So, I need to preface the following by letting you guys know that I was contacted by a tipster about this case months ago and completely dropped the ball on reporting it. My bad. I made several attempts to reach the accused cancer faker before I ran the story and had hoped she’d at least tell me to fuck off but no such luck. Therefore, a station in Portland scooped me. Such is life. I owe my tipster an apology: I know they wanted desperately for someone to get this story out there so no more generous people would fall for her scam, and I failed in that duty. I’m sorry, tipster. At least it’s out there now.
Alright, with that out of the way I would like to introduce you guys to Jenifer Jones Gaskin, accused cancer faker. She is, sadly, just one in a long line of total douchenozzles who have pretended to have cancer for financial gain. I’d say I wish cancer on them but you know what, I’m a better person than that, I wouldn’t wish that shit on my worst enemy.
Friends of a Tualatin woman who claimed to have cancer say they believe they caught her in a lie, and now they feel burned.
Jill Hanns and Elsa Dobson said their good friend and fellow single mom, Jenifer Gaskin, was in a tough spot when she lived in Eugene back in May 2014.
“She had a pre-chemo party,” Hanns said. “Everybody was being positive, but there was a lot of tears shed.”
In addition to the GoFundMe, supporters organized auctions for her benefit, as well as a “meal train” to do her grocery shopping and cook for her while she was supposedly going through chemo.
Gaskin had no shortage of supporters before the skepticism started. And yes, there was a meal train. She even “liked” it.
As time went on, however, her supporters began to doubt her story.
“Things were vague, inconsistent, as far as if she was getting worse… it was helping, it wasn’t helping,” Hanns said.
Dobson said Gaskin made it clear she was barely making ends meet, and the money from all the fundraisers and GoFundMe would help her family survive.
But then Gaskin began using that money for things like a used car for her daughter and braces for her son, Hanns and Dobson said.
“When I started getting contacts through the GoFundMe account, because I was the administrator, people started questioning whether she was sick,” Hanns said.
That’s when police got involved, and a thorough investigation by detectives could not find a single piece of evidence that proved Gaskin ever received any kind of cancer treatment at all. Despite overwhelming evidence that Gaskin faked her cancer diagnosis for financial gain, the Lane County District Attorney said so many small donations came in from around the country and therefore, in their view, Gaskin would not get her Constitutional right to face her accuser in court were they to proceed with criminal charges.
In other words, they thought they would have to fly out donors to appear in the courtroom for a case against her. And so, they declined to press charges, even with exceptional police work on behalf of the detective in charge of the case.
Back to Gaskin’s alleged illness. Even her own kid believed she was sick.
But it gets worse. In a series of text messages to a friend, Gaskin mentions how her children needed counseling to help them deal with her diagnosis.
The head detective who investigated Gaskin’s potential fraud after his department was tipped off was clear that the only way Gaskin would ever be prosecuted for her crime would be if she herself admitted to it. He stated that from the beginning she was quite convincing, and in subsequent conversations he had with her she only spun the situation deeper and deeper. As he followed the rabbit hole down, he realized that she was never going to cop to manufacturing the entire thing.
As previously stated, Jenifer Gaskin could not be reached for comment. Her husband Mike Jenkins told KOIN he would ask his wife to speak to them about the allegations, however ceased contact with the station after that.
GoFundMe announced they will refund donors who gave to Gaskin’s campaign.