. A, you know, you're so strong, you're so resilient.

Ts, look at what's happening in your life, yet you press on with a smile, yet you spread sunshine. Because SHE did do little things for people. SHE did do nice things.

I feel so ho red, the blessed and supported because of you. Thank you. Hope this video represent to thank you to every person who donated to keep us in our house, help with free school cost, get medical bills paid to help me achieve bucket list items, prayed for us rap food a lot, watched the kids and just for giving your attention and presence.

AManda premier, the video at her house, rolling out the red carpet for friends and family.

Once I was over her house, he says he called everybody to show the video, this is my fight or something like that. So we were over there and he played a via just the time I set there at the table crying and looking at the video. And SHE was saying, it's gonna k, everything's gonna fine.

SHE was cutting mean the bed. I thought there was a really good one. If anybody wants to donate, sing that video, you're gonna donate.

Thank you to everyone for supporting my hashtag team of Manda video. We have over twelve hundred views and two hundred sixty shares. That's phenomenal. I have received six messages from people feeling inspired and encourage to keep fighting, and been contacted by one journalist in two radio stations.

SHE was borderline a celebrity.

My hope is to get the word out to hash had never give up. And with you guys that happening, rattle platten, the singer of fight sung, even gave some recognition. That just means my whole day.

yeah. Rachel platten tweeted a response to the video, incredible. You guys inspire me so much inspired by.

like, this is awesome. Like, I passed along with post of my social media. IT was IT, was this really inspirational?

Like, god. Like, she's really fighting for her life. Like, you are tired of watching IT.

This is Stephanie fin, AManda hook up to the celebs. SHE made her own videos as part of a viral campaign, which was started by a manero mom, Peggy, to help a mander suitably titled the share some sunshine chAllenge.

even like the you are my sunshine videos and trying to chAllenge people like you. I was that my friend house, so her kids did IT with me. That was just anything we could do to just help her, like anything we could do to help get the money. So was one last thing for her to have to worry about.

Here are these guys the sure and sunshine chAllenge. A big thank you to all my friends and family that appalled us with hash tag team, AManda, to support our brave cancer war amori. Please check out support AManda docs and are some sunshine on facebook for more details.

This chAllenge is fine and is similar to the L. S. chAllenge. However, instead of in cold water port on your head, they ask you to share some warm buses to spread the word about hodgins. 2.

一个 three on .

this concept wasn't .

taking a， and her supporters weren't either, nor was mancy. SHE was consumed by AManda carefully watching everything, but instead of posting off outside AManda's house, would say a pair of remote cults. Nancy stakeout was digital. There were pages of AManda's blog post piled high on her desk and bind as full of research. He think he was a detective.

I knew what I was doing was the right thing to do. First off, I knew that what I was doing, I was doing IT properly. I was going about IT in the right manner of fact checking everything and anything I could.

I was reaching out to people to try and CoOperate, whatever he would talk about when he said, you know, this is where i'm going to get treated. I reached out to those places. I had conversations with those places on a daily basis. Anytime SHE posted about them, I would reach out. And I would say here's what he had to say in her blog today.

I couldn't give me information .

about a any type of patient and be anyone is not a patient, right, if she's not getting treated there. So what I would do is I would post on my fact checking questions in a way to very specific to which you would say. And those new psychologist that were at this facility, they knew something wasn't right.

I had told them about the blog. They had looked at the blogs. And so when I got to ask those questions, they would answer me, yes, no.

We don't do with that way. We don't have this. We don't do that. So they they never talked about her specifically, but just about procedure, about their clinical trials and about the facts after about going through the first three years of the blog, in fact, checking everything I could, I put together a log of everything that I did all the steps at any time. I talked to someone, I logged in and kept track of everything.

And then I contacted san has a police department, the financial fraud division, detective huz Martina's is the only the detective they have for financial fraud. I was put in touch with him. I talked to him briefly on the phone. He said, what can you put IT all in an email and send me why .

you thinks so?

I put together all my notes, my time mind, my log, my source information that I thought. If you looked at this, you can see OK IT wasn't .

just a hunch. We met with detective hoa Martinez only days after he had retired. How long have you been retired for? Like literally days.

actually, like one month this week.

wow.

yeah.

Was that a hard decision .

for you in .

some ways? Yes, because it's something I like doing in our agency. We have cycled back to the streets. That wasn't something I was interested in doing. Fifty one.

you look really good for your age unless you put this like one of those filters .

over the top. No, no, no, no, I but I appreciate that.

What was the first part of information when Nancy called you?

Well, the setting at the time. So our police department was experiencing a mass exist from political decisions made from city council and the mayor at the time. By the end of that whole exist, there was only like maybe just under eight hundred officers for a city of about one point two million.

So and to put in perspective, that's what was happening. Unfortunately, the financial crimes unit is not, for lack of Better terms, is the sexy unit like, you know, homicide, robbery, the financial crimes is in the back burner. And so they're the first unit to take a loss in and minimizing the unit.

I had returned back to this unit, and they dwd dle IT from three people to me. So I was the only person in the city is sanaa, looking at financial crime cases for about two years. Nobody knew that because I didn't say that, because you would open the door even more criminal activity, because everybody knows nobody's watched in the barn.

So that's when nanci had sent me a message. So what would happen when I was literally looking at like seven hundred cases in a month, just trios looking at am doing something with outsourcing them, using my resources to kind of bridged the gap on gallery evidence so forth. I was pretty creative at that point just to get resources in working with the local attorneys and other investigators.

So I became one man circus for a while. And so a nani came across me. SHE gave me this, the info in this case.

So what I would do in a lot of my cases that was literally think about that case for for a week, just kind of spin in my head. I wake up in the morning, I thinking about a case guy. I know I could do with this. This was kind of one of those cases. Or and I kept feeding information about this blog that was going on rightly and a song and to take a look at that blog.

My painful, the apathy, pains and headaches from post chem symptoms are making me pretty miserable to use my story and my fight to help raise money for research to support others in thank you to everyone who had donated anything. I would have had to stop treatment a long time ago without your kindness.

My first thought was how I onna prove a medical case with hippo laws in place, which is the identity. Identity 是 state。 California is patient .

confidential laws that basically prohibit disclosure of medical records without a car, order of warrants, A, A pea or a patient's consent, even a sun has a detective car request or access them.

And I thought somebody may or may not being untruthful with their medical situation, in this case, cancer. But how can I improve IT? So I started surfing through the blog. I realized anti had told me she's throwing a lot of information out on this blog that was specific. So the specificity of IT allowed me to actually nail down something.

Quick health updates. I've been diagnosed with other electricity on the right lung, which is basically a fancy word for a partially collapsed fund. They are an entirely sha.

why? There are lots of predictions though, including the blio, micon and adam have caused massive scaring and shrinkage of my lungs. The tumors that were in my lung cause issues, all the toxic in my body.

I truthful if I was doing IT, what's the first thing I would go after? I would put things out on social media because people believe that they see first and she's the one populating the social media. So that was the thing like, okay, she's the one pushing all this.

It's not anybody else. They're just responding to her. So SHE has the wheel. I just got to show whether or not she's driving something legitimate or not.

The fact that you had so many cases and you were severely understaffed was about this one that made you pursue IT.

I have a kind of a theory or a philosophy. Persistence pays, in my cases, that have gone on for years, persistenc Epace. And you just keep coming at IT.

Now he had kind of embodied persistence. The persistence kind of kept me looking at this page and looking at the pictures and looking at the videos. I thought, wow, I know a lot of people who had cancer at the end.

They look awful. And I thought the man is saying he was terminal like a number of times. But SHE looks great. That's great face too. She's cute girl and SHE shaped her head. But i'm asking myself, does he look sick and if i'm telling myself now SHE doesn't look sick, so maybe or something to this information.

Cancer is ugly. I often hear how god I look for being so sick, but people don't see behind closed doors how horrible these diseases. So here's a more truthful, honest look at what cancer looks like. Eyes almost fAllen to shut, from allergies to new chemo meds, rashes under my eyes, from chemo swAllen limbs and joint pain ideas, and scans all the time, blood pressure and pose problems.

A under poster pictures on this blog of exactly this. There is a picture of her eyes, red puffin swolen and knees full of rashes. At a picture of an iv bag in hospital alongside a blood pressure monitor.

I think I probably would have dropped off from IT if nani would have called a few times. And then just okay, well, you know it's just you're busy that takes persistance you application when you have something that you feel like you need to unveil, especially something as dark is this and it's so strange and so weird and you feel like you need to unveil that thing and you need somebody just to leave for a second. I felt like he was there. So I thought, you know and entertain this.

I was used to like people I worked with or people I would bring that up to say, you're crazy.

Who would who would do that? There was never like, oh, you're right, that's SHE doesn't have the answers like that never was the case and so with detective Martinez, at least I felt like, okay, he's listening and they got one point you know, I said, don't you're going going down the rabid hole with me? This is great like, you know, he he was willing to at these look.

once that I was pursuing the case, I would set aside like hours in in a day to make phone calls to yet organization caterina as to how somebody who had an illness like cancer qualifies to receive money, is assistance or resources are on whatever. And they would not answer the questions. And I said, is a simple question. So then I was calling actual hospitals the doctors and then that's when I just realized the doctors serious naming warn some more on actual doctors and some weren't oncologists.

How come all these organizations are just giving and finding her housing or helping with things? There's no stepping stones that they have to take, you know. And I think that was something we talked about like, wow, that is easy. Like we were shocked at how easy that could be that no one questions that too.

Thank you to american cancer society for giving me a free place to stand N Y C E and amazing events like grey for life. All the amazing opportunities cancer has given me through this organization from support walks and banquet, hockey fights, cancer and n fels.

Crucial catch IT was concerning to understand that there was really no in a hard criteria that was just that you're saying IT and you probably wouldn't be saying if you didn't have IT that was concerning.

There's a real like a factor with pointing the finger at someone is saying I think they're .

faking cancer. After a lot of consultation with my doctors, IT was nicely broken to me that if I am still willing to fight, this is about to get exceedingly more difficult than IT ideas. As of right now, the only drug left I can try doesn't even have an active trial in the united states.

My doctor in new york would have to agree to administer IT to me. For that to happen, I have to pass twenty eight assessment tests to make sure I meet the qualifications. Since this is not an fda proof drug, IT can't be administered by my doctors here, meaning I have to fly and why I see every three weeks for the foreseeable able future to get the drug, of course not covered by the hospital.

It's twelve thousand, five hundred dollars a month. What who can pay for that for just the drug pemba ism mob? Could you that .

in a Mandates blog, SHE kept her followers up til ped on all her trips, going back comfort to new york from santos, a california. So SHE would fly back in fourth as a three thousand mile flight across country to receive what he said was a clinical trial for this drug.

Could udo.

the cost of the new clinical trial in new york was not just spoken about in the blog.

stated my clinical trial in new york insurance said, no, sorry.

AManda also talked about IT at church. SHE gave a testimony with past a chase wagons on stage to a massive crowd, detAiling how hard IT was going to be to come up with the money. This is real .

audio of AManda. The costs just to do the testing, to get the drug, to try to keep your life with three thousand dollars in two weeks. I had two weeks to come up with three thousand dollars.

The average sunday church service at fcc would see nearly four thousand people attending.

We printed about IT.

I was trying.

One thing I know just right away is AManda. We talk about facilities or names of of the places he was going, but there was never any mention of the actual doctors or nurses or the people, you know, that were basically saving her life on a daily basis. IT was always very generic, and that stood out out to me as as strange.

But I started to research about medications. And clinical trials didn't make sense to me because you can look on clinical trials, dog up and search the medications and where they are. They are doing these trials.

And couple of things that add up with that locally. SHE SHE lived in near stanford university, which has probably one of the best cancer programs in in the country. But yet he wasn't being treated there.

He had to fly in new york. I just could think him of that weird. And they had the same clinical trials. They had the same thing he was claiming to need in new york. He just left me with so many questions, like, why is he going to new york?

The big N. Y.

C strikes again. Travel backeds for my biopic and entrance screening for a clinical trial.

flying back and forth. And SHE posted about how we went there, and you know how six he was. And all these things that happened while he was .

in your friday morning was by up day, more breeze Greens and the Operation, the three tumors on my right lung are all on the exterior and all in capsule ted, like little great, rather than so non patches. So they were able to remove one easily. They didn't have to break my ribs like they thought.

Think god. After eight hours of tests, I got to see wicked on broadway. Finally, I got to see the time square, new year's ball and rocket filter tree. While watching the skaters, two of my other lung bucket .

test items checked. I started looking at those blogs and her pictures and her videos. And the thing is that a china to emotional in the case, and it's hard, you know, when people have been second with cancer, because if you if you tie emotion to IT, IT gives you different direction.

I'm not trying to reach an end. I just wanted reach the truth. And those sometimes are two different things. I want to see this person go down, right? You can tell yourself that.

But what if they truly do have cancer IT? So what you tell yourself, I just want to see what the real truth this here, because they are the one putting that out. There are the one laying out in front of me.

They're asking for my money right now, not just all these people, but me too. I'm looking at the right. My family could be on these sites. My family could be on these social media. Ccs, I want to know.

The treatment is immensely expensive. Bae rely come up with the money to pay for these. When they were ever three weeks, I remember crying out to god, you've had me this far.

You've never left me right? But how are we going to do this? That's a lot of money.

How are we gna do this? Of course, i'm literally walking on the airplanes volunteers. So now i'm the girl with cancer on the airplane wearing a mask. Her, and i'm like being justice. The person is that next time I always try to make them feel more comfortable, I mean, some worrying, i'm asked and I said, don't worry, i'm not going to get to use thick, not contagious, I just have to work to protect myself and he said, you new tropic .

SHE is that .

I am the family medical practice on was Virginian then if P. M. Is retired.

And I woke up in saturday, and I walked off the plane and I reached in my jacket pockets to get myself go now to find this. I check for thirteen hundred dollars. I never told her how much my treatment was. I just told her I was expensive. My treatment is thirteen hundred dollars.

And once I tie into something more, I want to know then it's going to be a ball game. I didn't want to to reach out too quickly. So I kept on looking at the information SHE was offering.

I called all these people who spent hours on the phone, gone in circles with people who are running these organizations in hospitals, are kick in me back. That's when I roll the dice a little bit. And then I went to the actual church, where he called her home church.

And ironically, that same church the police department uses for their ceremonies for, like, promotion, further big grants in our money, because I have a pretty big auditorium. So that church that was kind of married into police department. And so I thought, oh my god, about the step on some toes right now.

So I went over there to have a conversation with the head past, and they ask the same question, why was he say he had cancer? SHE didn't you're going down the wrong direction. You're going after somebody and nice.

Well, i'm not actually after her again, back to the the premise and after the truth. So do you know the truth? Well, the truth is that he says, yeah, cancer and we believe her.

I understand that what do you know? Look at her SHE I can you see her you know, her social media that I say, yeah, I can shave my head and and put an oxygenated be on do you think I have cancer if I just told you you're gonna believe me so I said, what's the criteria here at the church being that you're a non profit organization and I don't know how much money you've poured out to this person, but what's your qualification process in the crate? Ia, where's IT begin where you start giving away the money to?

Somebody says, oh, I have this. They would answer that question. So I called a few more times. And then then I got the past's daughter.

SHE was a lawyer, and so he kind of gave me the same position that I was barking up the wrong tree. This is, you know, i'm pursuing somebody who's sick, and this is not something that I should be doing. I should be going after the big criminals I said, okay, but I asked the same question, but how do you know, right?

I said, you can answer the question. You have just believe so now she's got two things going for her. She's got hip a shielding her.

And SHE sold you on the idea that he sold on what you believe to faith. But do you have faith in her? Or do you have faith in truth?

My feeling lost. They were gonna give me nothing. I was going to fight a losing battle. And I already kind of rolled the dice because I had tilted my cards at them. I knew they were going to call her. And then everybody who was a member of the church, who might know her, who might be fans of her, they were gonna all them. I hadn't spoke .

to the church at that point because I was still continually fact, because he was posting at this point was like when he was posting, a lot blood .

test came back and confirmed again that even though the cancer is sell and tumors are still in stable disease, the reed sternberg cells are progressive and have nearly doubled.

So I was continually fact, and anything should put up and like tecture matters that like trying to send IT his way to say, hey, can you believe she's ying this or he's saying that.

being very blunt, if the keo doesn't work, I can't do the trial anymore. And if I can't do the trial, this becomes the quality of life game rather than a beat cancer game. For the record, this is the shadiest worst game ever.

I told all my friends, my family in love, song elders and my sister told all her friends because he was going through her own cancer. Cancer told all her friends, which are a lot of anonymous donors. I told a lot of people I knew over instant who say, and one of them is very wealthy and SHE donated money.

One day, AManda curry .

comes to pick up the baby. A man down, turning on tells me as she's leaving. We were all in the front yard.

The kids were on the street. SHE says, well, thank you, a rich friend, for giving hundred dollars to my foundation. I didn't even know how much my friend gave my math. Just drop.

How .

ungrateful the way you set IT even a dog, you should be grateful. That was the time my whole thing started with them, like, is SHE felt real.

SHE talks .

like that about people.

What was her reaction and what did he say?

No, I didn't see you back to her. I didn't. I kept you in my life. I didn't open my mouth.

No, yeah, I kept in on too smart for that because he probably would know what he would have done. SHE would have probably called social services and complain about my daycare. You know what I mean, I have to watch what i'm saying a lot of times.

We would talk at the a text.

a manders friend were back a cafe.

O because at that time, well, when I was like donating really actively, so I felt they were keeping me up in the loop. I was also reading the blog. And here SHE would let me know when he would needed to find back to new ork for a treatment because I would purchase the lame tickets for her .

hashtag team. AManda helped raise nearly twenty five percent of my medical expenses and medication for this trip so far, which, let me tell you, are not cheap. And my flight first class, wu, if anyone has extra points, they don't need or connections and wants to help me get back there from my second dose, we would really appreciate IT. I'm working part time to help cover bills, but the cope is medicines and tests still had up so fast.

Either I would just buy them, or we had a ten of southwest points by the southwest credit card and had more points that I could do. So we would always use our points to occur. Her trips back, and we introduced her to a friend of ours in new york that he said with, while SHE was undergoing treatment.

I had an account .

that was all health products, related clothing products, like vegan products, like all these nutritional supplements and staff and and I was using answer, something I was using that I love. And the end, remember, like after SHE was coming off chemo or something, he was like complaining about all the way he gained from stereos and just feeling like you needed do something. And I was like, you know, you could try this stuff on using.

So I just shift her stuff like I just put in in order and senate to our house. And SHE loved IT and SHE was like, my god, king me feel Better at the energy of so I just set up an account for her with my credit card. And I never even looked at how much was spent, but IT was hundreds of dollars in for.

AManda love the shake so much. He ended up becoming an ambassador them, and posted about IT on her blog with a picture and A T shirt, had the words straight out of keo on the front. The flights to new york that rebeca paid for, AManda also raise money for from the church.

My mom always told me to see the positive and things. So on a positive note, I got a job, actually. I got two jobs. I get to share the nutritional shakes i've literally been living on the past year, and I get to work for a major cancer organization to manage their corporate accounts for fundraising. Both work towards helping people.

yes.

for the non profit. I get to help raise money to ensure other people might not have to go through this. I am so excited.

But the two part time jobs were nowhere near enough to support the family. AManda still needed support from the people around her, including her closest friends like Rebecca.

I do whatever you need on occasionally. I would early or after, like, can I buy? Can I buy you at dinner tonight? But I wasn't tabulating IT because I wasn't alone and IT wasn't.

That was a gift. Was me wanting to make her life a little bit easier because because I just had an of how difficult what SHE was going through was. I had always been interested in photography, like, I just always loved IT. So I had photographer widen and photographed her maturity shoot and photographer family photos every year for five vers six years .

when you were photographed in them, like, what was their relationship like and what was coy like?

Cory always seemed uncomfortable. He always seemed like he didn't want to be there. When they showed up, IT seemed like they had just had to fight. And AManda was a lot Better about putting on a happy face than he was.

I remember asking him and at one of the family for shoes, but I just as in your mom, they were buying a place in like your head or somewhere, they were buying a vacation home and, you know, talking about on the social media. And I just remember that came what is, again, a man is raising money for treatment to save her life, and her mom is buying a vacation. Property like this doesn't make sense.

And I ask him out and he said, you know, back ever really, we ever really complicated relationship. I love my mom. I know this, this really wizard, and I didn't trust her further. So I thought I was odd that started, like, put some questions in my head.

the man, and new that I was looking at her. So then I was, okay, what is he gonna do then? He was just waiting and know it's like putting efficient, you know hook in the line and thrown and casting IT out and just let's see with what he does know like she's gonna post this, she's gonna blog this she's gonna come here. She's gona call me SHE had my car SHE had on my information on this stuff.

but SHE didn't do any of that. SHE walked straight into the sun hoa police department and dropped off a stack of papers, addressed a detective .

whose Martinez SHE brought this, the print out of all these medications that were cancer based medications, recovery, keo, or whatever. I was looking now like k truda was one of them was a fairly new medication.

I'll ever forget the sheer looks of horror on your faces as you all cringe to what my insights looked like. Hundreds and hundreds of little dark great finds everywhere after eight doses of causes my insight, we're looking Better, but still so much darkness.

So SHE shows me this list printed from a website. SHE left IT at the police department to be given to me. SHE knows i'm going to qualify this sending in this website.

So I looked up the website I researched and website was basically a website. Did any of us could add our medication to where? Where self populating website? I could put anything on there.

And so I realized he could put anything on there. So he thinks i'm just gone to stop at her list of medications that just opened the door of in Marcus. Now I knew he was trying to deceive me.

SHE was sending me down another road. And then that really Sparked me. I called her to, just to make sure that he was the one who dropped off the paperwork.

So IT tired herself to IT, and she's not see, I gave you what you need. I'm sick and here's all medications I take. He told me he had an attorney and I said, that's great.

Not to wonderful. So are you going to be communicating through your returning? So he was a gift. Okay, I got IT. I'm looking at IT, so i'll be in touch.

IT was really hard to see everyone donating and and helping and doing so much. And really a few times I did reach out or try to, I don't want to say, warn people, but I wanted people to be aware that there was something going on. And I had ways of doing that IT LED to, you know, I was a little fight. I was this.

Who is this person coming yet? And how dare they? I let the family know, the brothers and that, hey, you know, there's, what do you guys think you're running this thing? And i'm a reporter.

This is where I am working, and I want to know where this mony's going. Up until that point, I had been doing everything behind the scenes, talking to wherever I could, without tipping my my hand, a leader. And I would touch base several times a week just because there was new information coming out all the time.

Amman, I would post something, and I would check with a leader, a lead would hear something. And you would let me know, IT was really important for us to compare stuff back and forth because, you know, I may say something like, oh, I saw this in the blog, and this is how that happened. And he would say, well, will wait a minute, I know about that, and that is not what I remember, or this is how IT happened. So just comparing things, keeping track of the information was really important.

Nobody believed me. Everybody thought I was, you know, just been predictive orn X, Y for everyone how ever want to put IT.

But I was crying out to get my daughter help.

Nobody would listen. Sometimes I would call ency crying. Sometimes I color mad.

Sometimes we'd just be comparing notes in, you know, I would let her know what's going on. A justa IT felt good to have somebody listen. Nobody would listen and SHE listen to me. And we kind of put our hands together fixing, you know, we've got this big investigation.

the hole.

I spoke to detective Martinez, and he had told me he reached out to AManda, and they had this back and forth at that point. I don't think AManda knew about me yet. AManda, I think, found out about me. During a custody hearing, a leader had called and ask if I was OK if SHE brought the fact that I was investigating AManda and at that point that was official investigation with sannella police department detective Martinez so they were able to bring that up in one of the court proceedings um for the custom ase man.

I was telling everybody that I was just a friend of a leader, that a leader had basically come up with the story um and that was using me to play this part like IT was just all made up I actually thought IT best that I wrote a letter that eeda and her journey could give to the court to say I am not a friend of eeda, I am a producer and this is what i'm working on and that I was working on this with without a leader. This didn't come from a leader IT made absolutely no difference to AManda that the truth was being told and submitted to the court. For SHE was concerned IT was a Better story that this came from a leader and I was .

just all a alive.

And in case Nancy had any doubt about whether a monday knew he existed .

the first time I noticed something in the blog, SHE called me the enemy. He just said, there's an enemy out there. You know who you are to referred to me a couple of times as just the enemy, don't ruin this for me.

Enemy, why are you ruin this for me? SHE would be posting about a job that he was up for, a job he would say, don't ruin this for me. Enemy, i've got this interview tomorrow.

I think he thought I was going to like, call places and trying ruin things for her. SHE was putting that out there like someone's trying to ruin me. There's a reporter.

There's a person is like the x wife. I came home from work. I was a friday night.

I was a holiday weekend. So I remember IT. So clearly I was getting the male of my male box and I opened them up.

And it's just stuff, ed, with paper. And I was strange, so i'm looking through IT and what is this? And I see the name a man rally. I see Nancy muscatel like, man, what is this? I see restraining order, civil harassment. And my mind is catching up to what i'm reading and putting them together like, oh my god, he was taking me to court for a restraining order. A man rally wanted to stop me investigating her by hitting me with a restraining order.

Commander is hosted and produced by me, charlie webster, and produced by Jackson the clinic AManda's blog posts are read by actor kendall horn, edit and theme music by nicko piller assistant producer casey hurt assistance editor seem a gray wall. Additional production support from Stephen sladen will heal and a call urban executive produced by me, charlie webster and Nancy moscato. Od commander is allies gate sound production engineer by pillar on media group.