Haleigh Knight, Henderson, Nevada woman pleads guilty to faking pancreatic cancer in which she scammed $20K in donations along with getting people, including cancer survivors to feel guilty and be more inclined to love and be around her as well as give her money which she spent on herself and children.
A Nevada mom has admitted to making up having pancreatic cancer which led to sympathizers donating more than $20K which she then splurged on herself and her children.
Haleigh Knight of Henderson pleaded guilty in a Las Vegas court on Monday to a felony theft charge and admitted to lying about a cancer diagnosis to set up a fake fundraising page to scam thousands from countless donors between June 2023 and April 2024, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Prosecutors said Knight’s own text messages showed Knight confessing to posing as different people and creating GoFundMe accounts to maintain her cancer ruse, before then using the ill gotten donations to pay her day to day bills and providing for her children.
Victims come forward after Nevada mom admits faking cancer, pleading guilty to theft
One of Knight’s victims and her former high school classmate, Cydney Fink, said Knight apologized for what she was doing and told her it was like ‘she’s two different people and she can’t control it,’ according to court documents obtained by KLAS.
‘Haleigh states she faked having cancer so that Fink and her family along with Haleigh’s family would feel guilty and more inclined to love and be around her if she claimed she was sick,’ according to the documents.
Breast cancer survivor and victim Suzanne Duroy told KSNV she donated to Knight’s GoFundMe and was left ‘in shock’ upon learning she had never had cancer.
‘I couldn’t believe it. I really could not believe it,’ Duroy said, adding that she first met Knight in 2022 while they were working at a surgery center.
‘I feel so manipulated that she would just use me for information when I was here with my husband, crying because I felt so bad for her,’ Duroy said, noting how she used to spend hours on the phone with Knight answering questions about cancer and what she’d gone through. ‘What she’s done to all these other women is absolutely terrible, because so many were her friends, and they would have helped her if she needed help.’
Nevada ‘sociopath’ mom offered restitution & chance to plead to lesser charge
Another of Knight’s victims, Rachel Riedel, described the fraudster as a ‘sociopath’ who ‘will scam you if she can touch you.’
‘It infuriates me that she would take advantage of her community, of her family,’ Riedel told KSNV.
Following her guilty plea, Knight agreed to pay $19,787.12 in restitution as part of her plea deal, the Review-Journal reported.
Knight is scheduled to be sentenced on June 24.
If Knight pays the restitution and completes probation and other requirements, she can withdraw her felony plea, plead guilty to misdemeanor theft and receive credit for time served.
Pancreatic cancer kills more than 50,000 Americans each year and has a five-year survival rate of just 13%, making it one of the deadliest forms of cancer.
