Chapter 8 — Finale: Indicted 01:28:43

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I did not want to write this at first due to the emotions and anger it rehashes. The truth is, unless you were there to see exactly what myself and my family went through, it will never be fully understood. Amanda, I first met you in a church. A church where you were a beloved member. You were the poor, young Christian woman that was fighting a battle undeserved. For a friend dying of cancer, Hodgkin lymphoma, terminal,

Since the day I was notified about Mrs. Riley's case, I have been in disbelief. When I heard the news that Amanda faked having cancer, I was in shock. So many things went through my mind. Relief, anger, nausea, disgust. My name is Nancy Muscatello, and I am an investigative producer, and my life has been significantly impacted by Amanda C. Riley's malignant lies and malice conduct.

I let the courts, the attorneys, justice counselors, and anyone who would listen know about the investigation into Amanda Riley. And well, it got worse. No one believed me. And somehow now I was the bad parent because I was not going along with the narrative everyone had fallen prey to. I became the one who said it out loud. This woman does not have cancer. She is faking cancer. ♪♪

I'm Charlie Webster. You're listening to Scamander.

You might remember from earlier in the season how the world was supposed to end in 2012. Obama had only just been re-elected for his second presidential term. The London Olympics was a big moment in my career, but now it's quite a long time ago. There have been two Olympics since, and there's going to be another one next year. We've had a whole pandemic between then and now. TikTok now exists and is bigger than Instagram and Twitter.

2012 was also the year Amanda C. Reilly started her blog and told the world she was diagnosed with cancer. You might be surprised to know that her journey has been ongoing ever since. Through her blog, we learned about her four relapses, the devastating impact cancer was having on her life and her family, and the relentless treatment she was having to endure. But it turns out 2012 wasn't the start of Amanda's cancer journey.

She told her friends Lisa and Steve Berry that she had terminal cancer way back in 2010. While she told everyone, including her friend Rebecca Caffiro, that the reason why she started her blog in 2012 was because she'd been diagnosed with cancer after the birth of her first child. Right after she had her first child, they ran some tests.

And that's when they found out it was almost like the pregnancy was masking it, but they figured it out and it was like, "Okay, you've got a brand new baby and you have cancer." That's what she told her friend Rebecca Caffiero. But this is what she told her then friends Lisa and Steve Berry about her first child. She said, "Oh, I have some really good news. I'm pregnant." And I'm like, "I thought you were dying." "I thought you were dying." "Oh, the pregnancy is reversing the disease."

That's what she said. The pregnancy is reversing the cancer. In 2015, an anonymous email dropped into the inbox of investigative producer Nancy Moscatello, and it sparked an eight-year curiosity that became an obsession. Nancy got the attention of the San Jose Police Department and then the IRS. The investigation took five years.

In July 2020, Amanda C. Riley was indicted for wire fraud. I received a victim's notification from the Department of Justice. I opened up that email and read that she was being investigated. I had no clue, zero clue. It was shocking to say the least. What was it like when you read that email? I was shook.

I really was. I think I went directly back into the mindset of, "Can't this girl get a break? Can't people leave her alone? Isn't she dealing with enough already? She's been in the hospital for 100 days just this year." And then I Googled it, instantly found articles, then obsessively tried to find more information to justify what I was reading from the Gilroy Dispatch and whatnot. Obviously, I was left with a lot of uncertainty. I reached out to the people I thought we had in common who

essentially said, "I believe Amanda, and I will until proven otherwise." And I was mostly open for that discussion, like, "Did anything seem weird to you?" But it seemed like there was just this outright support and that if I were to question that, maybe I was in the wrong. So I cut off all that contact immediately. I actually deleted social media at this point. I called my mom first, who knew. My mom knew that, you know, my dear friend Amanda was dying of cancer.

And she was shocked. We were all shocked. My housemates, who didn't even know her, couldn't believe the situation. -Did you believe Amanda? -I believed Amanda. I did. I believed Amanda. I had some doubts because how does this whole -- how does the Department of Justice get this that wrong? The whole thing was so elaborate and so intricate.

that I couldn't fathom that this was a scheme because who can put that much devotion and time and effort into such a huge, successful lie? Mind-boggling. Did you speak to Amanda after that? Yes, I did. I contacted her via text immediately.

I said, "Amanda, I want to let you know that earlier this week I received a victim's notice from the Department of Justice for a case being investigated." I wanted to make her aware. That's when she replied back. It was simple. "I will call you." And she did. She called me within the hour, and I was laying in bed crying, and I missed it. I slept the rest of the day.

When I woke up the next day, I said, "Let's try it again." She said, "I need to make this quick. I need to pick up my boys. I need to do this. I need to pick up my medication." She was still telling me. She was in and out of the hospital and still telling me she was doing medications and doctor's appointments. And she was just so busy. I remember at least a couple times her saying, "I absolutely do have cancer. You know, I have cancer." Then that's, of course, where

the mom of her bonus daughter came in and she starts to say that the whole intention was to ruin her life. There was this bitterness from Jessa's mom that Corey and Amanda had received full custody. And that bitterness was what propelled this woman to try and get the word out there that Amanda faked cancer. The other thing she had to say is that

She was in the wrong, but she was in the wrong because she didn't understand she had to file taxes for her donations she collected. She said, "It was my mistake." And yeah, yeah, I will take credit for that one. But as soon as my doctor sends over the paperwork to the judge, I will be cleared from this all. And then I remember clearly before she hung up with me, she said, "Okay, love you, girl." And that stuck with me.

You love me? Amanda was telling her close friends that the reason why she was being investigated by the IRS is because she didn't realize that she had to pay taxes on the donations she received. I had emails from the Department of Justice. I had emails from family who had emails from the Department of Justice. And I had text messages because most of my close friends had given at some point. So they were contacted. I remember reading it and just feeling, oh my God.

But I still wasn't like, "She was lying." I was like, "How horrible is this?" I just like bawled my eyes out about what would this mean if it wasn't true? Because it wasn't just like, "Oh, this is a lie." It's like, "If this is a lie, then it's not just Amanda. It's Peggy." — Rebecca reached out to Peggy via text and asked her what all this was about. Peggy responded, telling Rebecca that it was all about unpaid taxes on donations.

And despite Amanda's house being raided four years prior, Peggy claims Amanda had no idea she was being investigated. And the IRS believe Amanda's some mastermind criminal. Amanda messaged Rebecca shortly after. This is what she says.

Then she sent me her...

Screen capture of her appointment on her phone from a portal. What was the appointment for? SB Infusion, three hours. SBITC, he meet on call RN, the name of the hospital, the phone number, the time, three hour or 180 minute appointment, which that's about how long chemo takes. And then the second photo is the nurse. I've looked it up and it's a real nurse who has a real LinkedIn profile. Like all the information adds up.

the provider, I called the phone number, like all of it. And then during the time that she said she was there, she's like, I'm in the infusion center. There are people around, but would it give you reassurance and help you with your friends and family if I FaceTimed you so you can see that live yourself? I FaceTimed and she's in, I mean, she has a IV bag right here. She's got the mask on and she let me take a screen capture of it, of us talking when she was in her medical garb.

I said, "How's everything going with your case?" "They're making a lot of progress to get it resolved. Hopefully soon. The anxiety is killing me. I just want it done." I say, "I can only imagine. Are they trying to get you to plea or is there any chance they'll drop it? Can I help in any way?" "And I hope you sue everyone. Even though I'm not normally a proponent, this is an exception." She says, "Hopefully it gets dropped. We don't know yet. They're still in discovery pulling medical records and stuff. That's what everyone keeps saying, but we just want it to stop. If we didn't have little kids, we'd probably sue, but that just drags us out for years and I mentally just can't deal with it. We're still considering it though."

And I just said, "Amanda, I'm so sorry for what you and your family is going through. And I wish you nothing but health and happiness." I was home babysitting, and one of the parents, the one that donated $100, okay? She called me. She says, "Mahasti, I got this email from district attorney about Amanda Riley." You remember Mahasti, Amanda and Corey's babysitter? And she turned around and tells me, "Did you know about it?"

that she was cheating people out of their money. I said, "No." She says, "You didn't?" Then my other parents, well, she calls me and she says, "What the hell is happening?" I said, "What? You got it too?" She says, "Yeah." I said, "How come I didn't get it? I'm the biggest victim here. I got stepped on all over." So she says, "Call the district attorney. That's the number." So I emailed her and she put me in the list of the victims. She says, "We didn't have you." I said, "Yeah." An anonymous donor

Arlette Lee, the IRS special agent, was collecting a list of victims in Amanda C. Reilly's case. My degree is in psychology. That's why cases like this, they fascinate me because that's the one thing I want to know is, I want to know

what motivates them because it'll help me understand, okay, where do I need to look? So that's kind of like for me, that's what I do. It is, it's the psychology of the case. How are they thinking? And I'm looking at some of the current cases I'm working at is that's what I want to understand. How does their brain work? Because that will push me in the direction of where I need to find this evidence. And so this was no different.

Stephanie Finn, the musician and Amanda's celebrity hookup, also got a notification from the Department of Justice. It just seemed like something crazy, like there's no way someone's doing this. There's just no way.

I reached out to Arlette and was just like, "Please tell me this is not real." This is what I had sent to her. I said, "Good evening. I wanted to reach out. I'm very upset hearing the information about Amanda Riley. I still have my Facebook messaging between us where she discusses her treatments many times. In addition, I reached out to multiple country music artists." It just goes on and on. I think when I talked to her on the phone, I was like, "Please tell me this is not real. Please tell me that this is like, I don't know. Just tell me that this is a lie and that they're wrong."

Were you completely surprised by it when you found out? Oh, I was shocked. I was in shock. I was just like, my head was literally spinning. Like, how can somebody like do this? And that's where I was battling with, do I pray she has cancer or do I pray that like she's completely healthy and this is a lie?

Charisse Valdez, Amanda's friend from church, heard rumors flying around that Amanda was faking it all.

Just within my close little network, when they brought it up to me, they're like, oh, did you hear Amanda's having to go to court because they're claiming she lied? There's no way. And they're saying, well, it's in the news. There has to be some reason and like something to substantiate that. But me personally, I was like, it's that's not real. There's no way.

But pretty much the other people around me were like, well, it sounds like it is. And so obviously they were very upset about that. And I just kind of refused, refused to believe that. I decided, OK, you know what? I'm just going to back off and see what happens. I want to say a handful of months passed or maybe even longer than that. And her social media became active again. And I would comment on her posts of her boys.

I never brought up that specific issue just because, you know, whether it was true or not, I still wanted to be a friend. I didn't want that negativity. You know, she had never brought any negativity into my life, and I decided if the rumors are true and she didn't have cancer, you know, that's heartbreaking to find that out. But also, someone doesn't just make something up like that if there's not something wrong.

Part of me was thinking, okay, maybe it was just, you know, a handful of people who had made claims, so they have to take a look into it. But it just, it didn't match with what I thought in my brain of her. I've seen her in the hospital, so clearly, you know, there's something going on. So there has to be some type of truth to this. For the doctors to have kept her in a hospital for that long, you know, there's no way that this could all just be made up when I've literally seen her in a hospital bed with tubes in her arm.

There's evidence in front of my brain that you are sick because the doctors are tending to you. So how does that work, essentially? I'd had these fundraisers. I'd shared her story on social media. I'd asked people to donate. I'd sent out emails to my friends. I think she was unbelievably believable. Everything that she said, like, made sense, having lost the people that I'd lost. As soon as I got that first email, I remember Googling, and there was an article that was out, like, a week earlier. And I was like, what the hell? Like,

They knew this was coming. I can't believe, I mean, I guess I'm not that special, but like as the main donor and you know, just the constant communication I'd had throughout, I just was shocked that I was hearing it first from the court and not from them. Like they knew I would be getting an email or contacted. So at that point, you know, I was starting to talk to my therapist. They were like, okay, what does this mean? And I think by December 2020, I was now like, all right, the reality is, is this is probably all fraud.

Part of me still was like, something, like, these do be a, like, a fourth quarter Hail Mary. But, like, I was sitting with the fact that this was not going to be a good outcome. When it comes to elements of a crime, in this case wire fraud, we can show that there was a lie. Arlette Lee, IRS special agent. And I could prove that what she said

And then she got money for what she said. I could prove that it was false because we had the medical records. And then from that point on, I showed the money going through the bank accounts, the money coming from victims. There's a lot of emotions involved. There's a lot of things that she did. But when it comes down to charging somebody with a crime, here are the elements. And this is what we got. This is the evidence that we got. And so that's how we were able to prove it.

Sometimes certain behaviors or certain emotions could be examples of kind of what she's doing, going toward intent. But we really didn't have to. All we said was she solicited donations saying she had cancer. We can prove she did not have cancer. She got this money. She didn't have any medical expenses.

The bottom line was the record showed she did not have cancer, yet she received donations from people to help with her cancer. We did get records that showed she never was treated for cancer and she was never diagnosed with cancer. And so in the end, that was presented to her and she pled guilty to it. So if you were sick and you were seeking treatment and someone told you, well, we don't have any record of that.

You probably would try to get a record from somewhere. And so what our case showed was there were no records. If she's going to a particular facility over and over again, taking pictures, claiming to be sick and claiming to whatever, but the records show that she never received treatment, never diagnosed there. At some point, okay, fine.

If you actually are, then you would tell us. How convinced were you that there would be a conviction? 100% because the way the IRS works, the way IRS agents work, is everything is, we deal with documents. We're not, we don't rely on a witness to say, "Okay, this person did this." Like, you know, a bank robbery. "Oh, there's a witness. That person robbed the bank." We base it on records. And so we had the medical records. I had the financial records.

And then we had the blogs showing, "Okay, she's telling people this and she's getting money for that." And that was cancer, which then I could document did not exist. So it was just a matter of when was this going to happen? Was she going to fight us and want to go to trial? Or would she plead? Do you prepare as if you're going to trial?

Absolutely. And that's actually something that we do on most of our cases. Because you want to get all the evidence and it's tight. I won't take a case if I think somebody's done something wrong but I don't have the evidence. There's a lot of cases that we know the person has committed a crime, but if we can't prove it, then we're not going to go forward with it because it's just not, that's not what we do. We base everything on the facts and on the evidence.

She pled guilty to wire fraud. She used her blog, which is the blog and then the way the money moved from her donation account, the online account. So that's the wire part. And so she used that to get the funds. And it was about, you know, a little over $100,000 that I was able to trace. What about all the people that gave cash donations?

So in cash donations, that wouldn't be part of the wire fraud charge because it didn't use the wires. They're not included. We show the wire fraud and it was based on the donations that went through her website. Is it possible to include the cash in a case like this or does it have to be traceable via wires?

I'm just intrigued because what if it all came through cash? Would it have been something that you wouldn't have been able to charge her for? Then we might look at something else and I would have to really think about what else we would look at charging. But when you have a situation like this, somebody somewhere

is going to pay with something electronic because, you know, it's today's age. It's going to be Venmo or it's going to be PayPal. So we're not concerned about not being able to charge them with that. But as far as sentencing purposes, you know, any donations, if they were cash or check, those would have been added in. So they may not have been part of the wire fraud charge, but they're going to be included in the total amount of fraud.

Amanda did plead guilty to wire fraud, avoiding a public trial. Over 350 victims were named in the wire fraud indictment, accounting for $105,513.43 in donations.

There were many more victims, though, and a significant amount of money donated via cash, checks, gift cards, and in-kind services, none of which was included in the wire fraud charge. It's probably not healthy for me to feel this way. I should be a bigger person, but it really makes me angry. American Cancer Society volunteer Penny Fraley. She was cute and she was charming and she had this little elfish smile and she really could have been

anything and done so much more than this. And the amount of effort that she put into that is still kind of stunning to me to this day. My grandfather used to tell me that the best course of action and the easiest course of action was to stick to the truth because it's a lot less work than having to remember what you lied about. And

The effort that she went to, I look back and I hope she lost sleep over it. That's all I'll say. I hope she thought, oh shit. But it just, it still is, I still shake my head. It was terrible. I'm telling you, it was so terrible because my sister asked me about it too. Her friends were asking me.

what's going on, you know? It was very, very sad because people who were around me, they were just kept telling me, "Mahasi, you didn't know? You mean you didn't know you were the closest to her? You didn't know?" I said, "No." It took a long time for them to trust me, you know? I really didn't know. It was terrible. You destroyed, not only you took money, you destroyed people's reputation and life.

You try to do so much for somebody and you care and next thing you know, you find out they were cheating you. They were lying to you. How could a person do that with the right mind? Not really a person could do that. You must be evil. I hate to say it. You're an evil, self-centered, selfish person. They say when you're so close to death, you see your life in front of you.

I saw the whole three years I babysat and everything I did, it came in front of my eyes. It was all lies. Going to church with them, standing in front of all those people that they believe in God and they acted like they believe in God. She doesn't believe in God. Hell no. I think she believes in devil and she's a devil worshiper. Honestly, you know, hate to say it.

I don't think she believes in anything. I think the devil is the one on her side. The hearing where Amanda pled guilty was held over Zoom due to it being in the midst of the COVID pandemic. Victims were allowed to join the Zoom and watch the proceedings. I was on Zoom watching it. I said, I'm going to call Corey to see what he says. So I called Corey. I said, Corey, you probably thought I'm the last person going to call you. He said, why you say that? I said, what's going on?

I told him this. I said, "I got a call from district attorney, something about Amanda." He says, "Oh, it's all bullshit." That's what he said. He says, "You know that lady I had a one night stand?" I said, "Yeah." She started the whole thing. She started the whole thing and everything's gonna blow over by this Thursday. I said, "Really?" He says, "Yeah." I said, "Okay." He said, "Well, me and Amanda and the kids will come and visit you." I said, "Okay." They never came, by the way.

Investigative producer Nancy was also watching the court proceedings over Zoom.

If you weren't in court, you wouldn't know that, you know, because what she was telling everyone else was, oh, it's just I didn't pay taxes on the money I raised. And this is no big deal. This is, you know, I'm going to get community service or I'm not going to get anything because I really didn't do anything that bad. I just have to pay the money. And so when you hear that, you go, wait a minute. Like, she's not sorry. So, yeah, she was a big part of my life for a bunch of years. And honestly, I think I will always remember

in the back of my mind, keep tabs on her because this won't stop. Somebody that does this and is continuing to do it. And, you know, I have people contacting me about her still doing something on some level of, you know, medical fraud. It's like, she'll go to jail and then she'll continue again. This episode is brought to you by Shopify.

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I text her after court. I texted her to let her know that I was there. "I just want you to know, being transparent myself, I was there on Zoom today watching." And she said, "Thank you for letting me know." She never had anything mean to say to me. It was all supportive and loving. But after the next couple times I texted her, which was just, "I hope you're taking care of yourself," I didn't hear anything back.

The very last message I sent her was, "Amanda, I heard you plead guilty today, and I just want to let you know that." When did you start to realize that she was faking it? When did you stop believing her? When she pled guilty. So you believed her right up until the time she pled guilty? Because the people around me were so convinced that she had faked cancer, I had that in the back of my mind.

But in the beginning, at the forefront of my mind, I was picturing her fainting in church. I was picturing the IVs in her arm, the ambulance rides. I read all the statements that she submitted to the court and have watched the proceedings. It is almost like a bad Hollywood novel. I don't know how else to put it, that someone would go this far.

This far? For what? A shopping trip in New York? You know what? Get a job, save your pennies. The only thing I think is still, to me, unresolved is the fact that Corey, her husband, is off scot-free and he was in it with her. He had to know. Me and other friend tried to think about it. They didn't have two pennies to rub together. All of a sudden, here comes the cash for this, cash for that.

We paid for her birthday that they invited everybody to come. And then all of a sudden, Corey comes with a brand new truck. Like, where'd that come from? So he had to know. It's crazy. There is no way that he wasn't, absolutely no way that he wasn't a part of it. Jamie, Alita's daughter, Jess's sister. What makes you say that? They continue to be together for...

what, 10 years or so? I don't honestly know how long, but a very long period of time. You're with that person. You see everything that that person's going through. When you have a partner you're living with, like you are right there with them. There's no fraction of my mind that thinks that Corey did not know what was going on and that he was a victim in this. I do not believe that for a second.

— I think it's a harder case to prove that he didn't know, that he doesn't know something, right? He's there, he's in the mix. — San Jose Police Department detective Jose Martinez, who first looked into Amanda's case. — A lot of times when I look at a case, I also look at it from a defense attorney's standpoint. Knowing what they ask for, knowing how they angle their information, how they manipulate information.

So I thought, okay, if I'm Corey's defense attorney, I'm literally going to go on. I don't know what cancer. I don't even know what somebody cancer looks like. She said she has cancer. Went into the hospital. She took me to the hospital. We were at oncology. She came home with her head shaved. She goes to all these appointments. I believe she had cancer. I mean, how am I going to prove that he's not stupid or that he's playing stupid?

Right. Proving somewhere in that middle ground. I mean, you could spend all day, you know, just proving somebody doesn't know something. And you and I are going to go, well, how could he not know? Well, I ask yourself, how did all these people for the last 10 years not know? Maybe she's that good. Maybe she's that good. And if I'm an attorney, I'm going to be like, she's that good. So I just think that the U.S. attorney was kind of like,

Proving that is going to be much, much bigger for not the same amount of result. And I think they just went after her just as a single person. And everybody else knows damn well that he probably knew, including his own child. But proving that's a very difficult task when she's fooled so many other people, right? And she's so committed to it.

And maybe she was that good, I don't know. But I just don't think so. When we work our cases, we look at everything. So we're not just going to look, okay, just her here. Because we're getting bank accounts. We're getting computer records. We're getting everything. So we get as much information as possible. We need to get the whole picture. But sometimes the evidence we get doesn't point us to other folks.

Doesn't mean that the person, the other people are not involved. Just means, it goes back to what I was saying in the beginning, sometimes we don't have the evidence that proves it. That we know we could take this to court or we could take this to trial and win. Amanda's going to prison because we had evidence against her. So...

If we have evidence, we will go after other people who are doing this or participating. You know, that's a possibility. But I really can't comment too much on what we did or what we didn't do as it pertains to Corey or her family members who some people think knew what was going on. So I think I'll leave it at that.

There are still questions over whether Amanda did this alone or if others close to her knew and were complicit. We discussed this with both Detective Martinez and Special Agent Arlette Lee, and it went back to our point in episode six: Lying isn't illegal on its own. To bring a charge requires a high burden of proof and tangible evidence. My anger is really actually at Peggy. This is what makes me angry, is Peggy is claiming

And she claimed it in the email that she sent to me. That she didn't know about any of this until September of 2021. But in August of 2020, she told me she sat in with Amanda in chemo, which is obviously not true if Amanda never had chemo. So Peggy was lying for her a year before she admitted to knowing about it, which means that she lied to me. That she knew at a point where she was flat out lying to my face. I don't know when she knew.

I would like to believe that a mother's intuition that when Amanda first got diagnosed with cancer, Peggy would have been at a doctor's appointment with her. I mean, here is your daughter with a brand new baby navigating cancer and you're in the same state and you aren't at any appointment or you say you are. Like, when did this really come up for Peggy? There was a question because there's no way if one of my children, there's no way as a mother I wouldn't know.

The IRS victims list included every person who donated money to Amanda over the internet. Included in the list is Peggy, her mother, with a donation amount of $10. I think every one of them knew what she was doing, or they found out somehow down the road that she did that. She probably was going to sue them too, who knows? Her own family, who knows? Or she was going to cut them off from seeing her kids.

You could use a lot to shut your parents off if you wanted. I think somehow they knew something but they didn't want to say anything to her. The question everyone kept asking was, how did she do it? I mean, if we look at ourselves, if I wanted to go into an emergency room, I could go in and they wouldn't turn me away.

So I don't know how someone would not be able to just kind of do what she did. Because you could go into anywhere and take photos or whatever you wanted to do while you were there. In some of Amanda's photographs that went along in her blog, she would say, here I am, I'm at Columbia getting such and such treatment. I would zoom in on any identifying equipment, computers, IVs,

Even bracelets that she was wearing, you know, her emergency room bracelets. And you could carefully look at what they look like and compare them to what they should look like. One of the times she claimed to be in Columbia at their hospital and all the logos and stuff that I could zoom in on were from NYU, which is a completely different hospital across town and had nothing to do with the clinical trial she was supposedly part of.

Another example, she would post that she was in Columbia in the oncology department and she had a picture of herself standing in front of a very distinct oncology sign. I think it said like 440 oncology. And when I looked at Columbia for 440 oncology, it didn't exist. But where it did exist was in Kaiser in California. So she would take dozens of pictures wherever she would roam around and go to and then use them over the years as necessary.

How does somebody go in and out of hospital like she did if she didn't have cancer? Well, you know, it's really easy to walk around the hospital and walk into an oncology wing. You know, you follow the signs and you walk around. The places that are harder to get into would be an emergency room. So what Amanda would do is she would claim illness or faint or have something that she would end up in an emergency room. And then from there, she took it from there and took pictures. I mean...

It's not that hard to go into an emergency room and claim there's something wrong and be admitted. It's so easy, in fact, that Amanda apparently didn't stop doing it, even after pleading guilty. By the time Amanda pled guilty, they had moved to Texas. So they'd left Northern California and were living outside of Austin, Texas.

the story had broke about her arrest and that she had pled guilty and it was you know in the newspapers on social media you know there was a lot of articles written and on facebook there was a news report about local austin woman pleads guilty to to faking cancer and in those comments i tracked down someone and reached out to them and said you know what do you know about this

They had commented that she's here in Austin doing the same thing. And right away I was like, I need to know what she's up to. And here she is pleading guilty, but she's doing the same thing. What does this mean? Nancy told us that a source of hers confirmed that even after pleading guilty, Amanda was still turning up at hospitals claiming she was sick. I found out through that source that Amanda was still going to emergency rooms, still

putting herself in there with the guys that she has cancer and asking for treatment or asking for help and medications. And I was told that after two visits, they became very suspect of her coming into the emergency room and they red flagged her in their system. And I think that's something that is unique to Texas, that their computers or their medical care can be connected where the one hospital would know from the other.

And so she was, I was told she was flagged in that system. So if she was to come in again, that they would be on high alert. How do you know that? I was contacted by a source that witnessed it and was a part of it. California, where Amanda lived for over a decade, had no central database where information was shared between hospitals about a patient. It's only now that the state is implementing a system to share patient data.

I was an outcast at Justice Soccer Games, an outcast at her gymnastics, anything to do with sports or school, even counselors, certain counselors. Amanda's guilty plea was vindication for Jamie and Jess's mama, Lita, who was targeted for calling Amanda's cancer into question.

and she was blamed by Corey and Amanda for the entire investigation, despite the fact it was Nancy who was behind it all. And of course, the judges and attorneys, they all looked at me and despised me for it. I don't know what you want to call it, just horrifying, honestly. I mean, to be in that position constantly. I mean, I had my own struggles with anxiety a lot because of this stuff.

During Alita and Corey's custody case over their daughter Jessa back in 2016, Corey made a statement to the court. A note that "mother" in Corey's statement refers to Alita. "Mother has started attacking my wife, Amanda, and is telling reporters and law enforcement that Amanda is faking her cancer. 'Mother' seems to be alluding to her belief that Amanda and I will be criminally prosecuted for faking Amanda's cancer."

as mother and her attorney are known to be actively involved with the reporter pursuing this investigation against Amanda and have discussed it with Jessa. Amanda and our family have been through so much trauma and stress as Amanda has battled cancer for over four years and mother's attacks on this horrendous struggle are unconscionable.

The most offensive false allegations by far is her claim that Amanda is fraudulently claiming to have terminal cancer in order to steal money from family and friends. Amanda's battle with cancer and our family's struggle to cope while she fights for her life is very real. It is appalling that she accuses us of engaging in an elaborate scheme to fake the horrible disease out of a selfish desire to rob the people closest to us.

The accusation is the ultimate example of her completely irrational hostility towards me that clouds her thinking. In the statement, the word "irrational" is underlined. Corey continued to say: There is no cancer scam. Now that she's been found guilty, has anybody come forward to you and apologize? Not one single person.

From what I've been through personally, knowing, and like, it's not like she's a stranger to cancer. Like she knew me when I had cancer. And it's just, it's wild that somebody can so thoughtfully create this big scheme and take from so many people. The money's one thing, but just preying on people's hearts and fears and just terrible.

For Alita, Jessa and Jamie, three people who have known Amanda since she was just a 17-year-old, coming to the house to teach cheerleading, the guilty plea brought a mixture of emotions, including a sense of anger. Jamie recalled a time Jessa and her brothers, Amanda's sons just three and one years old at the time, were told they may need to donate their bone marrow.

I remember the first moment that I felt really angry about all of this was I was on my way to work and my mom called me. And this was after I knew that it was fake. My mom called me and told me that my sister, Jessa, was scared because Amanda needed a bone marrow transplant.

And she was going to need it from either of the boys or from my sister if she'd be willing. Just as a young child at the time, I can't remember exactly how old, maybe like 11 or 12, something like that. I remember my mom being very pissed on the phone, understandably so. And then I got pissed off because you're not only are you telling these lies and, you know, telling a story, but you're putting fear into my little sister's head that she

She or her brothers are going to have to undergo a serious operation to save your life. Like, you're going the extra mile for all of this. And to prey on my sister, that was the first moment that I got really mad about what was happening. Jessa eventually went back to live with her mom. She's now 19, married, and lives around the corner.

Just growing up and being here now, like the relationship I have with my mom is amazing because we've fought through all of this together. And our relationship is just so amazing. Even though we've gone through all the hard times, we're just so much stronger because of it. Do you still see Amanda when you're dead? No, I didn't see him for a long time. I remember I was really hurt, but in a way it was kind of relieved. You know, I got

I got to go home. I wasn't able to speak to or see my mom for a year, pretty much. So I was happy to just be home. I think because of everything I've gone through, things are a lot harder now than they would have had to be if none of this happened. I go through a lot daily. You know, I've dealt with really heavy depression and severe anxiety and it's hard to function some days.

I've just been through so much that it all just kind of, like I'll be okay for a little while and it all just kind of floods back to me. And it makes me feel like there's no getting out of my rut, you know? Because I've just been dealing with this for so long. And I just hope that one day, like, I won't feel this way anymore. But I have an amazing group of friends. I have an amazing husband, an amazing family. And each and every day,

They really helped me and let me know that this was my fault and that I'll get through it one day. I hope that one day your dad and Amanda will sit down and tell you the truth. That's what I hope. Because they're not telling her the truth. Still, she still has not looked at my daughter in the eye and apologized. Or her dad. Or said I don't have cancer. No, she's never even said she doesn't have cancer.

They say things are not as they seem. That's what they tell her. Part of me thinks that maybe she is sick with something else or maybe her mental issues are so bad. Maybe that's why, but it just sucks that they won't actually sit down with me or even just give me a phone call and tell me exactly what's happening or what had happened. You know what I mean? I feel like after all of the things they put me through, I kind of deserve that at least.

I feel really bad for my sister because none of this should have happened. And the fact that they, to my knowledge, from what I've been told, up until the very end, they kept telling my sister nothing what it seems. They're still trying to put up the scheme. When she's not a child, she's now a grown woman, young woman, and you're still trying to play like...

Oh, things aren't what they seem. Like, what are you talking about? It's so manipulative. It's so it's just so terrible. She's a lot less trusting of new people and understandably so. She's got a guard up, I would say. And I just hope one day she can look back at this and be OK again.

Here's a short list of just some of the lies that Amanda told people that turned out to be untrue.

If you remember, there was a $280,000 hospital bill submitted to the court. It was actually photoshopped. You could tell if you went through the pages. They forgot to photoshop one of them. It was actually only $28,000. They added one extra digit to make it $200,000 more. Amanda told Steve and Lisa Berry that she was studying for a PhD at Stanford University. Amanda didn't study for a PhD and never attended Stanford.

Despite Corey and Amanda saying they were going to lose their house because they didn't have enough money, Corey and Amanda have never owned a house. Corey and Alita were married for four years, despite Corey telling Mahasti it was just a one-night stand.

Amanda was telling people that the investigation into her was a mix-up because there was another person named Amanda Riley who died from cancer. Whilst there was a young girl named Amanda Riley who died from cancer, a name mix-up was not the reason for the IRS investigation. She told us that her husband was a fireman, which also turned out to be a big, fat, hairy lie. In fact, he also represented himself as a fireman. Big, fat, hairy lie.

I believe he's like a professor, right? Or a teacher or something like that. So I just thought maybe she liked older guys. That was the first thing I just thought of. Or maybe it was her professor. I don't know. Corey was never a firefighter or a professor. He worked in the sale and maintenance of fire sprinklers. As for Amanda?

We spoke to a woman named Angie, a cancer survivor herself, who still didn't know whether Amanda was faking cancer. I still don't know. I don't know if she had cancer at one point and got over it. I mean, I completely believed her, not that I would. I didn't even... I'm still learning about my own cancer, and I had it. The fact that she never had cancer, I mean, did she, like, read this in a story somewhere where someone did this?

And she was under the impression that Amanda worked for an oncology department. I have no idea where the thought would come from, except for the fact that she worked for an oncology department. I heard that from someone. I mean, someone said that she, I think, worked in an oncology department, right? So she knew the lingo. Is that her background? She did not work in an oncology department. That was another lie.

There was one more lie, one that Rebecca Spencer didn't know about until Nancy called and explained. Nancy, you know, she called and I'm like, at first I'm like, is this crazy? This is not real. But then I started looking and I'm like, wow, it was eye opening. I was like, you're kidding me. And then she was telling me how they've been investigating it for years. And I'm like, what? What are you? I mean, it was I was blown away at first, like just blown away.

And then, you know, it came out in an article through our town. So it was like, wow, this is all for real. I was under the impression that she had all her degrees. To me, to find out she didn't was like, wow, that's impossible. Well, how do you do that? Well, I didn't know that you didn't need it for the school. I would presume you did, but I've only dealt public schools. So I didn't realize that private schools were a little different. So you don't need to be a qualified teacher to work in a private Christian school?

And we just presumed, I think we all presumed that everybody was qualified. But I guess that learning now that you don't technically, she wasn't a teacher and I don't even know if all the teachers need their credentials or not. What do you think about those two children that thought their mom was dying?

I think that's horrific. Those were the sweetest two little boys. You know, I saw the one more than the other and they were just kind, sweet little boys. And they had to have thought their mom was sick. I don't know how you could do that to your child. I could see doing it to people. No, I can't see how you do it to people, other people. But you know what I'm saying? It's like...

They're babies. They were babies. I was kindergarten when this all happened. Kindergarten. She was saying that she was sick. So she must have been saying she was sick for years and years before that with these two little boys growing up with her. So it was like those poor things must have just, you just feel bad for them. The school did nothing. They said nothing the whole time. Nothing. Not one word. And they still haven't? Nothing. No. Because I think maybe they're afraid. I don't know. But no, they have not said a word.

I try to think and I try to say, OK, so she got herself caught in a lie and maybe she went down through this hill. She couldn't get her lies out. You know, she didn't know where to stop. But she did that to her babies. She came to our classroom. She hugged our children. And the whole time she was lying. And it's like, wow, how can somebody do that? There's a special place in hell for you.

Remember the fundraiser that Pacific Point Elementary held for Mrs. Riley and Miss Cindy while they were both fighting cancer? Miss Cindy passed not too long after it. I think that's the hardest is that, you know, Miss Cindy should have got all that money, not half. And Miss Cindy was dying and did pass. She needed that money. She was sick. She had to be out of work.

She had to suffer with radiation and then to ultimately pass, and that Miss Riley thought it was okay to steal half that money, because that's what she did. She stole half of... It was Cindy's money, not hers. Ten years after Amanda C. Riley's blog first hit the internet and attracted the attention of thousands of followers, fans, and cancer survivors around the world, Amanda was about to embark on a brand new journey.

On the 5th of May 2022, Jackson and I flew out to San Jose, California. Amanda Riley was preparing to be sentenced. How do you feel about the sentencing is tomorrow as we're recording? How do you feel about that? People have been asking me that for a few weeks and I feel all sorts of things. I feel really anxious. I feel, or I'm hoping that I'll feel a sense of relief. It almost feels

This whole thing just feels like a movie or it feels like a dream. It doesn't feel real to me yet and I don't think it's going to feel completely real to me until I step in the courtroom. Have you thought about what you feel should happen to her? I want her to get the time that she deserves and whatever time the judge sees fit, I want her to realize that it's more than money. She's hurt a lot of people and I think she needs to just

stop feeling sorry for herself, suck it up, serve her time and really think about what she's done. Do you think she will? Does she seem that type of person to you? No, I don't think so. I think she's just going to feel sorry for herself and that's it. Amanda's not the kind of person to genuinely feel sorry.

We spoke to Jessa the day before Amanda was due in court for sentencing. The next morning, Jackson and I wandered over to the federal courthouse and joined a growing line of people to head through a security checkpoint. We were sandwiched in between Amanda, Corey, and Amanda's parents, Peggy and Tom. They were in front of us. Amanda's dad had his arms around his daughter, whilst Corey had stepped off to the side.

Behind us was Alita, Jessa, Lindsay, Lisa, and Alita's mom, Gail, plus an ever-growing line of former Team Amanda followers. Security had to keep moving people to the side because there were that many people blocking the walkway. Jessa's sister, Jamie, was also there. I was blocking it out for so long, I didn't even want to go to the sentencing. You know, I didn't want to go.

But I could hear in my sister's voice when she asked me to go that she wanted her big sister there. She wanted support there. And she's the reason why I went. I remember going and I was getting teared up. Just, you know, everything that I've been pushing out is slowly seeping in. And I just remember telling myself that you've got to be

the strong one. You have to be strong for Jessa. Trying to put my feelings aside, like be strong for Jessa, do it for Jessa. And I tried. When we were in line to go into the courtroom, all of a sudden we looked to our right and just all but like two feet away from us is Amanda and Corey. And that moment I was just like, it really hit me in that moment what was happening, what we're about to go in and do and see and hear and

It was like a slap in the face of like, hey, this is happening. Why didn't you want to go? I think I just didn't want to face it. I didn't want to feel like a victim. I didn't want to feel like I was wronged. I didn't want to feel any of what I've been pushing out associated with this.

I didn't want to acknowledge that it was happening almost. Like if I can stay as far away from it as possible, it won't affect me. And I know that's silly and that's so silly, you know, hearing myself say that like it would actually happen like that. But that's the only way that I can think to describe why I was so reluctant talking about any of this. I couldn't allow myself to believe that somebody else

like that is out there and that I was so close to this person at one point. It's just, it was too much to accept as reality. We sat in the courtroom and waited.

Despite the fact that there were two other cases before Amanda's, the courtroom was full of people waiting to see what was going to happen to Amanda. I sat with Jackson directly opposite Team Amanda, now reduced to just four people, her, Corey, and her parents. There was a nervous energy in the courtroom. While the sentencing guideline was 18 months, Amanda's legal team had requested a six-month stay in prison.

Then the docket was called, Case 21-0004, United States v. Amanda Christine Riley. Amanda was called to face the judge. She moved slowly and seemed to have a limp as she walked from the back of the courtroom. She looked very different from what we'd seen of her on her blog post. She came across much older than 36.

The judge allowed victims a chance to make a statement to the court. Many people had already submitted written statements, but four people stood up to speak in person: Alita, Lindsay, Lisa and Jessa. Amanda had to stand and watch. She faced each person one by one as they addressed the court. It was curious to watch as Amanda stood with very little expression, staring blankly at each victim while they spoke.

During Jess's statement, she casually wiped away tears while Corey was the one staring blankly. When everyone had finished speaking, the judge signaled an intention to give Amanda a sentence that was above the 18-month guideline and gave her a chance to respond. Amanda stood hunched over and she whispered softly into the microphone. The judge couldn't hear her at first and directed Amanda's lawyer to pull the microphone closer.

This is the statement she made to the court, read by actor Kendall Horne. Your Honor, there aren't enough words to adequately express how horrific I feel and how sorry I am that this happened. My heart aches every day thinking that I did something that hurt other people. This is the worst thing I've ever done and the worst mistake I could have made. I don't sleep well at night because this haunts me daily.

I can't even look at myself in the mirror without feeling ashamed, and I'm so sorry. Looking back and recognizing that I hurt a lot of people crushes me, and it has for a really long time now. I have been dealing with the repercussions of this for years. I threw away my dream career, lost all my friends and family. I went from being a nobody to being negatively covered in dozens of tabloids and news articles.

I'm paranoid, I'm being followed all the time, and I'm too scared to open social media messages for fear of what they will say and the hurtful things that people have said to me. Until today, I have never publicly addressed this, and it's time I step forward and be accountable to try to write this wrong. I'm here to accept responsibility and humbly accept my consequences

as the first step of showing everyone I want to make this right. I will spend the rest of my life working towards the amends for the hurt that I have caused. I want to publicly apologize to all the victims in this case, specifically the church and those who participated or helped with fundraising, to all of the kind, loving people who helped us. I ask that you not be deterred from your servant's heart because of my mistake. Please continue to help those in need.

I want to apologize to my family, Corey, my husband, my parents, my brothers, our best friends that we consider family, and our kids. Our lives will never be the same because of my choices and I am so sorry for that. Jessa, my bonus daughter, I hope this brings you the closure and clarity you have been seeking. I'm so sorry you were in the dark for what was truly happening for so long. You had to walk through this

and it breaks my heart to know I hurt you. I do love you and always have loved you like you were my own. There is nothing I can do or say to make this better for you except to promise through my actions that I will work each day for the rest of my life to rebuild our relationship from the hurt I have caused you, and I hope one day we can get there.

Our two young boys were babies when this started, so they were too little to be affected by my bad choices. And Cory and I have worked so hard to protect and shelter them from this so they could live normal lives. Now to see them as big boys who are going to see their mom go through this process is going to flip their world upside down. Being a good mom is what I have always wanted most in this world. And it's my job to love and protect them. So it breaks my heart most of all

that the reason they are going to be hurt and not see their mom every day is because of me. I humbly write this to you as a way of accountability, a first step to try to right a terrible wrong, and I promise to spend the rest of my life working to better myself. I promise I will spend the rest of my life spent helping others and not hurting them. Thank you for hearing my statement.

The U.S. District Judge, the Honorable Beth Freeman, thanked the court, the victims and the family members, and then gave her verdict. This is the full statement from the judge. It's hard to know where to begin here. In considering this crime based upon all of the information provided through the plea agreement and probation, it is clear, Ms. Riley,

that you preyed on the kindness and goodwill of innocent, loving people for over seven years. You invaded the sanctity of communities and grieving members of support groups. You betrayed your family. You either duped or caused your husband to act in concert with your scheme so that he ruined the life of his own daughter for your fakery. You defrauded people of their money, of their goodwill, of their beliefs.

I can only imagine that over eight years you were as sincere to those people as you appeared to me today. And I have to say that in listening to you today, I could only imagine what a good act you had for eight years in front of churches and community groups and in your blog and online and with your children. It breaks my heart to think that your boys will not have their mother with them.

But it was your responsibility before you committed these frauds to think about your parental obligations. It is not the court's job to clean that up for you. You are here today for me to consider punishment. And therefore, in considering the nature and circumstances of the crime, including the seven-year period of the fake cancer, publicized in the community and across social media, you solicited financial support and emotional support for non-existent medical treatment.

You sought goodwill and assistance from your neighbors, from the church, from cancer support groups, all as a ruse to support your own lifestyle. This included deception and theft, forged medical records, preying on the goodwill of strangers, friends, and family, and the significant impact on victims. You have virtually shattered the life of your stepdaughter, and you claim you love her. I don't think that's enough to make amends.

It appears that the number of victims may be in excess of 350 people, and the amount of money that you scammed from these innocent people appears to be over $105,000. In considering the seriousness of the crime, there is no doubt that this is a very serious crime. I have to further consider public safety and the need for deterrence. I do find the public to be at significant risk from you. I do believe that this will happen again.

In my view, the guideline sentence is not significant enough to punish for this crime. I will impose an upward variance of the guideline sentence, and I will sentence you to 60 months in prison. This crime carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years. I consider this to be a significant reduction from the maximum, although it's hard to imagine who would be more deserving of a maximum sentence for fraud than you.

It is my view that 60 months is fair and reasonable under the circumstances. Pursuant to the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, it is the judgment of the court that Amanda Riley is hereby committed to the custody of the Bureau of Prisons for a period of 60 months. The courtroom went from deadpan silence to a low rumbling of murmurs and gasps of shock. Amanda didn't react.

She was officially sentenced to five years in prison, plus an additional three years supervised release. She was also ordered to pay restitution, plus interest, to all of the victims listed, over 350 of them that are on record. This is the only case of its kind in IRS history.

I was shocked because that is Northern California. That's a pretty hefty sentence for white-collar crime. Special Agent Lee. When this comes up the next time, if somebody else is sick or someone's collecting money for a certain cause, it just changes the way you trust. And I think in this particular case, there were a lot of victims and it wasn't because of the money. It was emotionally.

And so I hope that they can trust again and kind of get through this and see that the government did what we could do to help. And so I'm glad that I was part of this case. I still don't have anger. I'm not someone who wants to attack her or scream at her. In a weird way, it's more of motherly disappointment on a grand scale.

I don't know what I would say to her. Even my last message, I was way too nice. But in my statement, I said, "I think you're suffering as we speak, and maybe that's enough." She's going to sit in jail for five years, and I'm pretty content with that. Wish it was longer, of course. That person is not going to change. You're an addict. You're an addict for the rest of your life. You don't become non-addict.

If she goes in for five years and when she comes out, she's still gonna do it. She's still gonna do it. I don't think she knows anything else. She's gonna con somebody from something else. I don't think very many people are upset about the actual money more than upset about the betrayal. I feel bad for her children, but...

What she did was disgusting and wrong and it does affect other people. What about the people that are really sick that do need that money, that do need that help? She stole from them. She stole from people that passed in a sense because, and people that are passing. So for me, five years, I mean, she needs to learn a lesson. I'm surprised that's all she got. I'm not sad for her. I'm sad for her children. I've tried to feel bad that she won't be a part of her children's lives for five years.

but maybe they're better off without her. I'm a little disappointed in myself that I don't have more sympathy or empathy for her, but I do not. And, you know, five years, and maybe I'm jaded because of what I went through with my dad, but what she did is just so low that, I don't know, I really hope that, like I said, that someday she just sits and cries and realizes what a total lousy human being she's been. I'm a business coach.

I wish that my clients had the nonstop commitment that she showed in this, but they could have been channeled to good because this could have made her an unbelievably successful entrepreneur. While I'm not excusing what she did, I'm definitely not going to punish her further for that because I'm sure plenty of people are doing that.

People make mistakes and they sometimes make really big ones. And I am not someone who wants to bring more negativity into the world. And if she needs a shoulder to cry on or just someone in her corner, you know, I'm going to listen and be there for her to the best of my ability. I might not trust.

everything she says to me at face value again. I might not let her in to the same extent that maybe I did before, but I'm not going to put up that wall and say, "No, you've lied, so you're a bad person and I'm done with you," because I wouldn't want someone to do that to me. When Amanda was leaving the courthouse after her sentencing, I approached her and introduced myself and gave her my number.

A few hours later, while we were sat at the airport waiting to catch a ride home, she sent me a message. Amanda's just replied to my message. My message was just thanking her for contacting me and saying that I was thinking about making a documentary project. I would like to talk to her. And I said, I hope to chat when you have a chance, completely understand that there's a lot going on and there's no rush.

Her message reply to me at 11:15 a.m., so an hour after I messaged her, is, "I will be open to hearing your thoughts. Maybe we can set up a time to talk because you are right. My whole side of the story has never been shared and there is a lot there." I realized that even though she'd pled guilty and made a statement to the court, she's never explicitly admitted to anyone that she was faking cancer.

On September the 3rd, 2022, Amanda turned herself in to federal prison. Before she turned herself in, she texted me to let me know that I was added to her approved contact list. So I reached out to her and wrote her a letter asking if it was okay to email. She replied via the prison's email system, and we exchanged a few emails back and forth.

She was concerned that I was friends with Alita and that I was hired by her in an attempt to make her life even more hell. Now, I made it clear to Amanda that I'm an independent journalist. My daughter is heartbroken. Amanda Riley's cancer lies, constant need for attention and greed was all that mattered to her. She desperately tried to ruin my reputation and tried to ruin the relationship between me and my daughter.

She wanted me left with nothing. It was like I was a target she had to destroy. It is my hope that there will be justice for what my daughter and our family have been through for over eight years. I pray that she humbles herself and makes amends to all the people that she harms so that God can find a place for her in heaven. I was a platelet donor long before I met you.

But now, knowing your entire story is fake, that there were no meds, was no last chance trial, no couple months to live, I now know the blood was never for you. Amanda, I don't wish bad on you. I imagine you're suffering enough. I don't want money. I don't want my tears back. I want my prayers back. And in this, I want justice.

She should know that what she did is not only what she took from everyone, but also what she did to people's lives who were close to her and believed her. I put my sister had cancer and we went through hell and back. When Amanda said she had cancer, I really believed her and was there for her. What kind of human would do that to another human being?

My sister was loved by so many, but at 41 she lost her life to lung cancer. The anguish my sister suffered knowing her time with her young children would be cut so short was ingrained in my mind. The pain on my mother's face from when she lost a daughter I will never forget. My sister's husband and children were now alone without her and it was devastating. It is infuriating to see a perfectly healthy person take on the plight of true warriors of cancer for financial gain and attention.

Amanda C. Reilly attempted to call my integrity into question and assassinate my character with lie upon line with no regard to the damage she was causing to my reputation and me. She had a complete disregard of the court and the court process and used it as a weapon to try and destroy my investigation and my career. Amanda's out of your life. She's been in your life for seven years. Is that going to be weird? Yeah, I mean, it'll be strange, but in the same breath, doing this was important to me

So that there's a record of this. She's going to continue to do something. I don't know what that is. Whatever it is, I feel it's important that there's something out there. That if someone comes in contact with her, they have a doubt, they have a wait a minute, and they want to look her up. They see something and go, holy, holy shit. Like, okay, I'm right. You know what I mean? Like, they have something I didn't have, which was...

that she's capable of such a thing. I just think that's really important. Yeah, do you think it'll bring you some closure? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, to me, it's kind of the exclamation point. You made it personal. You went down this road. You were found out. And now it's over. I feel I got justice for Jessa, for Alita, for people that...

You know, they were really put through hell, what she did for their family. And the more I speak with them and learn, it's like, it's abuse. It's a horrible, horrible thing they went through. And if this gives them their closure, then that helps me.

In the production of this podcast, we reached out for interviews and statements from Corey, Peggy, Amanda's brothers, her childhood friends, the Family Community Church, FCC, Pastor Bill, Pastor Chase, and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. All declined to comment, except for Pastor Chase. I did speak to him, though he wasn't willing to speak on the record. I asked Amanda if she'd speak to me on the record.

As of the end of this production, I'm still waiting for her decision. Scamander is hosted and produced by me, Charlie Webster, and produced by Jackson McLennan. Amanda's blog posts are read by actor Kendall Horne. Corey, Amanda's husband, is voiced by Stephen Slatton. Edit and theme music by Nico Pallella. Assistant producer, Casey Hertz. Assistant editor, Seema Graywald.

Additional production support from Stephen Sletton, Will Hagel and Nicole Urban. Executive produced by me, Charlie Webster and Nancy Moscatello. Scamander is a Lionsgate Sound production engineered by Pilgrim Media Group.