CALDWELL, OH – Pamela Reed, a 41-year-old Ohio mother, was arrested on Monday for a shocking grift in which she allegedly deceived her community into believing that her 7-year-old daughter was suffering from a host of severe health issues, including blindness and cancer, leading to generous community support and donations.
For years, Reed apparently deceived not only their friends and family but the wider public, sharing her claims online about her daughter’s supposed severe illnesses, which she listed as including acute myeloid leukemia and frequent seizures. Reed admitted to shaving her daughter’s head to make her deception more believable, according to law enforcement.
Due to the perceived dire state of the child’s health, community members participated in fundraisers and donated money to help the family with purported medical costs, the Noble County Sheriff’s Office shared in their announcement.
Last week, however, suspicions arose when a local elementary school nurse discovered that the girl was not actually blind in her right eye, in direct contradiction with Reed’s allegations. Previously, Reed had informed this nurse that her daughter would be having a port implanted for cancer treatments, which accounted for her missing more than 280 hours of school in the current academic year.
Upon contacting the girl’s healthcare provider, the nurse’s suspicions were confirmed – the child did not have and had never had cancer or leukemia. It was further discovered that medical documentation provided to the school by Reed was fabricated, and that Reed had gone so far as re-labelling prescriptions to look like cancer medication and had even been giving her daughter seizure medication unnecessarily.
When interrogated by the police, Reed initially maintained her deceit but eventually admitted to the orchestration of her daughter’s fabricated illnesses, reportedly stating she carried out the ruse because she “liked the support given as a result.”
Reed had been sharing her daughter’s false health narrative on a dedicated social media page since October 2017, when the child was just 20 months old. Fundraising links featured on the page had seen Reed allegedly pocket thousands of dollars under the pretense of assisting with the costs of cancer treatments.
On Monday, Reed faced theft charges by deception, a fourth-degree felony. The bond was set at $50,000.