Nation & World News

Cops: Mother shaves daughter's head, convinces her she's dying so she can scam money

By Rick Couri
Dec 16, 2015

Investigators said Juanita Garcia organized several fundraisers and collected money intended for cancer treatments.

The trouble is, her daughter isn’t sick.

"During questioning, Garcia admitted to investigators that her daughter had never been diagnosed with cancer, the Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office said on their Facebook page.

Garcia shaved her little girl's head and convinced the child she only had months to live. Thinking something seemed off, a friend alerted deputies who began looking into the matter. It didn't take long for her to come clean. "Garcia admitted during questioning that she had made up the cancer story to scam money out of generous strangers," KGBT reports.

Garcia now sits in the county adult detention Center for exploitation of a child.

Sgt. J.P. Rodriguez shared a warning saying, "We don't want to discourage people to participate in those fundraisers, but we do want them to be cautious." Rodriguez urged those with a generous heart to "confirm information before donating money to strangers."
The 7-year-old is not in the custody of Child Protective Services.

More here. 


About the Author

Rick Couri

More Stories