A Pennsylvania beauty queen has been stripped of her title and jailed on charges that she faked having leukemia to raise thousands of dollars from fundraisers.
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US police said the 23-year-old Miss Pennsylvania US global was arrested on Monday and charged with felony counts of theft by deception and receiving stolen property. A police investigation took place in which no evidence was found that Weaver-Gates was ever diagnosed with cancer.
Weaver-Gates was persistent on her two-year scheme. She lied and said she had been suffering from chronic lymphocytic leukemia since March 2013.
The con artist even shaved her head to mimic the side effect of chemotherapy, police said.
They would wait in the lobby for hours for her return, while she went to another part of the hospital.
According to state police, a short investigation into the claims discovered that Weaver-Gates was lying. Her plot was revealed by an anonymous letter, Stock told WJAC, adding that the beauty queen couldn’t name any of her doctors.
The Butler’s Beauties who organised the pageant has also taken part in the case. They insist that they were also deceived and have dethroned Weaver-Gates and she no longer represents the pageant.
“Butler’s Beauties is deeply saddened of this news of Miss Brandi Weaver-Gates”.
To date, Weaver-Gates is being held in the Centre County Correctional Facility in Bellefonte, and was set free temporarily with $150,000 bail, police said.
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After recently being crowned Miss Pennsylvania U.S. International, Weaver-Gates has spent a lot of time riding in parades and making public appearances as a role model. “We were also led to believe that she was dealing with this terrible disease and stood by her as she struggled being a beauty queen and a cancer patient”, the statement said. She is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on August. 19th.
