A Nevada mom confessed to fabricating having pancreatic cancer in hopes people would “feel guilty and more inclined to love and be around her” — while she accepted more than $20K in donations to splurge on herself and her children.
Haleigh Knight 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 numerous people, including a longtime friend and breast cancer survivor, 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, and was using the funds to pay her bills and provide for her children.
Las Vegas mom Haleigh Knight confessed to fabricating having pancreatic cancer in hopes people would “feel guilty and more inclined to love and be around her.”
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 Cydney 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.
