If it sounded too extreme to believe, maybe your gut was right.
A report published Monday in the Laurel Leader-Call claims that a story about a disfigured 3-year-old being asked to leave a Jackson, Miss., KFC, was fabricated. (leader-call.com)
The story went viral over the past couple weeks, with KFC saying it was investigating the claim that the child was asked to leave because of her facial injuries. KFC also committed $30,000 toward the child's recovery regardless of the outcome of their investigation.
The allegation was first made public on a Facebook page called "Victoria's Victories" that has been following the recovery of Victoria Wilcher after she was attacked by pit bulls at her grandfather's home in April. According to the Facebook page, the dogs broke her nose, both jaws, cheekbones and right eye socket. The right side of her face was left paralyzed, and she lost that eye, according to the page.
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On June 12, a page administrator posted a photo of Victoria and wrote: “Does this face look scary to you? Last week at KFC in Jackson MS this precious face was asked to leave because her face scared the other diners. I personally will never step foot in another KFC again and will be personally writing the CEO.”
But in a story published Monday, Sean Murphy of the Leader-Call wrote that anonymous sources told him the entire story was made up:
"The heart-wrenching story of a badly disfigured 3-year-old child being asked to leave a Jackson KFC because her appearance was scaring other customers was a story generated out of whole cloth and resulted in the family bilking the public and professionals for more than $135,000 in cash, as well as gifts and free surgeries, sources with deep knowledge of the investigation said exclusively to the Laurel Leader-Call." (Leader-Call.com)
KFC declined to comment on Murphy’s story, which details several alleged inconsistencies in the story told by Victoria’s grandmother and on the Facebook page.
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