GUILTY FL - Couple accused of telling boy he had terminal brain cancer to scam money

[perfectingpink]

Couple accused of telling boy he had terminal brain cancer to raise money for themselves

[....]

Ginny Irovando Long, 34, and Robert Edward Long, 47, were taken into custody by the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office on Thursday and charged with one count of child abuse and nine counts of fraud, according to a statement from the sheriff's office.

"The 13-year-old has spent the last eight months believing he is going to die from brain cancer," the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook post about the case.

[....]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/couple-accused-telling-boy-terminal-brain-cancer-raise/story?id=52846930

 

[MaryG12]

That made the local news - I have to wonder exactly what the parents were going to buy with that money.

Drugs maybe?

 

[Hoosgirl]

Mom profile: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100011300830012

Dad profile: https://www.facebook.com/robert.long.7927

I'm wondering muchausens? They seemed to have gone all in on this scam. This poor boy!

ETA I think he is not bio dad based on his posts.

 

[ksprincess]

Mom's December 28th Facebook post[emoji34] I'm wondering what her long term plan was? Would she eventually have killed him or done something to make him sicker? He looks ok in pictures just thin.

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[jjenny]

Munchausen by proxy is when people take their child to a doctor pretending a child has diseases. It's done for attention.
If this was done to collect money, this wouldn't be munchausen by proxy.

 

[flourish]

Munchausen by proxy is when people take their child to a doctor pretending a child has diseases. It's done for attention.
If this was done to collect money, this wouldn't be munchausen by proxy.

Munchausen and the proxy type are both themselves types of factitious disorders. I'm guessing this situation falls in the same category.

 

[Hoosgirl]

I think this may be for attention and money. Lots of trips to hospitals, ERs, wheelchair, IVs etc. based on the pictures. I dunno, I just got a munchausen's vibe more than straight financial scam. Either way, what a horrible thing to do to your child!

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[jjenny]

Pretending to be sick for profit or pretending a child is sick for profit is called malingering.
Munchausen is when it's done for attention.

 

[Lilibet]

Munchausen by proxy is when people take their child to a doctor pretending a child has diseases. It's done for attention.
If this was done to collect money, this wouldn't be munchausen by proxy.

BBM

You are correct. This sounds like a scam.

The husband sounds genuinely blind-sided on FB. One might wonder how someone could pull this off and fool people, but DeeDee Blanchard even fooled doctors, as have a number of similar mothers like Kate Parker in Oregon. All for money and perks, never mind the harm to the child.

 

[jjenny]

I think this may be for attention and money. Lots of trips to hospitals, ERs, wheelchair, IVs etc. based on the pictures. I dunno, I just got a munchausen's vibe more than straight financial scam. Either way, what a horrible thing to do to your child!

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It's not clear to me if the child was actually taken to doctors or was the photos staged. Obviously there is no diagnosis of cancer from what has been reported, so what would the child be taken to doctors for?

 

[Elainera]

I think this may be for attention and money. Lots of trips to hospitals, ERs, wheelchair, IVs etc. based on the pictures. I dunno, I just got a munchausen's vibe more than straight financial scam. Either way, what a horrible thing to do to your child!

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bbm What was he treated for if there's nothing wrong with him?

It's so cruel what these two did. He must be in such a roller coaster of emotions right now - shocked, angry, and also so relieved.

 

[Elainera]

It's not clear to me if the child was actually taken to doctors or was the photos staged. Obviously there is no diagnosis of cancer from what has been reported, so what would the child be taken to doctors for?

But if the photos were staged surely the boy would have suspected something?

 

[jjenny]

But if the photos were staged surely the boy would have suspected something?

Parents have a lot of influence over children. In Blanchard's case, mother had Gypsy in wheelchair, Gypsy knew she could walk but still nobody suspected she didn't need the wheelchair.

 

[Lilibet]

Parents have a lot of influence over children. In Blanchard's case, mother had Gypsy in wheelchair, Gypsy knew she could walk but still nobody suspected she didn't need the wheelchair.

Yes, and it sounds as if this boy actually believed he had cancer and told people. She really must have done a number on him. Perhaps he went to the doctor for a checkup and she told him later that the doctor had called to tell her that he had cancer.

One of her FB posts talks about being ready to bring him home from the hospital, but their furnace wasn’t working. She asked for someone to fix it!

 

[MsMarple]

That poor child.

Deputies say the Fort Walton Beach couple launched a T-shirt fundraiser and even created a GoFund Me account. Their attempt to raise funds was successful and they cashed out on donations meant to help with the family’s ‘medical expenses,’” officials said on social media. Police did not say how much money they made.

“The 13-year-old has spent the last eight months believing he is going to die from brain cancer, but the OCSO’s investigation revealed his medical records prove no brain tumors exist,” investigators posted on Facebook. “The investigation revealed the pair set up a T-shirt fundraiser for the boy at his school last year and shared the bogus cancer diagnosis information on their Facebook accounts as well.”
...
On Dec. 28, the couple posted photos of their son alongside a lengthy caption that read:

“Well its three days past Christmas and he is doing okay. He still has his good and bad days, but we are some blessed and happy parents knowing he has come this far,” said the boy’s mother.

“When the doctors told us that he didn’t think he would be with us on Christmas it crushed our hearts. All I can say is that everyone that told us that you can’t always believe what the doctor says, well that is true. There is only one person that knows when it’s Dawson’s time to go and that is GOD. Every day that we have him with us we thank God for [letting] us be his mommy and daddy one more day. Please keep the prayers coming; they are working.”

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article198146609.html

The OCSO began its investigation in November of last year after suspicions arose within the School Resource Officer program that the couple was exploiting the victim for financial gain by falsely saying he was dying from brain cancer.

http://www.sheriff-okaloosa.org/new...ith-faking-childs-illness-for-financial-gain/

 

[Elainera]

I wonder why someone suspected that it was all a scam?

 

[MsMarple]

I wonder why someone suspected that it was all a scam?

Here are the arrest warrants. Lots more info. Notice mom's alias names. Interestingly, she told the investigator that on May 19, 2017 a neurologist from Houston Children's Hospital told her that her son had 7 brain tumors. Which is what she wrote in her campaign that she created on December 29, 2016!

http://www.sheriff-okaloosa.org/wp-...hilds-Terminal-Illness-for-Financial-Gain.pdf

Here's an August 30, 2017 snapshot of the now closed , via the wayback machine. It shows the creation date as December 29, 2016. It may be a glitch from the way the wayback machine saves pages but I noted that Ginny used a different last name for the campaign and also said nothing about her son maybe not making it until Christmas so I tend to believe the date.

https://web.archive.org/web/20170830132557/https://www.gofundme.com/363sxqo

On December 6, 2017 Robert Long told the investigator that he was present when a doctor (whom he could not name) told Ginny her son may not live until Christmas. So it seems he was in on it too.

ETA: Video in a Daily Mail article showed a brief screen shot of the removed page.The creation date does read December 29, 2016.

Interestingly, in the archived page I found it was titled "[I redacted the boy's name] Medical Expenses, with a 3k goal. In the DM shot, which is about 5 months later than mine, there's a different picture and it reads "[redacted] Funeral Expenses, with a 2k goal. Wow.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5347859/Florida-parents-told-son-13-brain-cancer.html

 

[MsMarple]

P.S. It gets worse. I didn't see much on mom's page but R. Long's FB page is quite a read. The boy may actually have had surgery on both legs to "stretch his muscles" so he wouldn't be in so much pain. And he had numerous seizures. Maybe.

I'm still reading posts (my pc is old and slow) but I'm up to the part where the boy's biological dad went to the hospital (this is August 3, 2017) and according to Robert Long he created a fuss so they got an order of protection against him.

Now it looks like a lot of the Dr. visits and er visits posted were bogus so I hope the seizures and the operation were staged. If not then I'm afraid those two have been medically abusing the boy. And oy vey! so much fundraising and donations. I'm trying to finish tonight since my pc will take forever to get back to where I leave off. But I'm sooo tired.

I'm sure y'all will be sleuthing this out soon enough!

 

[ksprincess]

It's not clear to me if the child was actually taken to doctors or was the photos staged. Obviously there is no diagnosis of cancer from what has been reported, so what would the child be taken to doctors for?

I think maybe a combo of both some staged pics for attention plus actual dr. appts or hospital visits made to look more dramatic than they really are. I've seen parents of pediatric patients that embelish things to look worse on social media for attention. For example kid has stomach bug and parent brings them into the ER, patient gets some IV fluids and Zofran and go home 3 hours later. I see a friend of a friend post a picture of the child's hand with an IV with the caption "In the hospital, please pray for my baby". Then all their friends commenting "omg praying, what happened?". I can see this Mom doing things like this. Also she probably lied to health care providers about symptoms, saying child had seizures that were only witnessed by her ect.

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[ksprincess]

That arrest warrant is hard to read. That poor little guy must have been so scared he was going to die[emoji22] How evil.



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