S05 Ep03: Constant Crisis

Nobody Should Believe Me

True Story Media

True Crime, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.3 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 16 January 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Immediately after moving with C and M from Zambia to Seattle, WA, Sophie starts bringing C to various doctors, reporting severe health issues. Just three days after C’s third birthday, she is diagnosed with Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood (AHC), a rare, one-in-a-million neurological disorder. Simultaneously, Sophie enrolls her older daughter, M, in an elite gymnastics program. We speak to some of the moms who knew Sophie from the gym to get a better picture of Sophie and the two girls. They reveal a picture of a woman who, despite seeming to move from one crisis to the next, is somehow caring for a medically fragile child, nurturing an aspiring Olympian and financing all of this without a job or a partner. *** Links and Resources: Chad Goller-Sojourner’s Sitting in Circles with Rich White Girls: Memoir of a Bulimic Black Boy will be adding show dates in spring 2025. Click HERE for more information. Preorder Andrea and Mike’s new book The Mother Next Door: Medicine, Deception, and Munchausen by Proxy Catch Andrea and Mike at their Seattle Book Launch Event: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/andrea-dunlop-and-mike-weber-the-mother-next-door-tickets-1097661478029 Check out You Probably Think This Story's About You: https://brittaniard.com/podcast Click here to view our sponsors. Remember that using our codes helps advertisers know you’re listening and helps us keep making the show! Subscribe on YouTube where we have full episodes and lots of bonus content. Follow Andrea on Instagram for behind-the-scenes photos: @andreadunlop Buy Andrea's books here. To support the show, go to Patreon.com/NobodyShouldBelieveMe or subscribe on Apple Podcasts where you can get all episodes early and ad-free and access exclusive ethical true crime bonus content. For more information and resources on Munchausen by Proxy, please visit MunchausenSupport.com The American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children’s MBP Practice Guidelines can be downloaded here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	True Story Media
0:05.4	Before we begin, a quick warning that in this show, we discuss child abuse, and this content may be difficult for some listeners.
0:14.6	If you or anyone you know is a victim or survivor of medical child abuse, please go to munchausensupport.com to connect with professionals
0:21.5	who can help.
0:24.9	With the elements of evangelical missionary work and transracial adoption in this season's case,
0:30.1	I've gone into some unfamiliar territory. But one thing about this story that feels very
0:34.9	familiar is the way that Sophie Hartman appears to forever be
0:38.9	in some kind of crisis. She seemed to move from one big drama to the next. This was one of the
0:44.7	primary things we heard from the numerous folks we spoke to on background for this story,
0:48.9	whether it was people who knew Sophie in high school or over the last few years here in Seattle.
0:53.5	They told us there always seemed to be
0:55.3	something, whether it was Sophie's own health issues or dramas, this big adoption saga, or something
1:00.7	having to do with one of her daughters. Sophie was constantly mired in some kind of battle,
1:06.0	and this is something I remember so vividly with my sister Megan, her constant dramas and our attempts to explain
1:12.6	them away. So yes, okay, Megan shaved off her hair in high school and pretended to be losing it,
1:18.9	but you know, teenage girls go through stuff. Okay, so she cashed all those bad checks,
1:24.3	but she was really embarrassed about it and she probably learned her lesson, right?
1:28.4	Nobody's perfect. Okay, so she did fake a whole pregnancy, but, you know, we didn't like that
1:34.3	boyfriend she was with. Maybe this is his fault somehow. And now she's got this new boyfriend,
1:39.3	and he seems so nice. And maybe he'll help even her out. Maybe this is all behind us now.
1:46.1	But it was never behind us, and what was coming was always worse than the last thing.
1:51.7	It wasn't until I started talking to experts that I understood how compulsive Megan's behavior
	...

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