Episode 3: Unforced Errors

Believable: The Coco Berthmann Story

Dear Media

True Crime

4.4 • 989 Ratings

🗓️ 27 July 2023

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

By the summer of 2019, Coco Berthmann has gone public with her story. She's regularly invited to appear on podcasts and to speak at anti-trafficking events. One organization even flies her to Miami to give the keynote address at a star-studded benefit for survivors. But privately, Coco's story just isn't adding up. She shows all the outward signs of having lived through trauma, but she keeps getting caught in lies that have nothing to do with her larger story of abuse and survival. And those closest to her are struggling to figure out what actually happened during Coco's childhood.

Plus, an unexpected call from Germany changes the course of the investigation.

If you or a loved one is struggling, help is available:

Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Dial 988

National Human Trafficking Hotline: 888-373-7888

RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network): 855-897-5910

National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) Resources

Mental Health Hotline: 866-903-3787

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Transcript

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0:00.0	A note before we get started. We're going to be using an AI clone of Coco's voice
0:06.7	to read her social media posts and her text messages. But as always, we will remind you when we do.
0:13.2	And a warning.
0:14.5	This episode includes mention of some pretty tough stuff,
0:18.1	including suicide, rape, and sexual violence against children.
0:22.6	Listen with care.
0:27.3	So like, take me back to the first meeting you had with your media.
0:30.8	Oh my God. It's the end of a long reporting day.
0:38.0	Producer Karen Given and I are reflecting on how far this investigation has come and she has turned the tables on me.
0:45.8	I'm being interviewed.
0:47.3	Okay, so I put my notes in an email.
0:49.6	Do you want me to read it verbatim?
0:51.0	Sure.
0:52.0	Side note, I had the most annoyingly persistent sinus
0:56.6	infection for like two months this spring so sometimes you're going to hear that
1:00.5	in my voice, like now.
1:03.2	I wrote, hi ladies, first let me say that you've already done a lot of great digging
1:07.8	on this.
1:10.8	Before I join this project, Dear Media sent me a 22 page packet with all the basics of the
1:16.2	Coco Birthman story. Things like how she claimed to have been sex trafficked for the first 15 years of
1:21.9	her life, how she escaped only to be abused
1:25.0	again by a therapist who sometimes locked her in a basement.
	...

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