An Ohio mom faked her young son having terminal brain cancer to bilk cash and gifts from friends, family and good Samaritans, police said.
Emily Creno-King, 31, allegedly shaved 4-year-old JJ’s head to make people – and himself – think he was about to die from the “incurable” disease.
She forced him to wear a surgical mask and set up Facebook groups to ask kind-hearted strangers to chip in for his treatment, it’s claimed.
The scam was even allegedly kept secret from her estranged husband – JJ’s father John – who’s since said he gave medicine to his healthy infant when he visited on weekends.
“There was always a doubt in my mind,” John Creno told NBC4.
“But once all the medicines started coming with him on weekends, I thought, ‘Ok, he really does have it,'” he added.
NBC4 reports that the mom-of-two started soliciting for fire and police uniform patches in Dec. 2012.
But readers took pity, and care packages and cash soon started to flood in to her Utica home from across the country.
But cops were tipped off after a mom whose child really is suffering from cancer contacted Creno-King and became suspicious she was lying about her son’s illness.
Doctors at Nationwide Children’s Hospital confirmed that the boy wasn’t ill. Creno-King was arrested and charged with felony child endangerment on Tuesday.
Her bond was set at $50,000 and she has been banned from having unsupervised contact with her son.
She is now undergoing a mental health evaluation where medics will determine whether she has Münchausen Syndrome by proxy, where parents make their children ill for attention.
Read more: NY Daily
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