An Ohio mother was arrested Monday for a Dee Dee Blanchard-like act of illicit behavior in which she pretended her young daughter was suffering from cancer to extort thousands of dollars.
Pamela Reed, 41, lied to friends and family about her 7-year-old daughter's health for years, and was described on the internet as blind and infirmly suffering from a number of medical abnormalities, including acute myelopathy. Leukemia and regular seizures, which he is said to have publicly disguised as a child.
Police said Reed even admitted to shaving the young child's head in order to sell the property.
According to the Noble County Sheriff's Office, community members generously “participated in fundraisers and donated money to help offset the family's medical expenses.” said in a statement.
The crazy plan collapsed last week when an elementary school nurse discovered the girl was not blind in her right eye, as her mother had claimed, according to an arrest affidavit.
Reed had previously told a nurse that her daughter, identified in records as AR, was planning to have a port implanted in the future for cancer treatment, which would have caused her daughter to already live in 2023. It is said that he was absent from school for more than 280 hours between 2024 and 2024. is stated in the document.
The nurse called AR's health care provider and confirmed her suspicions, saying, “AR does not have cancer or leukemia and has never had cancer or leukemia.”
The doctor claimed that the large amount of documents Mr. Reed submitted to the school regarding AR's cancer theory were all fake.
Reed later confessed to falsifying documents, repackaging prescriptions to pretend they were cancer drugs, and administering unnecessary AR seizure medication.
When questioned by police, Reed initially tried to lie, but admitted to carrying out the ruse “because he liked the help he received as a result,” the affidavit said.
Reed has regularly posted about AR's fabricated healthy flights on a page dedicated to her plan since October 2017, when the girl was 20 months old.
At the time, Reid claimed that AR had severe aplastic anemia, a disease in which the bone marrow does not produce the blood cells the body needs, but it is not clear whether this condition was also fabricated.
On this page, she has shared several links to online fundraisers over the years, only some of which have since been removed. Reed allegedly funneled the thousands of dollars she earned there directly into her own pocket.
According to police, an organization gave Reed's family about $8,000 to pay for cancer treatment.
Just two days before his arrest, Reid claimed on Facebook that AR's health was deteriorating.
“When we were told this was going to be the biggest fight ever, we thought we were ready, but nothing can prepare a parent for witnessing this…I “Our hearts are broken through every treatment, through every tear, and every night because we don't have the answers to why she… He insisted that he start treatment.
The conspiracy was so thick that even Reed's other daughter believed her sister was “in critical condition with cancer,” records show.
It is unclear whether Ms. Reed's husband was involved in the plot, but he was not home at the time of Ms. Reed's arrest and her two children were removed from the home.
Reed was charged with theft by deception, a fourth-degree felony.
Her bond was set at $50,000.
