Latest / True Crime and Wine Time / S6 E31 _ Sarah Hartsfield_ Black Widow Part 5_ The Secret Plot _ TCWT Podcast (1)

Transcript

S6 E31 _ Sarah Hartsfield_ Black Widow Part 5_ The Secret Plot _ TCWT Podcast (1) · True Crime and Wine Time

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to True Crime and Wine Time.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: I'm Terry.
• 0:04
  Speaker 3: And I'm Lama.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Tonight, we are uncorking the truth behind one of the
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: darkest crimes and breaking it down together with you.
• 0:13
  Speaker 4: One case, one conversation, and one or maybe two glasses
• 0:17
  Speaker 4: of wine to take the edge off. It's time to
• 0:20
  Speaker 4: get comfortable and double check those locks before we get started.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: So let's take a sip and dive in.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Hello.
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: There we go. We're fixed. We made it to Thursday. Barely.
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: Is it like winter break yet? Is it time for vacation?
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: I want to know where the cooler temperatures are.
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: They're in Ohio, actually.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: I don't want to hear that because it's hotter than
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Hades here.
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: No, it's been warm and mucky.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: We've got 10 raindrops today, though.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: Oh, wow. Wow. Excess. Yeah, I don't like snow much.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: But I have to tell you, real quick, when our
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: intro says, be sure to lock your doors.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: I follow a guy.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: He's our author, but he also has a TikTok. And
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: he's like, yes, I know this is my fault, but
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: he's on a book tour. He didn't lock the sliding glass.
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: Door of his hotel room.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: He was on the first floor.
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: Oh.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: And some drunk man in his 50s or 60s came
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: in his room at midnight.
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: Uh-oh.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: And I have to tell you, I was screaming at
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: him through my phone saying, idiot, especially lock your hotel doors.
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: Right, right. Well, I don't know. I guess, yeah. Not
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: if you're on the first floor. Lock it. Lock it.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: So everybody, welcome in, but remember to lock your doors, please.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: That's right. This is your reminder. Again.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: This is your reminder.
• 2:11
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: Oh, well, well, well.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Also your reminder to hit that like button.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: And subscribe if you haven't already done it.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Because sometimes YouTube will send you a notification that we're
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: going live.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Sometimes.
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: Sometimes. Hardly ever. It's okay.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: And if you're listening to this on the pods, please download,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: leave a rating and a review as it helps get
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: the word out there about our podcast. And if you'd
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• 2:46
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• 2:49
  Speaker 1: of your choice.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 2:52
  Speaker 5: And you're going to also become a member on our
• 2:54
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• 2:56
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• 2:59
  Speaker 5: button and pick which tier works best for you, which
• 3:02
  Speaker 5: includes a Wednesday coffee chat with me and Terry and
• 3:06
  Speaker 5: whatever weird things we're going to talk about that morning.
• 3:09
  Speaker 5: And as well as Llama Learns About, where I've been
• 3:11
  Speaker 5: ranting about how to win friends and influence people and
• 3:15
  Speaker 5: how it's the worst book ever.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: And I hate Dale Carnegie. Okay.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: After you mentioned that sometime back, I went and did
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: some diving. That is the book I had read back
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: in the day when I was in sales.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: And they forced us to read it.
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I go on lots of rants. But yes.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: We have something exciting tomorrow because we have the TCWT
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: show that we do Murdoch. On Mondays, we are starting
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: our deep dive into the McKenzie-Sherilla case.
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: And if you don't know what that case is, it.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: Is from the crash.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, I am still going through documents. Still going
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: through documents. Because I have to say, and I have
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: made the decision of why this county sent us everything.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: They had already done it all, pulled it all, and
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: sent it to Netflix. So they already had it. So
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: they were like, okay, here you go. Because they sent
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: me stuff I didn't ask for.
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: Or just another reason why Ohio is awesome.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Or, but should I tell them that they included documentation
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: about another case in it? It's not McKenzie Shirella.
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: I was reading it and I was like 10 pages
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: into this 107 page document. I'm like, what does this
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: have to do with?
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: So I scroll down to the bottom and I'm like,
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: this is a totally different case.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: And it didn't have anything with any of the parties.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: So join us tomorrow for that. I think it's at
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: 2 p.m.
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: Eastern. Yes.
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: 2 p.m. Eastern. I'm excited. I'll be a little late,
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: but I'll be there.
• 5:08
  Speaker 5: So I'm excited to get into it because I am
• 5:11
  Speaker 5: going in completely blind.
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: To the whole story. So I did not watch. I've yet.
• 5:16
  Speaker 5: I'm going to watch The Crash this weekend. I meant
• 5:18
  Speaker 5: to do it this week. I got too sidetracked and
• 5:20
  Speaker 5: too busy. But other than that, I really don't know
• 5:23
  Speaker 5: very much about it.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: I will say that I had opinions after watching the documentary.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: And my opinions have changed now that I'm reading all
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: of the documents.
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: Oh, interesting.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: And it was something that happens at the very end
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: that made me want to look into this case.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: Because.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: her mom, Natalie goes, I'm going to read you some
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: of the text messages that they didn't read you in court.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: And then it was like, oh, so maybe she wasn't
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: the only one that said she was going to end
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: somebody's life.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: Maybe Dom did too.
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: Oh, interesting.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: Oh, it's, it's interesting.
• 6:11
  Speaker 5: I'm excited to, for you to take me on this
• 6:13
  Speaker 5: Sharilla journey.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: So, And some insight from some very close family friends
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: and people who still communicate with Mackenzie in prison.
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: Well.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: So that'll be exciting tomorrow.
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Oh, my gosh. And we'll be doing that on Fridays, right?
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: Yes, on Fridays.
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: So what are we covering tonight?
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: Well, tonight we are getting into part five.
• 6:42
  Speaker 5: Of the Sarah Hartsfeld saga that we've been into, which
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: has been a wild ride thus far. It's about to
• 6:50
  Speaker 5: get even wilder tonight. But if you have not listened
• 6:53
  Speaker 5: to parts one through four, pause this one and go
• 6:57
  Speaker 5: listen to them. Because Sarah Hartsfeld is not something we
• 7:03
  Speaker 5: see very often in the world of true crime.
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
• 7:07
  Speaker 5: A serial murderer, if you want to call her that,
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: an arsonist, not a.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Great mom, worst mom ever.
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, she's a real piece of work.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: And then throw in that she's a veteran.
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 7:25
  Speaker 5: So there is a lot that we've already covered and
• 7:28
  Speaker 5: there is a lot more yet still to be uncovered.
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: And tonight is a A very interesting part of the story.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: I can't wait.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: Yes. What are you drinking? I, because I am still
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: doing my cluster things, I am drinking sparkling water.
• 7:48
  Speaker 5: Well, that's still healthy. I'm just drinking a Coke. I'm
• 7:52
  Speaker 5: not drinking anything tonight. I got a busy day tomorrow.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: But you had two Iwanis and now a Coke? And
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: you think you're going to sleep tonight?
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: Why not? I live dangerously, Terry.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: No, we'll see. We'll see.
• 8:11
  Speaker 5: But yeah, no, just the Coca-Cola. In fairness, I've had
• 8:15
  Speaker 5: plenty of water today. Just by the way, I did.
• 8:18
  Speaker 5: I had like two bottles of water in between them
• 8:22
  Speaker 5: and now. So I am hydrated.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: But isn't there like 100 grams of something or caffeine
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: in each Alani?
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: It's like more than what's recommended in a day. And
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: you've had two.
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: Who's counting? All right.
• 8:38
  Speaker 5: I don't have your little ring thing to yell at
• 8:42
  Speaker 5: me all day.
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: All right. Yes, it contains 200 milligrams of caffeine.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: But that's really not a big deal for me. Yeah. Okay.
• 8:53
  Speaker 5: Hey, you remember what my TikTok boyfriend said yesterday?
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: That is true.
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: All right. All right.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: I now follow him.
• 9:03
  Speaker 5: I know I still have to watch the one that
• 9:04
  Speaker 5: Buffy sent me this morning because I haven't gotten to yet. Anyway,
• 9:09
  Speaker 5: with all of that and our nonsense, let's get into
• 9:12
  Speaker 5: tonight's case then.
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: Okay?
• 9:14
  Speaker 5: So welcome back to True Crime and Wine Time. And
• 9:17
  Speaker 5: if you've been running this grueling marathon with us, you
• 9:20
  Speaker 5: know that Sarah Hartsfield doesn't just break hearts.
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: She also burns down lives. Literally and figuratively.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: She does.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: And in part four, we witnessed her trail of ashes
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: turn lethal. We went north to Douglas County, Minnesota, to
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: track the tragic fate of solar contractor David Bragg. We
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: watched as Sarah isolated him, pushed him to the brink
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: with ADHD medications and energy drinks to renovate an old
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: farmhouse and turn.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: On his own family.
• 9:56
  Speaker 5: But when David finally gathered the courage to plan his escape,
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: the trap was sprung. And on May 9th, 2018, David
• 10:05
  Speaker 5: ended up dead on a kitchen floor from a gunshot wound. Now,
• 10:09
  Speaker 5: we broke down the three wildly conflicting stories that Sarah
• 10:13
  Speaker 5: spun to the police, to her friends, and to her
• 10:17
  Speaker 5: own son, and how, despite the glaring contradictions, the system
• 10:23
  Speaker 5: let her walk away completely scot-free. So far, we've had
• 10:29
  Speaker 5: three fires, one body, and still zero handcuffs.
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: Infuriating.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: It's, yeah, so, hello, Teresia. In this part of the
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: Sarah Hartsfield saga, the illusion completely shatters. With her divorce
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: from Chris Donahue finally wrapping up, Sarah doesn't take a
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: breath to reflect.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: I'm going to just say this is.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: A woman who can't be alone. I'm just going to
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: put that out there. Instead, there are men everywhere. And
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: a rapid marriage to husband number four. And a venomous
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: high state custody war where her own children finally begin
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: to speak out. And for the first time, the secrets
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: her kids have been carrying become part of a terrifying
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: police investigation and one that uncovers a literal murder plot.
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: That's right. This is part five, the secret plot. So
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: pour your wine, settle in and brace yourselves because the
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: mask isn't just slipping anymore. It's about to be ripped
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: entirely away. That's right.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: So fresh off a justifiable homicide ruling in Minnesota, which
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: I still don't understand, Sarah Hartsville didn't slide into quiet
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: isolation to process the trauma of killing her fiancé. I mean,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: she took somebody's lives.
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: It was just another Tuesday or whatever day it was
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: for her.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Instead, by early 2019, she packed up her belongings, took
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: her children, and headed right back down to Texas.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: We didn't want you.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: Sarah. But anyway, her lifelong pattern required a constant anchor,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: a man to provide financial security, validation, and a roof
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: over her head. And Sarah wasn't just looking for one anchor.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: She was casting a massive net.
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: Now, Sarah had stepped fully into the digital age of
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: dating and by operating in a dizzying, fast-moving rotation of suitors,
• 12:41
  Speaker 5: if you will. She was actively balancing multiple online relationships,
• 12:47
  Speaker 5: juggling sweet-talking messages and setting up overlapping dates. And if
• 12:53
  Speaker 5: one man started to question her past or show signs
• 12:56
  Speaker 5: of hesitation, well, she didn't waste time trying to fix it.
• 13:00
  Speaker 5: She already had other digital doors unlocked and waiting.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: But out of that entire chaotic sea of options, one
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: man swam directly into the kill zone.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: David George.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: David George, who Sarah would refer to as George. I
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: assume to separate herself further from the David Bragg murder.
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: You know, but he was a hardworking, soft-spoken Texan. Like
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: the men who came before him, George saw exactly what
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: Sarah wanted him to see. a fiercely independent military veteran,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: a dedicated mother who had survived a tragic domestic attack
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: up north, and a woman who just needed a good,
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: strong partner to help her rebuild.
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: Oh, oh, Sarah.
• 13:53
  Speaker 5: Just a damsel in distress. She gets so misunderstood. Well,
• 13:58
  Speaker 5: George was immediately hooked. He wanted to protect her, to
• 14:03
  Speaker 5: provide for her, and to give her the fresh start
• 14:07
  Speaker 5: she claimed she desperately deserved. The relationship moved at the
• 14:12
  Speaker 5: exact reckless speed that had defined every single one of
• 14:16
  Speaker 5: Sarah's previous conquests. Her 19-year marriage to Christopher Donahue was
• 14:23
  Speaker 5: finally officially finalized in a Texas divorce court in 2019.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: Do you think Christopher popped a bottle of champagne or
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: celebrated that divorce?
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: Oh, gosh. I probably would have.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: I know I would have. And if you didn't, Christopher,
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: and you want to, let us know. We will send
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: you a bottle. Yeah. We will send you a bottle on.
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: Us, okay? Crazy what we all went through.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: The ink on those divorce papers weren't even dry before
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: Sarah was already planning her next walk down the aisle.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: I mean, before the year was out, Sarah and George
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: officially tied the knot making David George officially husband number four.
• 15:09
  Speaker 5: And to the outside world, it looked like a whirlwind romance.
• 15:13
  Speaker 5: A resilient woman finding love and stability after a string
• 15:18
  Speaker 5: of horrific tragedies. And George happily opened up his life,
• 15:24
  Speaker 5: his finances, and his home to Sarah and her children.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: But George had no idea. that he hadn't just married
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: a wife, he had stepped into a carefully constructed trap.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: He was now legally bound to a woman who used
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: marriage as shields, and he was about to be dragged
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: face first into a venomous, high-stakes legal war with her past.
• 15:51
  Speaker 5: And the ring was barely on David George's finger before
• 15:55
  Speaker 5: the relative peace of their new marriage was completely blown apart.
• 16:00
  Speaker 5: Sarah was officially done with Christopher Donahue as a husband,
• 16:04
  Speaker 5: but she was nowhere near done with him as an adversary.
• 16:10
  Speaker 5: In 2019, the courtroom became her new battleground as a brutal,
• 16:15
  Speaker 5: scorched-earth custody erupted between the two ex-spouses.
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 16:20
  Speaker 5: Remember from the first episode where her first husband was
• 16:25
  Speaker 5: in a Titus that said, like, you don't leave Sarah.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: You don't leave Sarah.
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: You don't.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Now, for Sarah, custody wasn't about parenting. Okay?
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: For her, it was about total.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: Control and ultimate vindication. She wanted to completely wipe Chris
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: out of the picture. And she deployed her signature legal
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: warfare to do it.
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: Okay?
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: She flooded the family court system with motions, painted Chris
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: as an absolute villain, and used her new marriage to
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: George to present a glossy, manufactured image of a perfect, stable,
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: blended family.
• 17:08
  Speaker 5: Now George, completely loyal to his new bride, found himself
• 17:13
  Speaker 5: dragged directly into the crossfire, funding legal fees, and standing
• 17:19
  Speaker 5: as a character witness for a woman he barely truly knew.
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: Love is blind, but.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: Chris wasn't backing down from Sarah this time. He had
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: 19 years of firsthand experience with Sarah's manipulation. And more importantly, guys,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: he had truth on his side.
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: And as the hearings intensified, Sarah tried to lean heavily
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: on her favorite persona, the protective, loving mama bear who
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: was just trying to shield her children.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: And I'm going to tell you, she does not. deserved
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: to ever be called a mama bear.
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: No, she does not. She weaponized the kids. Of course
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: she did.
• 18:07
  Speaker 5: Attempting to alienate them from their father and coach them
• 18:11
  Speaker 5: on what to say to evaluators. She truly believed one
• 18:16
  Speaker 5: could outmaneuver the judges just like she had outmaneuvered the
• 18:21
  Speaker 5: investigators in Minnesota.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: I have to say, this just popped into my mind.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: Courts need to start charging people who do this in
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: custody hearings because, you know, we hear it often. They say, oh,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: they molested them. They abused them. Those people who file that,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: they should be charged with something because here in Texas,
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: they're not. I don't know if they are other places
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: because unfortunately had to go through that before.
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: But so, yeah, they should charge them.
• 18:53
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, those kind of accusations, I mean, I
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: guess you could like sue them for defamation, as I've
• 18:58
  Speaker 5: been learning a lot about.
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: The last two days.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: I think it would be perjury, because if you put
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: it into a legal motion for a custody hearing, isn't
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: that lying.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: To the court?
• 19:09
  Speaker 5: Well, you'll have to wait for my defamation video. Then
• 19:13
  Speaker 5: you can explain it. Then you can understand it a
• 19:16
  Speaker 5: little bit more, how that'll work.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: But what Sarah didn't realize was that the foundation beneath
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: her feet was completely rotting. You could only keep children
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: isolated and terrified under a regime of what happens in
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: this house stays in this house for so long before
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: they grow up, look around, and realize their mother isn't
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: a protector.
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: She's a predator.
• 19:43
  Speaker 5: And while Sarah and Chris traded bitter blows through their lawyers,
• 19:47
  Speaker 5: the family court judge did something that Sarah never anticipated.
• 19:51
  Speaker 5: They began listening directly to the children. And behind closed doors,
• 19:58
  Speaker 5: away from Sarah's piercing glare, the kids were preparing to
• 20:03
  Speaker 5: shatter her world.
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Behind the Fortress of Lives Sarah Hartsville built to survive
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: the Minnesota shooting, a quite devastating rebellion was taking root
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: within her own family. During the 2019 custody war with Chris,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: Sarah's legal team repeatedly insisted that her home was a sanctuary.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: But family court evaluators and investigators were about to step
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: directly past the glossy facade and what they found It
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: was a household saturated by severe psychological abuse and manufactured trauma.
• 20:43
  Speaker 5: When the children were finally granted a safe space away
• 20:47
  Speaker 5: from Sarah's intense, hyper-controlling presence, they began to speak. They
• 20:53
  Speaker 5: didn't tell stories of a protective mama bear. Instead, they
• 20:58
  Speaker 5: unburdened themselves of the dark secrets they had been forced
• 21:02
  Speaker 5: to carry for years.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: The kids detailed the exhausting, tactical scripts they were forced
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: to memorize before anyone came to interview them. They exposed
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: how Sarah didn't just manipulate adults. She actively weaponized her
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: own flesh and blood to destroy her ex-partners. She's evil.
• 21:25
  Speaker 5: She is. They revealed the agonizing truth about the brain
• 21:29
  Speaker 5: tumor stunt, confirming to investigators that Sarah had weaponized a
• 21:33
  Speaker 5: fake tumor terminal illness solely to punish her thin 17-year-old
• 21:40
  Speaker 5: Ashley for exposing her infidelity and leaving the teenagers to
• 21:45
  Speaker 5: parent the younger kids while she vacationed with the man
• 21:49
  Speaker 5: she would later kill.
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: Oh, such a great mother.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: Even more chilling, her son Ryan would later reveal what
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: happened in the immediate aftermath of David Bragg's death on
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: the kitchen floor. While David's blood was still drying, there
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: was no mourning, there was no shock, and no grief
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: inside that house. Instead, Sarah treated the crime scene like
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: an inconvenience. She's, ugh.
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: The worst.
• 22:22
  Speaker 5: Now, Ryan recounted how they literally just moved furniture around
• 22:26
  Speaker 5: the room where David died, swept up the debris, and
• 22:30
  Speaker 5: were told to simply pack up and move on with life.
• 22:34
  Speaker 5: Sarah treated a fatal shooting with the same clinical indifference
• 22:38
  Speaker 5: someone might show while cleaning up a spilled glass of wine,
• 22:43
  Speaker 5: if you will.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: I bet you I show more panic and more worry. Okay,
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: just saying.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: The children told evaluators that their mother's explosive rage wasn't
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: a rare occurrence.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: It was her daily baseline.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: The household ran entirely on fear, Isolation and an unwritten
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: rule that any child who stepped out of line or
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: spoke to the outside world would face immediate, brutal psychological retaliation.
• 23:17
  Speaker 5: And for the first time in her life, Sarah's absolute
• 23:22
  Speaker 5: control over her children's narratives began to catastrophically fracture. The
• 23:29
  Speaker 5: family court judge listened intently to the harrowing accounts delivered
• 23:33
  Speaker 5: by the kids and Sarah's carefully constructed identity as the
• 23:38
  Speaker 5: perfect victimized mother began to completely disintegrate in the eyes
• 23:44
  Speaker 5: of the law. The children had secrets and those secrets
• 23:49
  Speaker 5: were about to turn a messy custody dispute into a
• 23:53
  Speaker 5: full-blown criminal nightmare.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: And just when you think Sarah Hartsfield's story couldn't possibly
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: get any more dark or twisted, you haven't been around
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: true crime and wine time long enough, okay?
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: That's true.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: Because the year 2021 arrives and the custody battle over
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: her youngest children takes a truly demonic turn.
• 24:19
  Speaker 5: So by this point, her ex-husband Chris had moved on,
• 24:23
  Speaker 5: relocated to Sierra Vista, Arizona, and and remarried a woman
• 24:28
  Speaker 5: named Heather. Sarah was absolutely consumed with rage over the
• 24:34
  Speaker 5: custody dispute, and she decided that if she couldn't win
• 24:38
  Speaker 5: in the courtroom, well, she would win by completely annihilating
• 24:43
  Speaker 5: Chris's new life. But she didn't hire some hitman from
• 24:49
  Speaker 5: the shadows. Instead, she turned to husband number four, David George,
• 24:55
  Speaker 5: and forced him to become her personal instrument of death.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah. According to shocking court documents that later came to light,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Sarah engineered a literal murder plot targeting Chris's new wife, Heather.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: Is that not scary to think? You marry a man
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: who's divorced.
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: And his ex tries to have you killed.
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: It's wild.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Because you remember, When she set Tim's home on fire
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: with her first ex-husband, the very first husband, he was
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: with his new girlfriend, and.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: She tried to burn it down.
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: Yes, she sure did.
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: So the twisted logic.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: Sarah believed that if Heather was dead, Chris would be
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: entirely too traumatized and busy dealing with the grief to
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: keep fighting her for custody of their girls.
• 25:52
  Speaker 5: Now, Sarah's pressure on George was relentless. She literally handed
• 25:58
  Speaker 5: George a pistol, forced him to buy a specific black
• 26:02
  Speaker 5: car for the hit, and issued a chilling ultimatum that
• 26:07
  Speaker 5: he was not allowed back inside their home until the
• 26:11
  Speaker 5: job was finished.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: And guys, remember, this was his home. He married her
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: and brought her into it.
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 26:19
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: George... utterly trapped under her psychological control, actually got into
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: that black car and drove all the way from Texas
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: to Arizona. Months before the plot was fully exposed, Chris's
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: doorbell camera captured a terrifying moment. George pulled up to
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: Chris's house, holding a random bouquet of roses.
• 26:45
  Speaker 5: When Chris answered via the intercom, George muttered, yes, hello?
• 26:52
  Speaker 5: I have some flowers for the Donahues. And Chris asked,
• 26:56
  Speaker 5: no card or anything? And George awkwardly shuffled and pretended
• 27:01
  Speaker 5: to look for one and then just drove away. The
• 27:05
  Speaker 5: plan had been for Heather to answer the door, at
• 27:08
  Speaker 5: which point George was supposed to execute her right there
• 27:12
  Speaker 5: on the porch.
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: That is terrifying.
• 27:18
  Speaker 5: And I feel like I don't know this to be true.
• 27:20
  Speaker 5: But I do feel like they had that intercom system
• 27:23
  Speaker 5: and all of the camera, all of that because of Sarah.
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
• 27:31
  Speaker 5: They were already nervous about what she was capable of doing.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: Chris knew what she was capable of. So behind the scenes,
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: George was terrified. He later admitted to investigators that he
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: had been desperately trying for months to get Sarah to
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: stop pressuring him.
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: And that.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: He would actively lie to her over the phone about
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: why the murder hadn't happened yet, just to keep the peace.
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: Never answer the door again.
• 28:03
  Speaker 5: Now, cracking under the pressure, George confessed the entire plot
• 28:07
  Speaker 5: to Sarah's daughter, Hannah. Horrified, Hannah immediately alerted her father, Chris.
• 28:15
  Speaker 5: Armed with this terrifying information and the bizarre doorbell footage,
• 28:21
  Speaker 5: Chris contacted law enforcement, and because the scheme involved interstate
• 28:26
  Speaker 5: travel to commit the murder, well, the FBI aimed primary
• 28:31
  Speaker 5: jurisdiction over the case.
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: I mean, she's going to get caught, and FBI's going
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: to put her in prison, right?
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: So just hold on.
• 28:41
  Speaker 4: Sure.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: On March 19, 2021, FBI agents moved on the investigation.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: While the FBI requested local Sierra Vista police to conduct
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: close patrols around the Donahue home for their safety, federal
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: agents went directly to confront Sarah.
• 29:00
  Speaker 5: The agents questioned her at her residence regarding the murder
• 29:03
  Speaker 5: for hire allegations, and according to affidavits, Sarah did what
• 29:09
  Speaker 5: she did best and deflected and deflected and deflected.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: She completely denied the existence of a plot. Even though
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: one of her daughters, who was home at the time
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: the agents were there, overheard the entire conversation and told
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: her father, Chris, that mom lied about everything and the
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: agents were gone.
• 29:33
  Speaker 5: And the moment the FBI walked out the door, Sarah
• 29:38
  Speaker 5: went into survival mode. and immediately began cutting ties to
• 29:43
  Speaker 5: the evidence. Exactly one week after the FBI questioned her
• 29:48
  Speaker 5: about the hit plot, she filed for divorce from David George,
• 29:52
  Speaker 5: the very man she had allegedly forced into the scheme. Oh,
• 29:58
  Speaker 5: That'll take care of it, I'm sure. Nobody's going to
• 30:00
  Speaker 5: want to turn on you when you file for divorce
• 30:03
  Speaker 5: against them.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: She's thinking he's going to be so happy that I'm
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: done with him that he'll just go away, right? Just
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: a few weeks later, George filed sworn affidavits with the court,
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: completely backtracking on his initial confession. He called the allegations
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: lies and fabrications and claimed Sarah was a safe, good mother.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: with the primary co-conspirator recanting, the FBI did not move
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: forward with federal charges at the time.
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: Which.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: I don't get it.
• 30:45
  Speaker 5: Years later, once Sarah was safely behind bars for the
• 30:48
  Speaker 5: murder of Joseph Hartsfield, David George finally came clean to
• 30:54
  Speaker 5: the media. He released a statement, admitting that he had
• 30:59
  Speaker 5: lied under oath to protect her, saying, quote, I retracted
• 31:03
  Speaker 5: the truth trying to protect her. Sarah had two loves
• 31:07
  Speaker 5: in her life. That's all she's ever had, herself and money,
• 31:12
  Speaker 5: end quote. The full terrifying scope of the Arizona flower
• 31:17
  Speaker 5: delivery plot was later laid bare for a jury when
• 31:21
  Speaker 5: FBI agent Anderson took the stand in her 2025 murder trial.
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: I just, I still can't believe it was just, poof, gone.
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: I know.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: I'm like, all you got to do is lie to
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: the FBI and that's it. And they go away.
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: How about that? Oh, yeah. That's wild.
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: For years, Sarah had successfully weaponized the family court system,
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: using it as a tactical blade to slice her ex-husband
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: out of their children's lives. She had always managed to
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: wrap herself in the protective mantle of.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: The victimized, loving mama bear.
• 31:56
  Speaker 4: Ugh.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: But the moment the FBI stepped into the picture with
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: proof of an active interstate murder plot, her courtroom armor
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: completely shattered.
• 32:07
  Speaker 5: Now, the fallout from the Sierra Vista flowery delivery plot
• 32:11
  Speaker 5: was swift, severe, and catastrophic for Sarah's grand design. Armed
• 32:18
  Speaker 5: with the terrifying ring doorbell footage of David George, the
• 32:23
  Speaker 5: FBI's active investigation files and the frantic warnings from his
• 32:28
  Speaker 5: own children. Chris Donahue went straight back to a family
• 32:33
  Speaker 5: court judge to demand emergency protection.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: In a searing ruling, the Texas court finally stripped Sarah
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: Hartsville of custody of her two youngest children. About time
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: family court did something. The court issued a strict multi-year
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: protective order against her, legally finding that family violence had
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: occurred and that Sarah posed a clear and present danger
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: to her own family.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: She was legally.
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: Barred from having any contact whatsoever with her younger children,
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: with Chris or with his new wife, Heather.
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: And guys, they.
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: Don't do that in Texas. That is a hell of
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: a rule.
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: They go for their mom most of the time, so.
• 33:25
  Speaker 5: But also to, like, ban a parent from seeing their kid. Like, that's,
• 33:28
  Speaker 5: you done, you done fucked up.
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: You done.
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: But at least something has happened to her. Finally. She
• 33:34
  Speaker 3: had to have some consequences.
• 33:35
  Speaker 5: Though, honestly, in my opinion, I don't think she really
• 33:39
  Speaker 5: gave a shit if she saw the kids or not.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: She did.
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: In my opinion. I agree.
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: They were props and things she could control.
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely. A weird little bug.
• 33:52
  Speaker 5: Now, the very children she had spent years isolating, coaching,
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: and manipulating to maintain her financial and emotional leverage were
• 34:01
  Speaker 5: permanently taken out of her reach. For a woman entirely
• 34:06
  Speaker 5: driven by control, losing custody wasn't just a legal defeat.
• 34:12
  Speaker 5: It was a public humiliation and a total loss of power.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: She had lost her children. she had chewed up and
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: discarded David George, her legal ties to the Donna Hugh
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: were severed. Yet, true to the unshakable pattern of her life,
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: Sarah didn't look inward or show a shred of remorse.
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: What?
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: No.
• 34:41
  Speaker 5: Instead, she took her newfound freedom, brushed the dust of
• 34:46
  Speaker 5: the FBI investigation off her sleeves, and set her sights
• 34:51
  Speaker 5: on a brand new target. Because just around the corner,
• 34:55
  Speaker 5: a man named Joseph Hartsfield was waiting.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: And that brings us to the close of part five.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: The walls have finally completely closed in on Sarah Hartsfield's
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: custody war. And her terrifying motor plot has been exposed
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: to the world. But the master manipulator is running out
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: of track.
• 35:19
  Speaker 5: Next time on True Crime and Wine Time, we are
• 35:22
  Speaker 5: entering the final dramatic courtroom showdown. Part six takes us
• 35:27
  Speaker 5: directly inside the Chambers County Courthouse for the trial that
• 35:31
  Speaker 5: captured national attention, the state of Texas versus Sarah Hartsfield.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: We will give you a front row seat to the
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: grueling nine-day trial, recapping the testimony day by day. We'll
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: break down the technical and medical warfare from the opening
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: day as experts dissect the toxic effects of insulin that
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: left Joseph Hartfield in a fatal coma.
• 35:59
  Speaker 5: We'll also take you through the midweek bomb drops when
• 36:02
  Speaker 5: the jury hears from an absolute parade of ghosts from
• 36:06
  Speaker 5: Sarah's past, including her exes, her foster mother, and her
• 36:12
  Speaker 5: own children. who take the stand to testify about years
• 36:16
  Speaker 5: of systemic abuse, fake or systematic abuse, fake illnesses and
• 36:23
  Speaker 5: house fires.
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: Then we'll unpack the digital smoking gun delivered by the
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: lead detective.
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: The shocking phone.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: Data proving that while Joseph lay unconscious and dying, Sarah
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: was awake, actively deleting messages and secretly setting herself up
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: is his Apple legacy contact to seize his data the
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: moment he passed.
• 36:50
  Speaker 5: And finally, we will walk you through the tense, rapid-fire
• 36:54
  Speaker 5: closing arguments and the jaw-dropping fast conclusion. You will hear
• 36:59
  Speaker 5: how it took a jury of 12 just about an
• 37:02
  Speaker 5: hour to see through her eye-rolling deflections and deliver the ultimate,
• 37:08
  Speaker 5: unshakable verdict, guilty of murder.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: Get ready for the final days of reckoning because next week,
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: the illusion ends. And Sarah Hartsfield is walked out of
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: that Texas courtroom in handcuffs, facing a sentence of life
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: in prison.
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: I'm very excited to get to this part of the
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: story as well. You know, I love trials.
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: I need her to be in the worst woman's prison
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: we have in Texas.
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: And we still have, what, four more parts of the story.
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: Four more episodes.
• 37:44
  Speaker 5: Yeah, because we'll get to hear. Because a lot does
• 37:46
  Speaker 5: happen at trial.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: That trial had a lot.
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: And they shoved it all into nine days.
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: I don't know how they did it.
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: I don't know how they did it either.
• 37:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 37:57
  Speaker 5: It was very difficult to decide what to include or not,
• 38:02
  Speaker 5: which ended up being like everything.
• 38:04
  Speaker 4: Which?
• 38:06
  Speaker 5: Because it was all very... Interesting when, you know, putting
• 38:10
  Speaker 5: it all together. Like, oh, that's neat.
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: It was.
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: And we see how big of heroes her kids are.
• 38:18
  Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely. Them, her exes that come to testify. There
• 38:22
  Speaker 5: is light at the end of the tunnel for them.
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: But before we go, if you like what you've heard tonight,
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: be sure to follow all of our socials. Subscribe to
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: our YouTube channel because it's free.
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: And if you're listening to our pod, please download, give
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: us a rating, all that tremendous. It helps us get
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: our channel out there.
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 38:46
  Speaker 5: Well, is there anything you'd like to say before we
• 38:49
  Speaker 5: go or sign off?
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: I am still in shock that this woman has talked
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: her way out of everything so far. And it's taken
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: this many years to finally get her in handcuffs. I mean,
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: how many houses you got to burn down?
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: I mean. It's wild.
• 39:12
  Speaker 5: Like I said at the beginning, it's very rare we
• 39:14
  Speaker 5: see a woman like this. It's certainly feasible, impossible if
• 39:19
  Speaker 5: we have Sarah here, but it's not very often. And
• 39:22
  Speaker 5: so I don't know if maybe that kind of like
• 39:25
  Speaker 5: hoodwinked a lot.
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: Of people or what.
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: I mean, look at how.
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: The fbi like what she was.
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: Able to manipulate men she has some kind of charismatic
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: power something over men and all the investigators were men
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: and one thing that the detective almost in texas who
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: gets her was not a man And I can't help
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: but think it was that female superpower that helped.
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: I think so. I think so. I know you're late again, lady.
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: I'm sorry. It's okay.
• 40:00
  Speaker 5: Well, that is all we have for this week's episode.
• 40:04
  Speaker 5: Be sure to tune in next week for part six.
• 40:09
  Speaker 5: And as I always say, go forth and be amazing.
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: And stay safe.
• 40:14
  Speaker 3: Be aware.
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: Enjoy your wine time.
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: And remember, It is free to be kind and to
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: subscribe to our channel.
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: That's right. All right. Thank you all. Have a great night. Bye.