In Darlington, Wisconsin, it’s not just elementary school students faking sick.
News broke recently that members of their community had been faking cancer for over a year in order to collect donations from other community members.
Bobbi Jo Morrison, a 2001 graduate of Darlington High School, accused of faking cancer for the past year, now faces criminal charges of six counts of misdemeanor theft by fraud in the Lafayette County Circuit Court.
In January of 2002, Morrison told her family and friends doctors diagnosed her with ovarian cancer, and in September of 2002, she told others she was diagnosed with a second type of cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Morrison shaved her head and claimed she lost her hair as a result of chemotherapy.
A Darlington bank created a Bobbi Jo Morrison Benefit Fund, which raised nearly $22,500 from community members towards her fictional treatment. Morrison received another estimated $1300 from her co-workers at the University of Wisconsin hospital. In early 2003, she moved to Texas, where she claimed she was receiving treatment not offered in Wisconsin. When she recently returned from Texas, people found that only $2000 of the donations remained.
One co-worker who wished to remain anonymous expressed her disbelief at the situation, explaining that she donated large portions of time and money to help Morrison.
“I was very hurt because of all the time I spent trying to collect donations for her,” she said. “All she ever talked about was her cancer and how she was going to miss everybody [when she moved to Texas for treatment].”
Another employee who wished to remain anonymous became angry when he heard about Morrison’s scam.
“That pisses me off,” he said. “I gave her 50 bucks.”
Many of the hospital employees also donated their paid sick time to Morrison, who missed a lot of work due to her alleged illness. She left work several times a week, allegedly to receive treatment for the cancer in another part of the hospital.
“Every Monday and Wednesday she would leave work from 12:30 to 2:30 to have her treatment,” her co-worker said.
Brett Kauffman, a junior at UW-Madison and a co-worker of Morrison’s at the hospital, said he was shocked when he heard Morrison had been faking cancer.
“It’s weird, I wonder where she went all those times when she said she was getting treatment,” Kauffman said. “And didn’t anyone ever notice that she didn’t punch out when she went for the treatment?”
In February, an anonymous caller suggested to the Lafayette County District Attorney’s office that Morrison was faking her illness because she hadn’t lost her hair or any weight as a result of chemotherapy. The D.A. obtained a court order to check her medical records, finding that she had no record of a cancer diagnosis. Morrison now faces fines up to $60,000 and more than four years in prison.
“Its like a ‘Catch Me If You Can’ type of thing,” Kauffman said. “She bamboozled everybody. But instead of just stealing a bunch of money, she hurt a lot of people and played with everyone’s emotions.”
