We had emails from readers wanting us to verify the death of a little boy two days ago, but by the time we saw the emails, the death had sadly been confirmed.
Since then, we have had comments about a "Twitter Troll" Madison McGraw who seems "hellbent on destroying this boy's mom", according to one reader.
The time line we have is: the mother, Shellie, was twittering from 5:17 to 5:22 about chickens in her yard, while cleaning the coup. According to police, she had asked her 11-year-old son to take the 2-year-old, Bryson, into the house while she was cleaning, and before she began twittering. She went inside to find Bryson missing.
At 5:23, the older son called 911, when they found the toddler at the bottom of the pool. Bryson was taken by ambulance to the hospital at 5:55. His mother arrived shortly after, and sent a twitter at 6:13 to her over 5,000 twitter friends letting them know her son needed prayers, that he had fallen into the pool. The little boy was pronounced dead around 6, and his mother was notified at 6:30.
The police have determined that her using twitter did not contribute to the child's death. However, most major news sources have picked up the story, and the ongoing debate on whether or not her twitters about her son's accident and his death were appropriate.
On Twitter, the debate also included the amount the mother twittered - between 70 and 80 twitters in nine hours, with two children home that day. In particular, one user, MadisonMcGraw, has taken a particular interest in this, and has been sent to us as a "Twitter Troll."
Originally we were asked to expose Madison McGraw's true identity, as she has spoken to all the media under the pen name, and blogs and twitters under several monikers, but never her real name. That has been discovered as well - she's Laura Freed, of PA. Hiding behind a pen name when making such accusations after the death of a toddler is certainly, indisputably trollish.
We were also asked to just have her recognized as a troll, but there seems to be some debate about whether or not her arguments are valid, the reason behind her continuing to push her agenda (she is a little-known author, and links to articles back to her site), and the reason she would persecute a mother after such a loss.
On the other hand, people are questioning how much is too much in regards to the number of twitters posted, how much focus was on Twitter instead of on the child who died, and the use of Twitter right after a death.
We have our opinions, but they're not cut-and-dry. Instead, we are posting this as a sounding board for those readers who emailed us, so they can discuss it outside of Twitter.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
Friday Night Funny
Some readers sent us a post by Gina. She's an Autistic genius now, don'tcha know:
"I am on the autism spectrum (high functioning, genius really) and I do eventing."
"I am on the autism spectrum (high functioning, genius really) and I do eventing."
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Kelsey Smith is back....
And claiming it's all rumors, and that she feels like she's back in high school:
She would know what it's like to be in high school, since she's still there. We walk a fine line with Kelsey....do we expose what we know? Or not? Because she's not legally an adult yet.
On the other hand, this is how Gina started. We have evidence she was online scamming people from 16 years old, younger than Kelsey.
We will contact BlogHer, but should we contact her parents? How about her church instead? She's a kid with a fake life on a blog...why should there be repercussions for that? How about if she's pretending to be the guardian of the children she is just babysitting? What would you mothers out there want done?
For now, we leave you with a link to her blog in the Wayback Machine. It should provide enough information to prove she's not 32/34 (she can't remember from site-to-site) and that these children aren't hers in a "foster arrangement."
"Sometimes, life is hard. I have rewritten and reworked that sentence hundreds of times today each time coming back to my computer and changing this or that. After all the change I am back to where I started, life is hard. It was never meant to be easy, it is supposed to challenge us every single day so we continue to grow within ourselves and within the Lord.
"Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain." (Isaiah 40:4)
When we make a straight path to our hearts for the Lord our challenges and our life will become delightful.
Many of my old readers know that I left "blog land", it has been about a year since and every day I questioned that decision that I made and I think at the time it was the proper decision for myself. There were nasty rumors traveling around and cruel comments being said that shook me to my core.
On my blog I am funny, an extrovert, the person who I wish I was in real life when in truth I'm an introvert, people don't laugh at my jokes and often over look me. I am just a simple person living my life one that has been so greatly blessed. Yet, as rumors and cruel comments started to be spread about myself, my family and my life I was consumed with what people had to say. Every comment stung me to the core.
I felt as if I was in high school, again, I called over my friend and she told me that there was no reason to let this consume me they were unkind untrue words, and unlike "real life" I could simple shut this "bad" part out of my life by click a red button. Which is exactly what I did. I decided it was in my best interest of myself and my families that I close my blog and move on from this chapter in my life.
The last year was a growing experience for me in every way. I have become more of the person I was online in real life, I have grown in the Lord and prioritized my life. After much thought I have decided that I am going to reopen my blog because it is exactly that my blog. It is a scrapbook of my life and my families life, one that deserves to be and needs to be kept.
I may not have the perfect life or be the perfect person but my life is sweet and that's all I ever wanted it to be. And without further ado here are the three children who make this blog everything it is, three children who look like they have been blasted into the future and even I don't know how it happened."
She would know what it's like to be in high school, since she's still there. We walk a fine line with Kelsey....do we expose what we know? Or not? Because she's not legally an adult yet.
On the other hand, this is how Gina started. We have evidence she was online scamming people from 16 years old, younger than Kelsey.
We will contact BlogHer, but should we contact her parents? How about her church instead? She's a kid with a fake life on a blog...why should there be repercussions for that? How about if she's pretending to be the guardian of the children she is just babysitting? What would you mothers out there want done?
For now, we leave you with a link to her blog in the Wayback Machine. It should provide enough information to prove she's not 32/34 (she can't remember from site-to-site) and that these children aren't hers in a "foster arrangement."
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Blind Faith
We have had emails and comments about a well-known blogger this week - one whose skeletons seem to be surfacing. She has people yelling "TROLL!", so we looked at everything we were sent and could verify, and felt we needed to comment on the rumors, especially on the domestic abuse.
Because we don't feel the blogger is a troll and because of the personal nature of the information in this post, we're not comfortable disclosing the name of the blogger here.
The blogger in question has unseemly things in her past that have just surfaced in the last week or so. But why should she be required to share them with her readers? There isn't a written etiquette on how much a person is required to share, and we didn't find any outright lies in her posts.
That said, this blog serves as another example that readers should take what they read online with a grain of salt, sometimes more.
For those who asked if there was truth in the rumors, we have verified that this blogger's house is indeed in foreclosure, and her husband has been arrested and was sentenced for domestic violence, among other things, while married to her. They do have a large tax lien as well. She is not faking her son's condition. These things are verifiable.
We touched on exaggeration with Nancy Bratt and it hit a nerve, so we won't go into our thoughts on if we think she has exaggerated her son's condition or used it to push people to her site for money when he was ill.
Outside of that, she does traffic people to her blog. She encourages them in different ways to click many times to her blog and through her blog. She also states in a recent post that she considers herself a professional blogger. As a professional blogger, having high traffic and clicks is good business practice.
She makes money off her blog, and she admits it. This doesn't make her a troll to us.
But with as "open" as the blogger appears to be, most of the comments we had were concerned more with how she appears to be happy-go-lucky while she's actually suffering privately in different ways. She's not required to share her suffering, but we can understand why an always happy lifestyle when such hardships have been unearthed would rattle people.
Not everything is as it seems on any blog, and readers should keep that in mind, especially before taking any blogger's advice to heart. You wouldn't want to take financial or business advice from a person with tax liens or whose business had failed. The same should apply in other areas as well.
Our biggest concern with the blog in question is the domestic violence piece. The blogger never mentions it and we can't fault her with that. There are understandably some things a person would not want to share with all the Internet.
However, we heartily believe that before a person whose spouse has served time for domestic violence offers marital advice, they should supply full disclosure.
This would seem even more important when the advice is as controversial and, from what we have read, counter-intuitive to DV as submissive wife principles.
NO domestic abuse information or expert supports a wife becoming more submissive after domestic violence, and for a national blogger to praise these methods as saving her marriage after abuse could be detrimental to other women with marital and spousal abuse issues who read the blog.
Equally as concerning is her take that the problems were her fault for not being more submissive. No spouse deserves abuse for any reason. Period.
What does it mean to be a Submissive Wife
Biblical Battered Wife Syndrome: Christian Women and Domestic Violence
What Mistakes do Churches Make About Domestic Abuse?
We have no opinion on the submissive wife way of life outside of how it could affect a woman in a relationship with a history of domestic violence.
But please, before following the advice of any blogger, seemingly happy and doing well or not, please consult a real-life professional who has been trained in that area.
Domestic Abuse Helpline
National Domestic Violence Hotline
Because we don't feel the blogger is a troll and because of the personal nature of the information in this post, we're not comfortable disclosing the name of the blogger here.
The blogger in question has unseemly things in her past that have just surfaced in the last week or so. But why should she be required to share them with her readers? There isn't a written etiquette on how much a person is required to share, and we didn't find any outright lies in her posts.
That said, this blog serves as another example that readers should take what they read online with a grain of salt, sometimes more.
For those who asked if there was truth in the rumors, we have verified that this blogger's house is indeed in foreclosure, and her husband has been arrested and was sentenced for domestic violence, among other things, while married to her. They do have a large tax lien as well. She is not faking her son's condition. These things are verifiable.
We touched on exaggeration with Nancy Bratt and it hit a nerve, so we won't go into our thoughts on if we think she has exaggerated her son's condition or used it to push people to her site for money when he was ill.
Outside of that, she does traffic people to her blog. She encourages them in different ways to click many times to her blog and through her blog. She also states in a recent post that she considers herself a professional blogger. As a professional blogger, having high traffic and clicks is good business practice.
She makes money off her blog, and she admits it. This doesn't make her a troll to us.
But with as "open" as the blogger appears to be, most of the comments we had were concerned more with how she appears to be happy-go-lucky while she's actually suffering privately in different ways. She's not required to share her suffering, but we can understand why an always happy lifestyle when such hardships have been unearthed would rattle people.
Not everything is as it seems on any blog, and readers should keep that in mind, especially before taking any blogger's advice to heart. You wouldn't want to take financial or business advice from a person with tax liens or whose business had failed. The same should apply in other areas as well.
Our biggest concern with the blog in question is the domestic violence piece. The blogger never mentions it and we can't fault her with that. There are understandably some things a person would not want to share with all the Internet.
However, we heartily believe that before a person whose spouse has served time for domestic violence offers marital advice, they should supply full disclosure.
This would seem even more important when the advice is as controversial and, from what we have read, counter-intuitive to DV as submissive wife principles.
NO domestic abuse information or expert supports a wife becoming more submissive after domestic violence, and for a national blogger to praise these methods as saving her marriage after abuse could be detrimental to other women with marital and spousal abuse issues who read the blog.
Equally as concerning is her take that the problems were her fault for not being more submissive. No spouse deserves abuse for any reason. Period.
What does it mean to be a Submissive Wife
Biblical Battered Wife Syndrome: Christian Women and Domestic Violence
What Mistakes do Churches Make About Domestic Abuse?
"Pastors and leaders need to emphasize that submission does not mean acceptance of disrespect and abuse in a marriage relationship."
We have no opinion on the submissive wife way of life outside of how it could affect a woman in a relationship with a history of domestic violence.
But please, before following the advice of any blogger, seemingly happy and doing well or not, please consult a real-life professional who has been trained in that area.
Domestic Abuse Helpline
National Domestic Violence Hotline
Sunday, June 14, 2009
The McDonald Five
Last weekend another blogger also made headline news for her distressing story about her very real child.
23-year-old Emily McDonald of Austin was arrested for injury to a child - her daughter, Dakota. Dakota has been in and out of the hospital since her premature birth three years ago. McDonald blogged several times a week (and sometimes several times a day) about her three children, but mostly about her youngest daughter's roller coaster ride of ongoing health problems on her blog, The McDonald Five.
McDonald also wrote an article about her experiences with her two younger children's prematurity.
When Dakota did not recover while in the hospital and blood cultures showed odd results, staff became suspicious and set up a camera in the little girl's hospital room. On video they caught McDonald putting fecal matter into little Dakota's feeding tube, which is life-threatening and can cause sepsis.
According to police, "one reason she offered to us as an explanation is that it would keep her daughter sick to gain attention." We have had Munchausen by Internet described on here before, but McDonald's appears to be Munchausen by Proxy FOR Internet.
McDonald has not been diagnosed with Munchausen by Proxy, but did admit to putting feces in Dakota's tube five times during the six-week hospital stay. She has been released on bond and is not allowed contact with her three children.
A few links:
Cops: Mom put feces in tot's IV
Mom Taints Child's Feeding Tube with Feces
Recent posts from McDonald's blog
KXAN Excerpts from McDonald Five blog
Thank you to J for the heads up on this.
23-year-old Emily McDonald of Austin was arrested for injury to a child - her daughter, Dakota. Dakota has been in and out of the hospital since her premature birth three years ago. McDonald blogged several times a week (and sometimes several times a day) about her three children, but mostly about her youngest daughter's roller coaster ride of ongoing health problems on her blog, The McDonald Five.
McDonald also wrote an article about her experiences with her two younger children's prematurity.
When Dakota did not recover while in the hospital and blood cultures showed odd results, staff became suspicious and set up a camera in the little girl's hospital room. On video they caught McDonald putting fecal matter into little Dakota's feeding tube, which is life-threatening and can cause sepsis.
According to police, "one reason she offered to us as an explanation is that it would keep her daughter sick to gain attention." We have had Munchausen by Internet described on here before, but McDonald's appears to be Munchausen by Proxy FOR Internet.
McDonald has not been diagnosed with Munchausen by Proxy, but did admit to putting feces in Dakota's tube five times during the six-week hospital stay. She has been released on bond and is not allowed contact with her three children.
A few links:
Cops: Mom put feces in tot's IV
Mom Taints Child's Feeding Tube with Feces
Recent posts from McDonald's blog
KXAN Excerpts from McDonald Five blog
Thank you to J for the heads up on this.
An apology from Beushausen
Beccah Beushausen has posted an apology here. It additionally offers a list of reasons/excuses, but also inconsistencies, such as stating she has not been online, or reading blogs/message boards. This is untrue. She has been to this site many times, and she has used one of her pseudonyms to comment on at least one other site as late as Tuesday.
Knowing that there are at least two falsehoods (and we have received emails suggesting a handful of others), please read with a grain of salt.
There is no comment on the help she is receiving, but she is home and no longer at a psychiatric facility. Beushausen is young, the same age as Gina Fiorentino, and our hope is that she gets the help she needs now and sets herself up for a life that she (and family and friends) can be proud of.
EDIT: Welcome to our readers from The Gibson Twins! Brianne did such a wonderful job of web sleuthing and outting this story, and we're happy to be associated with her in all this.
We have had some emails regarding Beccah closing comments and people still wanting to contact her. You can email her here at her personal email address.
Knowing that there are at least two falsehoods (and we have received emails suggesting a handful of others), please read with a grain of salt.
There is no comment on the help she is receiving, but she is home and no longer at a psychiatric facility. Beushausen is young, the same age as Gina Fiorentino, and our hope is that she gets the help she needs now and sets herself up for a life that she (and family and friends) can be proud of.
EDIT: Welcome to our readers from The Gibson Twins! Brianne did such a wonderful job of web sleuthing and outting this story, and we're happy to be associated with her in all this.
We have had some emails regarding Beccah closing comments and people still wanting to contact her. You can email her here at her personal email address.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Calling out mistakes
According to a post on the Chicago Tribune article, the NASW wants everyone to know Beushausen is not a social worker. Apparently they're not happy having her name attached to their profession. Wonder why?
Other errors by the journalist have been called out continuously in the over 500 comments, but no corrections yet. Unfortunately, other media sources are pulling straight from the Trib article, so misinformation on this story has been spread widely.
We have been tipped off that Beccah will be posting her "last post apology" here.
I would like to point out that Beccah Beushausen, the woman identified in your article in today's Chicago Tribune "Bloggers Baby was a Hoax" is NOT a social worker. She is not licensed in the State of Illinois as a social worker and is not a member of the National Association of Social Workers. We would appreciate if this was noted as a correction in your paper.
Joel L. Rubin, MSW, CAE - Executive Director
NASW IL Chapter
404 S. Wells St. 4th Floor
Chicago, IL 60607
Other errors by the journalist have been called out continuously in the over 500 comments, but no corrections yet. Unfortunately, other media sources are pulling straight from the Trib article, so misinformation on this story has been spread widely.
We have been tipped off that Beccah will be posting her "last post apology" here.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Article on Beccah Beushausen
For woman who blogged about fake pregnancy, 'one lie led to another'
Click link to continue reading....
Interesting tidbits from the article: Beushausen is a social worker. The article also claims "There's no evidence that Beushausen benefited financially in any significant way, or committed any crime." The keyword in that sentence being "significant," which is subjective.
If Beushausen is to be believed, the blog started as a case of classic Munchausen by Internet, but turned into a money hoax. Since she was an avid follower of other better-known bloggers whose children are ill and she spent substantial time driving readers to her site, one can only wonder which was truly the driving force - the money she saw bloggers making or the attention they were receiving?
Word on the street that is not included in the article is that Beushausen is now in a long-term mental facility seeking help.
CHICAGO, Jun 11, 2009 (Chicago Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune News Service via COMTEX) -- The unmarried mother's story about giving birth to a child diagnosed as terminally ill in the womb hit a major nerve on the Internet.
Every night for the past two months, thousands of pro-life moms across the nation logged on to a blog run by the suburban Chicago woman who identified herself only as "B" or "April's Mom." People said they prayed that God would save her pregnancy. They e-mailed her photos of their children dressed in pink, bought campaign T-shirts, shared tales of personal heartache and redemption, and sent letters and gifts to an Oak Lawn P.O. Box in support.
Click link to continue reading....
Interesting tidbits from the article: Beushausen is a social worker. The article also claims "There's no evidence that Beushausen benefited financially in any significant way, or committed any crime." The keyword in that sentence being "significant," which is subjective.
If Beushausen is to be believed, the blog started as a case of classic Munchausen by Internet, but turned into a money hoax. Since she was an avid follower of other better-known bloggers whose children are ill and she spent substantial time driving readers to her site, one can only wonder which was truly the driving force - the money she saw bloggers making or the attention they were receiving?
Word on the street that is not included in the article is that Beushausen is now in a long-term mental facility seeking help.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
April Rose update
Unlike Friends of Pepe, Beccah Beushausen's April Rose blog appears to be a money scam, and a big one. Two pseudonyms are peppered all over the web by InHISTightGrip and mamarebekaah, requesting people to visit the site, which drives up page views and advertiser click thrus. At nearly a million visitors, that's a lot of loose change.
In addition to making money on this scam, and fooling hundreds of thousands of readers, this troll also took advantage of the non-profit group Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep by allowing one of their photographers to do a "maternity session."
If you are looking for posts, you can read the blog here.
Thank you to everyone for sending us information on this. We're getting it faster than we can verify and get it online. There are several sites that have already done a great job gathering information so for all the details, please visit the ones we listed below, as well as The Gibson Twins blog.
In addition to making money on this scam, and fooling hundreds of thousands of readers, this troll also took advantage of the non-profit group Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep by allowing one of their photographers to do a "maternity session."
If you are looking for posts, you can read the blog here.
Thank you to everyone for sending us information on this. We're getting it faster than we can verify and get it online. There are several sites that have already done a great job gathering information so for all the details, please visit the ones we listed below, as well as The Gibson Twins blog.
April Rose
We have had a handful of emails about a popular blogger, Beccah Beushausen, a 26-year-old woman from Lockport, Illinois, who faked being pregnant with a very ill baby (trisomy 13 and Holoprosencephaly), and then posted pictures of one very realistic-looking "reborn" doll as the miracle baby, "April Rose". She took donations and had advertisements as well.
Beccah is the owner of "See Through Me Studios", and has taught children at an art studio in New Lenox, IL in the past.
If you donated money to this person, please contact the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center or the Lockport Illinois Police.
The following are links sent to us about her story. Please feel free to add any others in our comments section.
http://littleaprilroseisfake.blogspot.com/
http://littleoneapril.blogspot.com/
Thank you to everyone who sent us emails about this story.
Beccah is the owner of "See Through Me Studios", and has taught children at an art studio in New Lenox, IL in the past.
If you donated money to this person, please contact the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center or the Lockport Illinois Police.
The following are links sent to us about her story. Please feel free to add any others in our comments section.
http://littleaprilroseisfake.blogspot.com/
http://littleoneapril.blogspot.com/
Thank you to everyone who sent us emails about this story.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Brianna Lavey on Cafemom
http://www.cafemom.com/home/BriannaL_81
This troll hasn't posted anything since November, but she has not removed her pictures either. If your children appeared on one of her other sites, please check the link above and to see if their pictures were used here as well.
We had a comment on the last post that cafemom did not do anything about a previous troll stealing images of quadruplets. Hopefully that will not be the case this time.
This troll hasn't posted anything since November, but she has not removed her pictures either. If your children appeared on one of her other sites, please check the link above and to see if their pictures were used here as well.
We had a comment on the last post that cafemom did not do anything about a previous troll stealing images of quadruplets. Hopefully that will not be the case this time.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Munchausen by fake-child-to-win-back-boyfriend
We're guessing this will be the next category we're going to see in the Munchausen family.
A Christmas day story that warms the lonely hearts - a 22 year-old woman makes up a little boy, Riley, but when the MIA daddy who had no idea his "son" existed shows up, she has to make the kid disappear. So he does, with his French, gap-toothed nanny, Camille.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/12/26/missing.baby.hoax/index.html
http://www.fooqu.com/lying-about-a-baby-wont-help-you-get-your-boyfriend-back
A Christmas day story that warms the lonely hearts - a 22 year-old woman makes up a little boy, Riley, but when the MIA daddy who had no idea his "son" existed shows up, she has to make the kid disappear. So he does, with his French, gap-toothed nanny, Camille.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/12/26/missing.baby.hoax/index.html
http://www.fooqu.com/lying-about-a-baby-wont-help-you-get-your-boyfriend-back
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Brianna Lavey keeps it going....
She's now Jessica Morin a SAHM with twins and triplets, all under one. And Samantha Anderson, her 15 year old sister.
There are many more posts from this person on Yahoo, and one can only wonder who would have the time to keep up all these (and many more we don't know about yet, surely) personas.
Multiple personality #7 (or so) on Yahoo
http://www.blogger.com/profile/11559292462173812383
http://samandaimee.blogspot.com/
http://jessicamorin.blogspot.com/
jessicamorin3@ yahoo.com
More than anything, if you're the parents of multiples or post your child's pictures on Flickr, please take a look and make sure your child's photos aren't being used on these sites.
We have emailed Yahoo and have received an initial canned response. We'll keep working until they can get this troll blocked from their site. Who knows, with as busy as she's been, it could take down a good percentage of their user base!
Thanks again to BG for the new persona heads up.
There are many more posts from this person on Yahoo, and one can only wonder who would have the time to keep up all these (and many more we don't know about yet, surely) personas.
Multiple personality #7 (or so) on Yahoo
http://www.blogger.com/profile/11559292462173812383
http://samandaimee.blogspot.com/
http://jessicamorin.blogspot.com/
jessicamorin3@ yahoo.com
More than anything, if you're the parents of multiples or post your child's pictures on Flickr, please take a look and make sure your child's photos aren't being used on these sites.
We have emailed Yahoo and have received an initial canned response. We'll keep working until they can get this troll blocked from their site. Who knows, with as busy as she's been, it could take down a good percentage of their user base!
Thanks again to BG for the new persona heads up.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Sextuplet Troll
Brianna Lavey and her husband Jesse have twin daughters, and oh my! They're expecting sextuplets any day now as well.
Only, not.
The troll behind Brianna Lavey has set up a complex world of lies and multiple personalities. And in a disgusting move, she stole ultrasound pictures of the Morrison sextuplets, also known as the Morrison 6 of Minnesota. Sadly, five of the Morrison sextuplets did not survive, but that didn't stop this troll from naming each of the ultrasound pictures with her own names.
This troll also stole pictures of beautiful twin girls (in header and on various other parts of the page), Emma and Oni, and claimed they were her twin daughters, Hannah and Bianca.
In a fascinating twist, this troll not only made up her main personality, but also a husband, Jesse, and friends and family members who also have blogs and who commented and "followed" her blog. These personalities all started their blogs on September 11, and posted last on September 12, and include families with a set of twins and quadruplets, who are related to the very fertile Laveys.
"Brianna" is active on Yahoo! Answers with a whopping 72 questions and 243 answers since joining in June.
Brianna Lavey on Yahoo
One alter personality, Brittany LaRosa, joined a month later, and focused her questions on the "Lavey Sextuplets" and naming her singleton baby, which, wouldn't you know it, had four of the options of names as the sextuplets. She also inquired about other sextuplets younger than the Gosselin sextuplets.
This troll managed to contradict herself in her own blog by posting she was expecting seven babies, septuplets, but then two hours later, the number changed to six.
Unlike some trolls, and much like others, this troll appears to have a completely made-up personality. This makes her harder to track down. If you have any personal tidbits that might help, please share them, and hopefully we can out this person for their trolling.
You can find this troll at the following places:
bce0024@yahoo.com
Bri_Lavey
Brianna Lavey on Yahoo
http://brinjesselavey.blogspot.com/
http://laveyfamilypratyof8.blogspot.com/
A Mommy's World
Brittany LaRosa on Yahoo
http://pickeringcrew.blogspot.com/
http://mcdonaldpartyof7.blogspot.com/
http://bridgetmargison.blogspot.com/
bridgetmargison@yahoo.com
Pictures of several children have been stolen in this process, and while we have identified a few, please help us identify some of the others.
*ETA one more picture that doesn't look like the above children:
Thank you to BG for bringing this to our attention.
Only, not.
The troll behind Brianna Lavey has set up a complex world of lies and multiple personalities. And in a disgusting move, she stole ultrasound pictures of the Morrison sextuplets, also known as the Morrison 6 of Minnesota. Sadly, five of the Morrison sextuplets did not survive, but that didn't stop this troll from naming each of the ultrasound pictures with her own names.
This troll also stole pictures of beautiful twin girls (in header and on various other parts of the page), Emma and Oni, and claimed they were her twin daughters, Hannah and Bianca.
In a fascinating twist, this troll not only made up her main personality, but also a husband, Jesse, and friends and family members who also have blogs and who commented and "followed" her blog. These personalities all started their blogs on September 11, and posted last on September 12, and include families with a set of twins and quadruplets, who are related to the very fertile Laveys.
"Brianna" is active on Yahoo! Answers with a whopping 72 questions and 243 answers since joining in June.
Brianna Lavey on Yahoo
One alter personality, Brittany LaRosa, joined a month later, and focused her questions on the "Lavey Sextuplets" and naming her singleton baby, which, wouldn't you know it, had four of the options of names as the sextuplets. She also inquired about other sextuplets younger than the Gosselin sextuplets.
This troll managed to contradict herself in her own blog by posting she was expecting seven babies, septuplets, but then two hours later, the number changed to six.
Unlike some trolls, and much like others, this troll appears to have a completely made-up personality. This makes her harder to track down. If you have any personal tidbits that might help, please share them, and hopefully we can out this person for their trolling.
You can find this troll at the following places:
bce0024@yahoo.com
Bri_Lavey
Brianna Lavey on Yahoo
http://brinjesselavey.blogspot.com/
http://laveyfamilypratyof8.blogspot.com/
A Mommy's World
Brittany LaRosa on Yahoo
http://pickeringcrew.blogspot.com/
http://mcdonaldpartyof7.blogspot.com/
http://bridgetmargison.blogspot.com/
bridgetmargison@yahoo.com
Pictures of several children have been stolen in this process, and while we have identified a few, please help us identify some of the others.
*ETA one more picture that doesn't look like the above children:
Thank you to BG for bringing this to our attention.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Updates
We have had an influx of Pepe/Gina emails this week, as she was "exposed" on the AOL Horse and Dog chat rooms she frequents. Thank you to readers for sending us the following information.
Gina is posting under new user names - Eventing4Fun and eventer723.
She has a Wii. No word on if this is the original Wii, or a new one:
http://www.midwesthorsetalk.com/index.php?topic=5310.0
She has dropped the claims that she has Cystic Fibrosis, but has told people that she is "on board with the DWT team", and we tipped her off about our investigation. Right. She also claimed that someone stole her pictures and videos. She doesn't know who we are, and thanks to all the information everyone has spread around, her actions haven't fallen to the wayside on her favorite forums.
http://www.chronicleforums.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=168765
She stands by her claims she has Asperger's on a handful of sites, but she fails to mention Munchausen by Internet anywhere.
Kelsey Smith's site was up for about a day, but was taken down again, along with her Twitter account. We have received emails letting us know that she is NOT related to the children she watches, which concerns us. She has taken on some very dangerous story lines in emails about indeed being 32 years old, and her changing role as the caretaker of the children, which we're hoping she will quickly drop. If not, we will expose what we know, but for now, because of her age, we are going to give her an opportunity to toe the line and be responsible and truthful for who she is on her site.
Thank you for all the updates
Gina is posting under new user names - Eventing4Fun and eventer723.
She has a Wii. No word on if this is the original Wii, or a new one:
http://www.midwesthorsetalk.com/index.php?topic=5310.0
She has dropped the claims that she has Cystic Fibrosis, but has told people that she is "on board with the DWT team", and we tipped her off about our investigation. Right. She also claimed that someone stole her pictures and videos. She doesn't know who we are, and thanks to all the information everyone has spread around, her actions haven't fallen to the wayside on her favorite forums.
http://www.chronicleforums.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=168765
She stands by her claims she has Asperger's on a handful of sites, but she fails to mention Munchausen by Internet anywhere.
Kelsey Smith's site was up for about a day, but was taken down again, along with her Twitter account. We have received emails letting us know that she is NOT related to the children she watches, which concerns us. She has taken on some very dangerous story lines in emails about indeed being 32 years old, and her changing role as the caretaker of the children, which we're hoping she will quickly drop. If not, we will expose what we know, but for now, because of her age, we are going to give her an opportunity to toe the line and be responsible and truthful for who she is on her site.
Thank you for all the updates
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Half a troll - My Sweet Life
My Sweet Life was a popular and active blog that followed the tales of three children - Dennis, Emeray, and Yasmine, and their caretaker, Kelsey. They jet-set all over, having visited Alaska, Mexico, and most recently, Europe, in just the last few months. The family speaks Turkish, and Kelsey commented on how she's been speaking Turkish as a second language for 15 years. This summer, producers of "Wife Swap" even contacted the popular blogger about appearing on their show.
Kelsey twittered here as well, and there were times stories that made Twitter did not show up in her blog. In Twitter, she was very politically active, and announced she registered to vote "for the first time" in August, and was excited about voting for McCain in November.
Only, Kelsey isn't eligible to vote. She's sixteen, and she's still in high school in Washington. On other various sites, Kelsey lists herself as "32" and her blog as "The snippets and ramblings about a family trying to survive in modern day suburbia. Armed with a camera, bible, laptop, three kids under four, two parents, and a blog about the extraordinary life of a average suburban family."
In a couple instances, she did correct readers by mentioning she was not the mother of the three children in her blog, but many commenters thought she was, and she did not correct their assumptions.
The site came down in early October, and her Twittering stopped. Her usernames can be found around the Internet, but for the most part, Kelsey seems to be a bored high school student whose blog and photography became popular, and who began embellishing her life at times. She does know the children from her blog -- the pictures and information were hers, and were not stolen from another site.
Because of her age and because her blog was harmless (no gifts, requests for money, dying individuals), we won't release any more of the personal information we have about Kelsey or the children in the blog.
Thank you to J for emailing us about this blog.
Kelsey twittered here as well, and there were times stories that made Twitter did not show up in her blog. In Twitter, she was very politically active, and announced she registered to vote "for the first time" in August, and was excited about voting for McCain in November.
Only, Kelsey isn't eligible to vote. She's sixteen, and she's still in high school in Washington. On other various sites, Kelsey lists herself as "32" and her blog as "The snippets and ramblings about a family trying to survive in modern day suburbia. Armed with a camera, bible, laptop, three kids under four, two parents, and a blog about the extraordinary life of a average suburban family."
In a couple instances, she did correct readers by mentioning she was not the mother of the three children in her blog, but many commenters thought she was, and she did not correct their assumptions.
The site came down in early October, and her Twittering stopped. Her usernames can be found around the Internet, but for the most part, Kelsey seems to be a bored high school student whose blog and photography became popular, and who began embellishing her life at times. She does know the children from her blog -- the pictures and information were hers, and were not stolen from another site.
Because of her age and because her blog was harmless (no gifts, requests for money, dying individuals), we won't release any more of the personal information we have about Kelsey or the children in the blog.
Thank you to J for emailing us about this blog.
Article: Woman faked cancer three times
Suzy Bass had less than a year to live. The Knoxville, Tennessee, high school math teacher was battling stage IV breast cancer, and it had spread to her shoulder and heel. Chemotherapy no longer worked; an experimental bone marrow therapy she'd tried as a last resort appeared futile. Her students and colleagues were devastated. Bass, then 41, was a popular newcomer to the picturesque private Webb School near the Smoky Mountains that fall of 2007. "Ms. Bass was the cool teacher," says Michaelan Moore, 18, who was a junior in Bass's Algebra II class. "Everyone just loved her immediately. We could tell her anything."
http://www.aolhealth.com/condition-center/breast-cancer/awareness-month/faking-breast-cancer
Thanks to a reader who emailed this to us.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Offline, IRL Troll
Pastor Michael Guglielmucci spun gospel of lies
Duped Christians want their money back
Short story (shocking for this site, we know):
He went so far as to deceive his own wife and family for those two years, convincing them he was dying as well.
He is purportedly getting medical assistance for his mental ailments.
The videos are gone off of YouTube, and his Facebook and MySpace pages are gone too, but you can still find mp3s of "Healer" around the 'net.
Duped Christians want their money back
Short story (shocking for this site, we know):
"{Pastor} Michael Guglielmucci, who inspired hundreds of thousands of young Christians with his terminal cancer 'battle', has been exposed as a fraud."
"Earlier this year, Mr Guglielmucci released a hit song, Healer , which was featured on Sydney church Hillsong's latest album.
The song debuted at No. 2 on the ARIA charts.
It since has become an anthem of faith for believers, many of whom are suffering their own illness and were praying for a miracle for Mr Guglielmucci, who has claimed for two years to be terminally ill."
He went so far as to deceive his own wife and family for those two years, convincing them he was dying as well.
He is purportedly getting medical assistance for his mental ailments.
The videos are gone off of YouTube, and his Facebook and MySpace pages are gone too, but you can still find mp3s of "Healer" around the 'net.
Reimbursed
We have been informed that the money has been returned to the people who donated to PayPal. It was sent by Gina to Paul, who credited the money through the donor's PayPal accounts. If you have not received a refund, please let us know. If you sent Gina gifts or donations privately, you might want to contact her personally about returning those.
On another note, when the CF community was told their donations were going to be returned, many asked that the money be donated to other CF causes. They said they had intended the money to be a donation, and they maintained they still felt that way.
We do not know anyone with CF, but can imagine the monumental cost of the health care associated with it, especially when a transplant is involved. We assume that young adults with CF hit their insurance benefit maximums fairly quickly.
And yet, despite everything, from the cost of their own care to the events that have unraveled this week, they continue to donate money to others.
What a fantastic group of people.
**Edited to add:**
If you would like to make a donation yourself, we have attached a link to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's donation page. If anyone knows of any other non-personal CF organizations that need or accept donations, please let us know by email or comments, and we will add it here as well.
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
Cystic Fibrosis Research, Inc
University of Minnesota - Fairview
Cystic Fibrosis Trust (UK)
Live Life Then Give Life (UK)
On another note, when the CF community was told their donations were going to be returned, many asked that the money be donated to other CF causes. They said they had intended the money to be a donation, and they maintained they still felt that way.
We do not know anyone with CF, but can imagine the monumental cost of the health care associated with it, especially when a transplant is involved. We assume that young adults with CF hit their insurance benefit maximums fairly quickly.
And yet, despite everything, from the cost of their own care to the events that have unraveled this week, they continue to donate money to others.
What a fantastic group of people.
**Edited to add:**
If you would like to make a donation yourself, we have attached a link to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's donation page. If anyone knows of any other non-personal CF organizations that need or accept donations, please let us know by email or comments, and we will add it here as well.
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
Cystic Fibrosis Research, Inc
University of Minnesota - Fairview
Cystic Fibrosis Trust (UK)
Live Life Then Give Life (UK)
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Responsibility
remorse (n) - "deep and painful regret for wrongdoing; compunction."
dictionary.com***
Anti-social personality - Also called a psychopath, or a sociopath, this person is superficially charming and a habitual liar, has no regard for others, shows no remorse after hurting them, has no shame for behaving in an outrageously objectionable manner, and is unable to form relationships and take responsibility.
Dept. Social Services, Missouri***
"Many authors have also underscored the co-occurrence (or causal role?) of some pathological personality traits and/or disorders.
In this vein the acceptance and even search of "heavy" diagnostic and therapeutic procedures was related to masochistic traits.
Identity disturbance, unstable interpersonal relationships and recurrent suicidal or self-mutilating behaviors are similar to those encountered in borderline personality disorder.
Deceitfulness, lack of remorse, reckless disregard for safety of self, repeated failure to sustain constant work behavior and failure to conform social norms are common features of factitious disorder and antisocial personality disorder."
http://andreisz.club.fr/Munchausen_genpres.html***
"Pathological lying was originally defined as complex lies which are internally consistent, that may drag on for years and-- and this is the key point-- do not have an obvious purpose or gain. They are not lies told to self-aggrandize, or minimize guilt. They're not trying to con you into or out of anything. They're just making crap up."
http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2007/03/pathological_liars.html***
"Most definitions of lying refer to the deliberate communication of information believed to be false and intended to deceive (although terms such as "the whole truth" and being "economical with the truth" suggest that the inclusion of false information is not necessary to the concept of lying in its wider aspects). Thus, patients who communicate false information in the context of a range of psychiatric states, such as when they are confabulating, have delusional memory, or are demented, are not lying because they are not deliberately misleading us."
http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/full/33/3/350
In a previous post, we commented on a lack of remorse from Gina for those people hurt by "Pepe". Originally, this angered everyone here at DWT very much. It appears now that this might be part of Munchausen Syndrome, according to one common theory. Other theories discuss the connection between Munchausen and antisocial personality disorder.
Non-experts refer to Munchausen as the pathological liar's medically-diagnosed mental illness defense.
Regardless of what you call it, the outcome is bleak. There aren't medications/legal actions/therapies alone/magic words that will cure or stop this behavior. The only person who can stop it is Gina herself, with or without the help of what all the experts agree is "intense psychotherapy."
We received an email from a real-life friend of Gina's, letting us know that if Gina committed suicide because of our "witch hunt", she would hold us personally responsible. We were going to reply to her privately, but decided we needed to share our thoughts with anyone interested.
We find death threats, as well as suicide threats, unreasonable and childish, as we stated before.
With that laid out, we would like to point out we have not outed a private person. Gina, as Pepe, put her story out there for everyone to read. She approached other people, and she, through her own admission, went to Paul and others as "Blake" about raising funds to send "Pepe" a Wii while she was in the hospital.
In doing so, she has made herself a public figure - a celebrity of sorts. We are still debating whether she could be labeled a "general purpose" or "limited purpose" public figure. Since nothing we have said here is untrue or knowingly false, we haven't done anything wrong.
How you feel about us listing all facts in one convenient place, and allowing people to comment on them depends on who you are and how you learned about this - as a friend of Gina Fiorentino, or as a friend of "Pepe". The information in this blog is evidence-supported facts, and the facts are not nice, for either group involved.
Next, we would like to point out that Gina first appeared on the Internet as a girl with CF in 1997. Another person who knows Gina says that the police were involved, and the ACMEpet boards were permanently shut down because of this, which our research has confirmed. However, Gina was a minor, and nothing came from it.
Since then, we have three other known times that Gina was "outed" for her lies. But still, two years ago, Gina resurfaced as "Blake", then "Pepe", on the most current boards.
This is not a first-time offender. And this time, she pursued money and gifts. Obviously, were Gina going to get help on her own, she would have done it before "Pepe". We have no doubts that had "Friends of Pepe" successfully disappeared, Gina would have been on to her next victims. She was already found in the Tuberculosis rooms, as well as Asperger's rooms.
We were accused of contacting the people in Gina's life, her employers and whatnot, and of giving out her contact information. We assure you, we did no such thing. We supplied readers with her name, usernames, and the city she lived in. What they did with that information is beyond our control.
The people we contacted are listed in this blog - those personally affected by, or directly doing business with, Gina Fiorentino.
Gina is the only person capable of breaking the vicious cycles she has been building for the past decade. Will she? Who knows. At 25, we maintain that she is still young, and getting help now is a blessing in disguise.
We are all given one chance to live, and since Gina has been blessed with a perfectly healthy body, she has the opportunity to turn her life around and start living a full life she (and her family and friends) can be proud of when her time to leave does come.
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