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Police: Woman Convinced 7-Year-Old Daughter She Had Cancer In Scam For Donation Money

Posted at 4:05 PM, Oct 14, 2018
and last updated 2018-10-14 16:05:30-04

A Tuttle, Oklahoma, woman has been arrested after police said she lied to the community about her little girl having cancer.

Police said Jamie Parker convinced her 7-year-old daughter that she had a disease and told everyone that she had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Dozens of neighbors donated to the little girl’s fundraiser, which police have called a scam.

“She convinced the little girl she had it and started doing fundraising by word of mouth for her little girl’s treatment,” Grady County Sheriff Jim Weir said.

Parker collected $3,500 from donation jars set up at businesses around Tuttle two years ago.

The truth is, Parker’s daughter was never diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“And she just went with it and shaved her head completely bald and continued telling the story that she let her hair fall out because of the chemotherapy,” Weir said.

Police started investigating Parker when she split up with her husband, who took the 7-year-old girl to a doctor. The doctor told the father that the girl did not have cancer.

When police asked Parker why she lied about something like this, she said she liked the feeling she was getting of support and acceptance from the community.

“But when you put your daughter in that state of mind that she has a disease that could kill her, that she may die in the future, I think that’s almost the ultimate child abuse,” Weir said.