Red Flags

I don't want to give too much air time to this because the person involved doesn't really deserve much more of my energy...hi, *waves* at Janelle. 

I do, however, need to put in writing how she has made me feel.  Not just me, a lot of my friends also, but many of them have their own blogs and have written their own words.  Sass posted here and here, Bernadette said her piece here, Taryn blogged and Thea vented (sorry if I've missed anyone).

This skanky, lying, conning bitch sucked us into believing she had stage IV melanoma that had spread to her bones AND her brain.  I "met" her on Twitter, we all met her there, just after she'd come out of a coma (which we came to find out was part of the big, fat lie).  We all felt SO terrible for her.  She didn't seem to have many real life friends and we helped her get through her days going to the hospital and having chemo, the aftermath of the treatment, the memory loss and the list goes on...

Then, she meets a Dr who becomes her girlfriend.  Great, we all think, well, I did, because she'll now have closer emotional support and has someone to stay with her, who actually knows how to deal with cancer patients.

She then told us she had seen a prominent Sydney neurosurgeon who could remove her brain tumor.  The surgery would cost $30,000, which she'd made known, she was unable to afford and was subtly asking for the money.  We felt for her, she was gravely ill.

We couldn't have been more wrong.  The story unraveled last weekend and blew up over the following days. 

EVERYTHING SHE'D TOLD US WAS A LIE.  There was no coma, no cancer, no girlfriend- she actually pretended to be her, made up a new online profile and they had conversations. 

She's not answered anyone's phone calls, texts or emails, her blogs are now password protected and she's been kicked off FaceBook because we reported her.  Her silence speaks volumes. 

I have to say, I started seeing red flags a few weeks ago.  I couldn't understand how she was allowed to leave the hospital alone and drive after each chemo treatment.  She kept telling us how her memory was shot, but she could drive herself from A to B, no problem.  She told us she couldn't keep any food down, but seemed to not be losing weight (she's not a small framed person).  She began meeting her cyber friends in real life and pictures were posted.  She had all her hair, she seemed happy and healthy, not pale and sickly.

This was her undoing. 

All she wanted was real friends.  But these people are intelligent human beings.  We started putting two and two together and came up with a SKANKY LYING CONNING BITCH who has disappeared because now she's scared and alone and is going to have to run away because now the police have been contacted and journalists know about her.

She made me feel betrayed and angry, not only at her, but at myself for being sucked in.  You see, I've been conned before.  A few years ago.  Out of a lot of money, more than this con artist was looking for, and it's made me wary of people.  Because she had cancer, I didn't want to be the one to raise the alarm, so I kept my mouth closed.  I found out later, so did other people.

She's the classic con woman...has a sob story that's dragged out, then must come up with a sum of money that's out of her depth and subtly asks all her friends for it.  Thankfully, the only cash she received was a few hundred dollars from someone, but it could have been thousands.

It just goes to show, be careful what you wish for, Janelle, you skanky, lying bitch.

*I've been asked to disclose her full name so everyone can know about her...Janelle Mclean (or that's what she told us, anyway).  On Twitter, she was known as @akicktotheneck and @akickintolife.

**I also want to add this...Who pretends they have a terminal illness?  Not a friend, that's for damn sure.

N x

Comments

[Taryn]

Well written honey. I still can't believe this happened! *shakes with anger*

[Sass]

*YEAAH!*

The best thing that has come from this that we are stronger and we have each others backs!!

There is a special place in hell for people who lie about cancer!!

xoxo

[Bern Morley]

Yeah. I still cannot work out if she wanted friends, money or just to make Tammy jealous and/or love her. I still just can't. Either way, none of the reasons are acceptable. We would have been her friend, we all were. But to be honest Nicki, I was suss too. Mainly because when I met her, I came away with one feeling. And that was, she's not a nice person. In fact, the way she was talking about most any topic, was horribly. Her email re: someones painting being horrible made me wary, but hey, like you said, she has fucking cancer, you can't be nasty or even back away from someone with the big C. Anyway, at least we found out before any of us gave her any real cash. Great post, hope it got some of it off your chest x

[AngelaPj]

Two words:
fruit loop

[Thea]

They were the 2 red flags I can't believe I took no notice of and have been constantly kicking myself in the butt about....

1. Driving herself to and from her chemo treatments and

2. Being a 'larger' framed person when she was constantly having a pukefest!!

*SMACKS FOREHEAD HARD*

[Chell]

Was wondering where she had gone and how she was exposed. I was always wary of her because of her abuse posts, lack of hair lost and receiving the cancer vaccine treatment when it is not available in Australia yet. Truely a sicko when you have to fake cancer to get attention.

[ali]

well said..i hope she is more lonely than ever right now! im just glad you didnt have to meet her!

[Megan]

Nicky, this might sound really weird, but Janelle McLean did this to my best friend and I back in college in the early 2000's. We live in New York and she even came to visit us. I was googling her (because she faked her death and we found out it was a lie, so I like to keep tabs on her) and found your post. You must email me and we can compare notes...

megrhi (at) yahoo (dot) com

[Megan]

P.S. I can send pictures of her with us to see if it's the same person.