Kit Roberts
A mom has been arrested after raking in thousands of dollars from allegedly faking her daughter's cancer.
Pamela Reed, 41, was arrested over allegations that she had pretended her seven-year-old daughter had been suffering from cancer.
Reed allegedly lied to her friends and family about her daughter's health for years in a scheme reminiscent of that of Dee Dee Blanchard and her daughter Gypsy Rose Blanchard.
Advert
The Ohio mom made posts online claiming that her daughter was blind and suffering from a number of medical problems.
These included regular seizures and acute myeloid leukaemia. Police said the mom has also admitted to shaving her daughter's head to convince people of her daughter's sickness, the New York Post reports.
The scheme allegedly included members of the community had organised 'fundraising efforts and had made monetary contributions to help the family offset medical costs', according to a statement from Noble County Sheriff's Office.
Reed was discovered when a nurse at elementary school found that her daughter was not blind in her right eye like her mom claimed, according to an arrest affidavit.
The mom had previously told the nurse that her daughter had been due to have a port implanted to receive cancer treatments.
But when the nurse called up the daughter's provider they confirmed her suspicion that the child 'did not have cancer or leukaemia, and she never had cancer or leukaemia'.
A page dedicated to the scheme shows posters for fundraising events, with one organization saying they donated $8,000 to help Reid's daughter - with Reid allegedly pocketing the cash for herself.
The mom routinely posted to the page since 2017 when her daughter was just 20 months old.
In a post on the page only two days before she was arrested, the mom wrote that her daughter's health had been worsening.
“When they told us this was going to be the biggest fight so far, we thought we were prepared, but nothing prepares a parent to see any of this," she wrote.
"Our hearts are shattered with every single treatment, every single tear and every single night we have to explain."
Reed also claimed that her daughter was suffering with Severe Aplastic Anaemia, a condition in which bone marrow does not make enough red blood cells.
It is not clear whether this condition was also invented.
It became so convincing that even Reed's other daughter was taken in, with records indicating she believed her sister 'had cancer and was severely ill'.
Now Reed has been charged with the felony of theft by deception.