Phoenix police say they arrested a woman on suspicion that she defrauded people into donating on false claims that her child had brain cancer.
Phoenix Children’s Hospital reported that the woman and her 25-year-old husband were bringing their 1-year-old child for unnecessary medical procedures and claimed their child had brain cancer.
Court documents state the hospital alerted authorities on Oct. 5, and told police that Monique Coria had started a GoFundMe account and posted pictures and videos of their child in the emergency room in which she lied about her having brain cancer and needing money for treatment.
The hospital estimated the couple had raised $13,000 on GoFundMe and were collecting donations on other platforms including Cash App, Venmo and Linktree. Phoenix police detectives and officers with the Department of Child Safety confronted Coria on Oct. 13 at her home about the allegations.
Documents say Coria told the officers that her child took medication for seizures but did not have brain cancer or brain-related injuries and that a friend had set up the GoFundMe for her. Coria later admitted to lying about her child having brain cancer in TikTok videos she had posted and that she had done so because she was “in a bad place.”
Coria said they had raised around $11,000 and spend $4,000 on rent and gas but had the rest of the money in a bank account. Documents say Coria admitted that she and her husband knew their child didn’t have brain cancer and that lying about...
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