Mom made up child's terminal illness to raise money so they could meet Elsa at Disney World, cops say
A 41-year-old mother faked her child's terminal illness and launched a GoFundMe to send the child to Disney World to meet Princess Elsa, Indiana police say.
Katherine Jackson of Decatur, Indiana, is now facing two negligence charges and one fraud charge after police arrested her on February 6, according to public records.
Police first started investigating Jackson in 2022, the Fort Wayne Police Department said in a statement, after they 'became aware' of potential child abuse and fraud. But there wasn't enough evidence to charge her — that is, until Jackson's daughter was placed in foster care.
Now, the department says Jackson falsely claimed her child had a terminal illness, sought help from 'various charities,' including GoFundMe and got 'at least one trip' out of Make-a-Wish, a charity that grants the wishes of terminally ill children.
The saga began in July 2021 when a GoFundMe was launched to raise funds for Jackson's daughter, local outlet WANE15 reports. Jackson collected $1,563 from the GoFundMe, which claimed her daughter had Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome and suffered 80-90 seizures a day, 21AliveNews reports, citing court documents.
The fundraiser said the girl had at most a year to live, and that her final wish was to go to Walt Disney World and meet Princess Elsa, 21AliveNews reports.
The Make-A-Wish Foundation later approved a trip to Disney World for the child, WANE15 reports.
Then in 2022, Jackson brought her six-year-old daughter to Parkview Regional Medical Center, 21AliveNews reports. She told doctors her daughter had an irregular heartbeat and suffered seizures.
But doctors were concerned about potential child abuse, 21AliveNews reports, and they ran further tests that showed the child wasn't receiving any of the seizure medication she had been prescribed.
A doctor with the Peyton Manning Children's Hospital in Indianapolis then reviewed the child's case, determining several of the child's prescriptions hadn't been filled, including those for seizures and a lung disorder, 21AliveNews reports. She also found the child had been undergoing painful blood draws and unnecessary radiation exposure.
That doctor says the child suffered 'extensive maternal falsification and likely induction consistent with medical child abuse,' 21AliveNews reports, citing court documents.
Another doctor determined the child did indeed have Pilarowski-Bjornsson Syndrome, a genetic disorder that is not terminal, 21AliveNews reports.
Jackson's children haven't been with her since 2022.
The 41-year-old, while going by the name Katherine Conapinski, was previously convicted of theft and fraud after falsely claiming to represent an organization collecting money for a young boy with cancer, 21AliveNews reports.
Jackson's attorney Tracey Harkins told 21AliveNews the allegations against the 41-year-old are false.
'At no point in time did Ms. Jackson lie, exploit, or exaggerate the truth of her daughter's illness,' Harkins said. 'The claim that Ms. Jackson was not providing her children with the proper medication after days of being in the ER is not only absurd, given that said care was now the responsibility of medical staff, but also false.'
'Her devotion to her children is what motivates her to keep fighting nonstop through illegal medical document deletions, diagnosis denials, and outright fabrications,' Harkins added. 'She will continue to take every legal step necessary to get her children back, and we look forward to watching the truth prevail in court.'
Harkins added that 'all the funds in the GoFundMe account, which was set up by a friend, were donated by Ms. Jackson back to the MakeAWish Foundation.'
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