The Missouri doctor found dead at her firefighter fiancé’s home this month once admitted to a friend that living with him was “scary” given the rumors that he was a “‘murderer’” responsible for the death of his previous partner.
Sarah Sweeney, a podiatrist, wrote to her former coworker and friend, Danielle Mankunas, about her concerns on the morning of March 17, 2022.
“I have had to move in with my boyfriend the “murderer’” [sic] which has been scary at times,” she wrote in messages viewed by The Post.
At the time, Sweeney was mulling a lawsuit against her former employer, Dr. Franklin Harry and his Best Foot Forward (BFF) clinic, and was trying to persuade Mankunas to support her effort despite the financial and professional risks.
In November 2022, she filed a complaint accusing Harry and his business of sexual harassment, gender and disability discrimination, and retaliation during the brief stint that she worked there in 2021, the documents showed.
Harry and BFF filed a counterclaim, in which attorney Mark D. Murphy requested correspondence between Sweeney and Manors to determine the former’s mental state.
“[A]ccording to Sweeney [Daus was] abusive and suspected of murdering a previous girlfriend,” Murphy wrote, referring to her correspondence with Mankunas.
The case was still ongoing when Sweeney, 39, was found dead at Daus’ Westwood home in the early hours of Jan. 13.
Her body showed “no apparent signs of trauma,” but the incident is being treated as suspicious pending autopsy results, according to law enforcement.
At the time of her death, Sweeeney was estranged from her mother and stepfather over their concerns about Daus, her mother, Teresa Sweeney Light, told Fox News Digital.
Four years earlier, Daus – a local fire captain called first responders to his former address in Creve Coeur to report that his then-fiancée, Grace Holland, had supposedly shot herself in front of him.
Holland, 35, was initially determined to have died by suicide – but the mother-of-four’s family subsequently named Daus in a wrongful death suit that alleged he was controlling and abusive.
Local authorities asked the St. Louis County Police reviewed the incident in 2022 following Holland’s family’s insistence that she did not take her own life, Sgt. Tracy Panus told The Post.
They presented their findings to the prosecutions in early December, Sgt. Tracy Panus told the outlet.
When Sweeney’s loved ones forwarded her articles on the troubling matter, she stopped answering their messages, Sweeney Light lamented.
On Tuesday, US District Judge Ronnie L. White ordered the case stayed in light of Sweeney’s death, court filings showed.
While officials await the medical examiner’s analysis of Sweeney’s death, Holland’s supposed suicide is also back under renewed scrutiny.
“This case was ruled a Suicide by the Medical Examiner’s office long before we became involved…At the conclusion of our investigation, as with every other death investigation, we never made a determination of the manner of death. This ruling is solely the responsibility of the Medical Examiner” Panus told The Post of the county’s probe.
“At this point, the case is still classified as a suspicious death and remains active. It will be incumbent upon the prosecutor’s office to decide if any further action is required or if any criminal charges will be filed,” he added.
“If the investigation rules [Sweeney] [died] as a result of a homicide, her death should be fully investigated as such, and I pray the person responsible is held accountable,” Creve Coeur Police Chief Jeff Hartman – who first looked into Holland’s death – told Fox News Digital.
“I would also expect increased scrutiny on the Creve Coeur case as a result. However, we have not received the ruling on the cause of death for Sarah yet,” he noted.
Daus, meanwhile, was spotted out and about in his neighborhood on Jan. 24, the outlet reported.
He has not been arrested or charged in connection with either case.
BFF and Dr. Harry could not immediately be reached for a comment.