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This is an incredibly heartbreaking story.
By Nicole Pomarico — Written on Aug 31, 2020
Earlier this summer, a heartbreaking situation played out in Arlington, Virginia when 52-year-old CIA spy Anthony Schinella — who was just a few weeks away from retirement — took his own life outside of his home as his wife watched. The situation continues to develop as the CIA has opened an investigation into his death, and as his wife Sara Corcoran has discovered some strange and terrifying things he was hiding from her, despite the fact that they were married.
Who is Anthony Schinella's wife, Sara Corcoran — and what really happened the night he killed himself?
Anthony Schinella shot himself on June 14.
Schinella, who has worked with the CIA for 30 years and was the national intelligence officer for military issues, shot himself in the head outside of his home in June. According to Corcoran's account of that night's events, he had taken out a gun and spent two hours threatening to kill himself. Corcoran felt that she was in danger, so she took their newly adopted kitten and fled the house, and during her escape witnessed Schinella shoot himself after he was unable to get her to come back.
“I’ve never heard a gunshot that loud before, I’m going to need therapy for the rest of my life,” she said. “He was so upset that I’d escaped. I put the car in park, screaming, I knocked on the neighbors’ door and called 911. He was pronounced dead on the scene.”
Schinella's wife, Sara Corcoran, believes that he wanted to kill her, too.
Corcoran witnessed strange behavior from Schinella, like when she noticed him attempting to dismantle the stove and go through all of the old love notes she had ever written him. Then, when she tried to escape from him, he asked her about her grandfather, Thomas Corcoran, who had been one of President Franklin Roosevelt's advisors, and that was a signal to her that he was trying to kill her.
“My husband was planning on murdering me. He had talked about taking me to the afterlife before,” she said, later adding, “I didn’t call 911 at first because I was afraid he would shoot himself and me.”
Corcoran found sex toys, S&M gear, and weapons in their home.
In the interview, Corcoran also mentioned that she'd found S&M gear, other sex toys, guns, and ammunition in their home when she went back into it, which is something she said she'd never realized her husband was into before, given the amount of privacy she allowed him considering how secretive his career was.
Who is Sara Corcoran?
Cocoran herself is a Washington D.C.-based journalist. She writes a column called DC Dispatch for City Watch, and she is the publisher for National Courts Monitor. While her career didn't overlap much with Schinella's, she was certainly involved in news and politics while Schinella worked for the government.
Corcoran is known for speaking out against Brett Kavanaugh.
In 2018, Corcoran posted an open letter in defense of Christine Blasey Ford. Though she is a few years younger than Ford, she attended the same high school and implored Leland Keyser to stand up for her childhood friend in court when she made her claims against Brett Kavanaugh, since Keyser could be considered a witness to Ford's statements. Ultimately, Keyser said she didn't remember the party happening, and Kavanaugh ended up being confirmed to the Supreme Court.
Sara Corcoran believes Schinella didn't want to leave the CIA.
Corcoran shared in her interview that she thought her husband may have killed himself because he didn't want to retire, even though some of his colleagues may have believed he was looking forward to it.
“I would say, maybe he was sad about leaving the agency," she said. "Somebody [else] would say, ‘Wait, he was so happy, he was going to do his own consulting business, join the board of a private equity firm, and be head of research British think tank IISS’ … I don’t know.”
Nicole Pomarico is an entertainment and lifestyle writer whose work has appeared in Cosmo, Us Weekly, Refinery29, and more.