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Ylen's community, which had come to admire her as the subject of a newspaper's award-winning 2003 series about surviving a rape, rallied when her cancer diagnosis became public. Churches sold Super Bowl sub sandwiches and auction items to raise money. Friends cut her grass, bathed her at her modest home and provided hot meals. An insurance company paid nearly $100,000 for hospice care.

Now the 38-year-old is charged with fraud, false pretenses and using a computer to commit a crime after state police found no doctor who diagnosed cancer. The charges come as those who regularly helped Ylen reel from the news that the man who spent nearly 10 years in prison for her rape was released last year, after newly discovered evidence cast doubt on whether she'd ever been attacked.

"The fact that she's lived this long is a miracle. But maybe it wasn't a miracle after all. ... I'm just baffled. Is she the biggest con artist in the state of Michigan or the victim?" Connell said.

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In 2002, Ylen told police she had been raped in broad daylight in a Meijer store parking lot more than a year earlier.

There was no surveillance video, physical evidence or witnesses. James Grissom, an off-duty Meijer employee with a past sex-related conviction, was charged after Ylen said her attacker, like Grissom, had a skull tattoo. He was found guilty in 2003 and sentenced to at least 15 years in prison, an enhanced punishment because Ylen said her attacker gave her a sexually transmitted disease.

Next, Ylen told her story to the Port Huron Times Herald. She said she wanted people to see her as a "victor," not a "victim." Readers inspired by "Sara's Story," as the series was titled, started a fund to send her to community college.

But it didn't take long for Ylen's story to start unraveling. Authorities learned she claimed to have been kidnapped and raped while visiting her parents in Bakersfield, Calif., just months after the alleged parking lot attack back in Michigan. No charges were filed.

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cfchevygirl
So the moo of 2 young boys faked having cancer to get herself a financial windfall, and to have people fawning over her. As if that wasn't bad enough, she was busted for filing a false claim of rape; AND she's already put someone in prison for rape, that may not have ever really happened.

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Ylen's community, which had come to admire her as the subject of a newspaper's award-winning 2003 series about surviving a rape, rallied when her cancer diagnosis became public. Churches sold Super Bowl sub sandwiches and auction items to raise money. Friends cut her grass, bathed her at her modest home and provided hot meals. An insurance company paid nearly $100,000 for hospice care.

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juniper jupiter
"She has a brilliant mind..."

No, not really. Anybody can trick anybody, but it takes someone like her with sheer gall to try the cancer card.

When my mom first had cancer and started her treatments, there were two changes that could not be copied. One was a constant clammy pallor to her complexion; sallow and yellow, especially around the nape of her neck where hair had fallen out and fresh scalp was exposed. Another was this...odor emitting from her pores as she sweat profusely. It was a bizarre odor, like I could almost taste it; like metal. Of course, it might've been just me who could smell it, but it was unmistakable.

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thundergirl85
I agree that the bathing thing is what leaped out to me, too. WTF? It's got to be some kind of metaphorical thing, like "they showered her with gifts" instead of actually coming over and physically bathing her...right....right????

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ratherdive

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juniper jupiter
"She has a brilliant mind..."

No, not really. Anybody can trick anybody, but it takes someone like her with sheer gall to try the cancer card.

When my mom first had cancer and started her treatments, there were two changes that could not be copied. One was a constant clammy pallor to her complexion; sallow and yellow, especially around the nape of her neck where hair had fallen out and fresh scalp was exposed. Another was this...odor emitting from her pores as she sweat profusely. It was a bizarre odor, like I could almost taste it; like metal. Of course, it might've been just me who could smell it, but it was unmistakable.

No it is pretty hard to fake the real effects of chemo and radiation. Those going through chemo and such usually smell like chemicals and such. My own mother had paper-thin skin, a chemical smell, some radiation burning, a port, and oh yeah, no more breasts.

It is easy to fake to those who I suppose have little experience with cancer or are not around the faker much. She is not the first fake cancer fundraiser, that is for sure.

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juniper jupiter

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ratherdive

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juniper jupiter
"She has a brilliant mind..."

No, not really. Anybody can trick anybody, but it takes someone like her with sheer gall to try the cancer card.

When my mom first had cancer and started her treatments, there were two changes that could not be copied. One was a constant clammy pallor to her complexion; sallow and yellow, especially around the nape of her neck where hair had fallen out and fresh scalp was exposed. Another was this...odor emitting from her pores as she sweat profusely. It was a bizarre odor, like I could almost taste it; like metal. Of course, it might've been just me who could smell it, but it was unmistakable.

No it is pretty hard to fake the real effects of chemo and radiation. Those going through chemo and such usually smell like chemicals and such. My own mother had paper-thin skin, a chemical smell, some radiation burning, a port, and oh yeah, no more breasts.

It is easy to fake to those who I suppose have little experience with cancer or are not around the faker much. She is not the first fake cancer fundraiser, that is for sure.

I can't believe I forgot about the port! But then again, unless you're shirtless (like during this moo's baths), and depending on the exact location, nobody who hasn't seen cancer secondhand would be looking for it. My mom's was just below her collarbone. She fucking hated it.

(Sorry about your mom's cancer, BTW)