Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / 'FOOTBALL-SIZED TUMOR' Scammer Won't Face Jail Time

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'FOOTBALL-SIZED TUMOR' Scammer Won't Face Jail Time · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. I cannot believe it.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: A total faker, a scammer, a charlatan who fakes a
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: cancer battle and documents it on TikTok and then pockets
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: tens of thousands of dollars from Gofumi donation, actually cries
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: in front of the judge and escapes jail. The judge
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: actually believes her bs.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: I'm Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Thank you for being with us here on Crime Stories
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: and series sexe one eleven. This TikToker, Madison Russo of Bittendorf, Iowa,
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: scams forty grand nearly forty thousand dollars, and she gets
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: sympathy of millions of followers after lying about a quote
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: football sized tumor you heard me, a football sized tumor
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: wrapped around her spine. When the judge hears her story
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: and watches her start crying, the judge hands down a
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: suspended sentence. Yes she's walking free. Madison Russo, who fakes
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: leukemia and pancreatic cancer on TikTok, go fund me, Facebook LinkedIn,
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: actually walks free.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: I can't believe it now.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: I just had a very dear and close friend Natalie
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: who went to high school with me back in making
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: Georgia pass away, leaving behind a son without a mother
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: after a long and valiant fight with cancer. She suffered
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: so much, and her family suffered so much, and her
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: sister Amy did so much to take care of her.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: But Natalie passed away. She slipped away from us.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: And now I got to look at this.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Woman, Madison Russo, who fakes leukemia and pancreatic cancer online
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: to scam people. Over four hundred people send her donations.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: As part of a ten year suspended sentence, she was
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: ordered to pay back the nearly forty thousand dollars and
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: if she stays out of trouble for three years of
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: street probation, she'll stay free forever.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: I mean, her.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: Big fat scam unravels when medical professionals spot problems in
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: her story. How did the whole thing start? Take a
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: listen to our cut one.
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: I want people to live.
• 3:04
  Speaker 5: I want to live, you know, I want I want
• 3:06
  Speaker 5: maybe big year.
• 3:07
  Speaker 6: That's Mattie Russo, a nineteen year old college student, speaking
• 3:11
  Speaker 6: about suffering from cancer.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: We found a mass on new paincreos and I had
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: Stage two pancreatic cancer at just sighteen years old.
• 3:22
  Speaker 6: She documented her treatment in a series of heartbreaking social media.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Posts before.
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: I personally eggs with the OBGN and basically it's just
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: to you're kind of like freezing your eggs.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: You're hearing this young girl Madison Marie Russo speaking to
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: our friends at Inside Edition with me an all star panel.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: But first I want to go to a special guest
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: joining us is Stephanie Condon Oldrey, founder and director of
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: Craig's Cause Pancreatic Cancer Society, and you can find that
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: at Craig's Cause dot Stephanie. Thank you for being with us,
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Thank you for having me Nancy Stephanie. To so many people,
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: the two words pancreatic cancer is a death sentence.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Now, I'm just a JD, not an MD.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: But from what I understand, the pancreas doesn't feel like
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: other organs may feel. When your heart is in trouble,
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: you feel it. I've seen my father in pain with
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: a heart attack. With other organs, you feel it. But
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: a lay person's understanding of this, Your pancreas doesn't feel
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: the way other organs do. So it's only when cancer
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: of the pancreas metastasizes or goes to other organs that
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: you finally feel it is that right.
• 4:52
  Speaker 7: Yeah, absolutely, it's a It's often been referred to as
• 4:55
  Speaker 7: a hidden organ, and you know, it's it's hard for
• 4:59
  Speaker 7: any general practitioner as specialist to feel a pancreas, and
• 5:04
  Speaker 7: quite often when the symptoms first present to patients, either
• 5:08
  Speaker 7: there's a misdiagnosis. For instance, my father, they thought he
• 5:13
  Speaker 7: had hepatitis because he's presenting as jaundice and he had
• 5:18
  Speaker 7: an upset stomach, and so he went through several misdiagnoses
• 5:24
  Speaker 7: before actually being diagnosed. So often the pancreas symptoms will
• 5:27
  Speaker 7: present as other illnesses before it starts to advance. So
• 5:33
  Speaker 7: well over fifty percent of the patients you know, have
• 5:36
  Speaker 7: a prognosis of three to four months after a diagnosis.
• 5:41
  Speaker 7: If it is if it has metastasized, and then you know,
• 5:43
  Speaker 7: you certainly feel back pain and like I said, you'll
• 5:48
  Speaker 7: notice jaundice, white stool, dark urine, fatigue and explained weight loss.
• 5:56
  Speaker 7: He might experience new onset diabetes. So there's a lot
• 5:58
  Speaker 7: of different symptoms that can dent with pancredic cancer, but
• 6:01
  Speaker 7: they're often misdiagnosed in the earlier shall we say stage
• 6:06
  Speaker 7: is when they first present until the patient notes for
• 6:09
  Speaker 7: sure there's something theory is wrong.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: I'm really sorry about your dad. Thanks guys, you're hearing
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: the voice of Stephanie Condon Oldrave, the founder and director
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: of Craigs Caused Pancreatic Cancer Society. And it's especially rare
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: and a young girl just nineteen years old. Now that
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: wasn't her only ailment. To top it all off, take
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: a listen to hour cut Thorty. This is Maddi on
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: TikTok is Mattie.
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: Russell and this is my story. So when my older
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: brother Tyler turned eighteen years old, he was diagnosed with
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: type one diabetes, which is a chronic autoimmune disease where
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: the pancreas no longer produces insulin on its own. But
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: this week said I was also tested to see if
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: I would develop type one diabes and see if I
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: was positive for any of the anybodies. So when the
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: test came back, I ended up being passive for all
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: five other five antibodies. And in February twenty twenty, I
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: was also dinosed type one at seventeen years old.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: And it's because of the diabetes tests that she discovers
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: the pancreatic cancer.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Take a listen to her one more time.
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: Fast forward to February of twenty twenty two. I had
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: yearly lab work done just with my primary care provider
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: as a standard chuck up and aside from starting the
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: fuel just a little bit off. My lab work came
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: back and my white bloodstell counts were not in normal range,
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: so free your testing was then done, and on February
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: tenth of twenty twenty two, quite possibly the worst day
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: of my life occurred. I got the call from my
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: oncologist and be found a mass on the pinks and
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: I had stage two pancreatic cancer at just nineteen years old.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: She describes her fear as a young girl with pancreatic
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: cancer and our cut thirty two. Scared is an understatement.
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: I was terrified, and I definitely still am. But I'm
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: really glad I went to my yearly health check because
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: it would have been so easy to just skip it
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: and say I'm fine. So please take my experience and
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: get regular lab work done, because as soon you catch
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: anything that is wrong, the better chance of outcome and
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: survival you would have, and it really could save your life.
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: Like it did mine, So after finding out, I started
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: treatment right away, consisting of oral chemo and radiation. So far,
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: I have included eight rounds of chemo in over fifty
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: rounds of radiation.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: It' Stephanie Condon Oldrieve joining us from Craigs Cause Pancreatic
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: Cancer Society. I'm sure you've talked to so many survivors
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: and people that are battling pancreatic cancer, and you know
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: that moment when you realize that you could be facing
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: death is something that no one ever forgets. I remember
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: when I had a shotgun pulled on me when I
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: was a prosecutor and I was knocking on a door
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: to deliver a subpoena. I remember when I learned I
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: had a melanoma, a very aggressive cancer on my leg
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: many years ago.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: It's been treated.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: That moment when you find out that something could threaten
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: you and your family forever. Stephanie, I know you've heard
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: that a hundred times from people you work with.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 9:50
  Speaker 7: Absolutely, it's you know, it's a devastating diagnosis. It's a
• 9:56
  Speaker 7: scary diagnosis, and quite often for the majority of patients,
• 10:00
  Speaker 7: they really don't have time to digest everything they're being
• 10:02
  Speaker 7: told before they find themselves either going in for what's
• 10:07
  Speaker 7: called the Whipple procedure, which is a life altering surgery.
• 10:10
  Speaker 7: They call it the atomic bomb of surgeries, or you know,
• 10:14
  Speaker 7: they're facing a terminal diagnosis. So not only are they
• 10:17
  Speaker 7: faced with a cancer diagnosis, they're faced with a cancer
• 10:21
  Speaker 7: diagnosis that has really scary statistics with it. And quite often,
• 10:27
  Speaker 7: you know, we've talked about it almost or not almost
• 10:30
  Speaker 7: it being having a PTSD effect on many of our
• 10:33
  Speaker 7: patients and caregivers because it's just a moment in time
• 10:38
  Speaker 7: that they know their life is going to change drastically.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: We're talking about a young girl, a teen girl, Maddy Resa,
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: who discovers that she has pancreatic cancer. Take a listen
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: to Dave Mack at Crime Online.
• 10:53
  Speaker 8: Madison Russo was sitting in an accounting class at st
• 10:56
  Speaker 8: Ambrose University when she received bad news from an on college.
• 11:00
  Speaker 8: The nineteen year old has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer
• 11:04
  Speaker 8: leukemia and has a football sized tumor on her spine.
• 11:08
  Speaker 8: Russo has an eleven percent survival rape for five years.
• 11:11
  Speaker 8: After undergoing fifteen rounds of chemotherapy and ninety rounds of radiation,
• 11:15
  Speaker 8: she shares her story on TikTok to raise awareness. This
• 11:19
  Speaker 8: offers Russo comfort and hope, and it's the message that
• 11:22
  Speaker 8: leads to more media coverage for Russo. She does interviews
• 11:26
  Speaker 8: with her local press, which is picked up by large outlets.
• 11:29
  Speaker 8: This leads to Russo discussing her cancer journey as a
• 11:32
  Speaker 8: guest speaker at Saint Ambrose University, where she is a student.
• 11:36
  Speaker 8: Despite her illnesses, Russo continues attending class with a four
• 11:39
  Speaker 8: point zero GPA and works part time job at John Deere.
• 11:43
  Speaker 8: In her free time, Russo enjoys playing golf.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: Not only does she continue her schooling and get a
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: four to zero GPA, she takes to go fundme to
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: spread awareness about pancreatic cancer and to raise money for
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: her treatment. Take a listen to our friends at Inside Edition.
• 12:06
  Speaker 6: She raised over thirty seven thousand dollars on a GoFundMe page.
• 12:10
  Speaker 6: Lewis Frillman was so moved by her plight he donated
• 12:14
  Speaker 6: one thousand dollars. What struck a chord with you about
• 12:17
  Speaker 6: her story?
• 12:18
  Speaker 9: She was a very young person that appeared to be
• 12:22
  Speaker 9: in a serious amount of trouble.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: Crime stories with Nancy Grace Welcome back to crime stories.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: I'm looking at this woman's booken photo Madison Russo and
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: Iowa woman who faked cancer and documented her quote battle
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: quote on social media will absolutely not go to jail.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: Now.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: One of the things she did she would post photos
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: of herself with medical equipment, claiming she had a football
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: sized tumor on her spine. She placed hundreds of GOFUNMI
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: donors out of nearly forty thousand dollars. And I'm looking
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: at this picture. She has the tube in her nose incorrectly,
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: and someone picked up on that and the whole thing
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: began to unravel.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: So what happened? This three is not a chimo week,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: It's just a radiation week.
• 13:27
  Speaker 10: Authorities alleged Russo spent the past year claiming she'd been
• 13:30
  Speaker 10: diagnosed with leukemias, stage two pancreatic cancer and a tumor
• 13:34
  Speaker 10: the size of a football that wrapped around her spine,
• 13:37
  Speaker 10: posting dozens of photos and videos like this she since
• 13:41
  Speaker 10: taken down, now reposted on TikTok by another user.
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: So it's a week off chemo.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: So just when doing abbreviation? So why did she take
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: down all the information about pancreatic cancer and her battle
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: against one of the deadliest cancers known to man.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: What listen to this?
• 14:02
  Speaker 11: In one interview, Madison Russo claimed doctors told her she
• 14:05
  Speaker 11: had an eleven percent chance of survival. In people charity's
• 14:08
  Speaker 11: cancer organizations, they all donated to help her fight cancer.
• 14:12
  Speaker 11: Probably is according to authority, she doesn't have cancer. She
• 14:15
  Speaker 11: never did and that's not just a lie, it's a felony.
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: I am too sick from treatment where I can't go anywhere,
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: I can't do anything.
• 14:23
  Speaker 10: This morning in Iowa, TikToker accused of faking a cancer diagnosis,
• 14:28
  Speaker 10: charge was stealing from people who donated to help her
• 14:31
  Speaker 10: battle the disease. Authorities say she doesn't have. Investigators say
• 14:35
  Speaker 10: Madison Russo took more than thirty seven thousand dollars from
• 14:39
  Speaker 10: Maddie's fight against pancreatic cancer, a GoFundMe set up on
• 14:43
  Speaker 10: her behalf that's now been taken down.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: I'm so mad I could chewt a nail in half
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: right now. Cala Brantley joining me, investigative reporter of dailymail
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: dot Com.
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: Cala what This is a crazy story, but unfortunately not
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: the first time we have seen people deceive the public
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: to get some money and especially use GoFundMe to raise
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: funds for something.
• 15:11
  Speaker 12: That isn't even real. And the way that Madison was
• 15:15
  Speaker 12: caught was by her own hand by posting on TikTok,
• 15:19
  Speaker 12: by posting photos and videos of her medical tubes. And
• 15:23
  Speaker 12: what's so amazing is that it was the public who
• 15:27
  Speaker 12: caught on and said something doesn't look right there and
• 15:31
  Speaker 12: started commenting and eventually reporting until she was caught.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: Yes, the tubes were in the wrong position, and some
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: of the photos she posted joining me Doctor Tim Gallagher,
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: medical examiner for the entire state of Florida at pathcaremed
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: dot com, lecturer at the University of Florida Medical School,
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: host of the International Forensic Medicine Death Investigation Conference, and
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: traded cancer patients as a surgeon. Doctor Gallagher, thank you
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: so much for being with us. I was thrown over
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: to start with when I heard she had ninety rounds
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: of radiation.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: Is that normal?
• 16:12
  Speaker 13: That's absolutely abnormal. You know, radiation basically what it does
• 16:17
  Speaker 13: to your body is it microwaves the tissue, so it
• 16:21
  Speaker 13: actually burns the tissue. So if she had ninety rounds
• 16:26
  Speaker 13: of radiation, a lot of her tissue would be burnt.
• 16:30
  Speaker 13: The disease tissue as well as the surrounding live tissue
• 16:34
  Speaker 13: that she still needs, and she would suffer the after
• 16:38
  Speaker 13: effects of burning a lot of her viable tissue, her
• 16:42
  Speaker 13: live tissue as well. So no, she does not look
• 16:46
  Speaker 13: like anybody who has undergone ninety rounds of radiation. And
• 16:49
  Speaker 13: I would really question a department that would schedule somebody
• 16:53
  Speaker 13: for ninety rounds of chemotherapy. I'm sorry, of radiation typically ten, twelve,
• 17:00
  Speaker 13: maybe fifteen, but nowhere near ninety.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, my dear friend is undergoing
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: radiation for breast cancer right now, and it's supposed to
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: be over, you know, once a week for I don't know,
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: maybe ten weeks or sixteen weeks. And when I heard
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: her say she had ninety rounds of radiation, but just
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: as a JD and not being an empty.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: I wasn't sure that I was right.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: But I bet you are spinning in your seat, Dodtor
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: Gallagher when you heard that not only has she had
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: fifteen rounds of chemo ninety rounds of radiation, she still
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: was attending class every day, had a four O GPA,
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: a job at John Deere, and enjoyed golf in her
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: free time.
• 17:43
  Speaker 13: You know, when we had these patients come to the hospital,
• 17:46
  Speaker 13: they are jaundice. I mean the whites of their eyes
• 17:49
  Speaker 13: are yellow, I mean bright yellow, like nuclear yellow. Their
• 17:53
  Speaker 13: teeth sometimes are even yellow, you know. And then a
• 17:56
  Speaker 13: lot of these photographs her eyes are wide open and
• 17:58
  Speaker 13: they look perfectly white. To me, she does not look sick.
• 18:02
  Speaker 13: You know, we had a staying at the hospital, sick
• 18:05
  Speaker 13: people look sick.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: When I white a minute, look, I said, I'm not
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: an MD, but listen, I did not bring you on
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: crime stories to have you spout out something my grandmother
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: could have told me.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: Sick people look sick.
• 18:18
  Speaker 13: That sounds simple, but it's true.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: I'm just giving you a hard time. You're right.
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: And you know what else, doctor Gallagher, I know you
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: heard our special guest Stephanie Condon Olderie talking about how
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: pancreatic cancer patients are often treated for other ailments because
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: they look jaundiced or yellow looking.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: That's exactly what you're saying.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: In these photos that you looked at for us, she
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: looks perfectly healthy. Now, how would her eye what would
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: she would what would she have looked like if she
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: had stage two pancreatic cancer.
• 18:52
  Speaker 13: Well, she would be jaundice, meaning her skin would be yellow,
• 18:55
  Speaker 13: and her skin would be so yellow that the white
• 18:58
  Speaker 13: part of her eyes would also be a very bright, vivid,
• 19:03
  Speaker 13: vivid yellow, you know. And I'm looking at these photographs here,
• 19:07
  Speaker 13: and they're not people who are jawn this. They do
• 19:09
  Speaker 13: not have sun tan lines because their entire skin is
• 19:14
  Speaker 13: now yellow. And I'm looking at some of the photographs
• 19:18
  Speaker 13: that you can see around her clothing, she has sun
• 19:20
  Speaker 13: tan line. So that's how we in the clinic would
• 19:24
  Speaker 13: determine if somebody was having pancreatic disease or liver disease
• 19:29
  Speaker 13: that was leading to jaundice. We would look to see
• 19:31
  Speaker 13: if they had the sun tan line. We would look
• 19:33
  Speaker 13: in their eyes to see if they were yellow, and
• 19:36
  Speaker 13: then we would start the blood tests from there.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: Now, why can't you get a sun tan line.
• 19:40
  Speaker 13: Because the yellow pigment that is produced by the disease
• 19:47
  Speaker 13: gets absorbed by the skin evenly throughout the skin, so
• 19:51
  Speaker 13: your skin is the exact same color from the top
• 19:53
  Speaker 13: of your head to the bottom of your toes, meaning
• 19:57
  Speaker 13: that any whitish area as you would have would also
• 20:02
  Speaker 13: be darkened by the yellow pigment from the disease.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: Guys, you've gotten to hear our cut for this is
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: Regick Terry, a kW QC six.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: Listen.
• 20:12
  Speaker 14: This search warrant is revealing some new details about what
• 20:16
  Speaker 14: led to her rest and what was taken from her apartment.
• 20:19
  Speaker 14: This warrant says medical professionals came forward to report the
• 20:22
  Speaker 14: inaccuracies of Russo's medical equipment placement on her body in
• 20:26
  Speaker 14: the pictures that you shared on social media. The warrant
• 20:29
  Speaker 14: also states that the pictures appear that she took them
• 20:32
  Speaker 14: from inside her apartment and not a medical office. Court
• 20:35
  Speaker 14: documents say those medical professionals who came forward are prepared
• 20:39
  Speaker 14: to testify.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm looking at one photo. Let me get straight
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: out to you, Kelli Brantley joining me from dallymail dot com.
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: I'm looking at a photo on your article from dallymail
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: dot com and it shows Madison Marie Russo. She looks
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: like she's got a glamour pit going on. She's beautiful,
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: why smile, bright white eyes, healthy ten.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: Her hair is parted over, like kind of slung over.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: The only thing that makes you think, well, maybe it's
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: not a glamour shot. You know those shots that you
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: can go to the mall and get and you look
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: very very glamorous. Well, is that she has a medical
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: bag and she's got her shirt undone a good bit
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: not judging, don't care, but that reveals all of these
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: tubes taped and it looks like with scotch tape to
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: her chest. She has a chief from the ear to
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: the nose now and she's holding the tube with perfectly
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: manicured hands. That's in your article, Kela. And so that's
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: what I keep looking back at is the Daily Mail article.
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: Jackie is wildly waving a note to me that doctor
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: Gallagher says, if you look at this Daily Mail.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: Photo, let's see where you guys got the photo.
• 21:57
  Speaker 15: TikTok yep, straight from her own tick.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: Doctor Gallagher, you says something along the lines of, if
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: Jackie is to be believed that any first year med stude,
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: it could tell you that placement is wrong. Tell me,
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: doctor Gallagher in depth, what you're talking about.
• 22:11
  Speaker 13: Well, absolutely, if you look at if we're looking at
• 22:14
  Speaker 13: the same photographs, she's got a tube that's going in
• 22:17
  Speaker 13: her nose to an ivy bag, and she's got one
• 22:19
  Speaker 13: tape to the front of her chest, the one that's
• 22:22
  Speaker 13: going to her nose. The ivy bag is actually lower
• 22:26
  Speaker 13: than the tube that goes into her nose, So how
• 22:30
  Speaker 13: is that going to be gravity fed, you know, into
• 22:32
  Speaker 13: her nose.
• 22:34
  Speaker 12: If it's a.
• 22:34
  Speaker 13: Bag that collects fluid out of her body through her nose,
• 22:37
  Speaker 13: then there's no fluid coming out of that tube going
• 22:40
  Speaker 13: into the bag.
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: Time stories with Nancy Grace, guys, I can believe this woman,
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: she claims her quote medical journey started all the way
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: back in twenty twenty two. In February, she was outed
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: when cops got medical records from centers where she was
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: a patient and exposed she had never received any form
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: of cancer treatment. And then cops found out she was
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: no shame stealing photos from cancer patients social media accounts
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: in an attempt to make her story more credible. Did
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: you get let that sink in stealing photos from real
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: cancer patients social media so she could use them to
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: document her so called cancer journey.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: I want to vomit. This woman makes me sick.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: She shared her cancer journey her words, not mine, in newspapers.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: She gave talks at Saint Ambrose where she studied on
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: podcasts and the National Pancreatic Foundation. Oh my stars, you
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: know at her apartment. Police found pursuag search warrant, of course,
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: a brown paper bag with medical supplies, an ivy poll,
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: cotton ball filled pump, boxes of dressings, wigs, and a
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: prescription for nausea medication that was made out to one
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: of her kin folks. Now, she took money from four
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: hundred and thirty nine generous hearts, including from cancer foundations
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: and school districts.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: Oh my stars.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: You know there's one dinner named Lewis Frillman. He gave
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: her a five hundred dollars donation. He said, quote, my
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: thinking is, say a prayer for this young kid. She's
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: going to have a lot of terrible consequences as a
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: result of this boy. I bet he was surprised.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: So what happened? Okay, doctor Gallagher? Another thing.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: Jackie's now waving another What did you just say about
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: the bandage of the port?
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: She wants me to ask you about.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: In the same picture a port, It looks as if
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: there is a port in her chest, and what.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: Does the bandage have to do with that? What does
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: that reveal to you?
• 25:18
  Speaker 16: Right?
• 25:19
  Speaker 13: So, sometimes if people have cancer, they'll have a port,
• 25:24
  Speaker 13: which is.
• 25:25
  Speaker 17: A it's a plastic device that goes under the skin
• 25:32
  Speaker 17: that you can stick needles into, which will spare your
• 25:36
  Speaker 17: arms and.
• 25:37
  Speaker 13: Your and your legs, you know, from getting ivs in it.
• 25:41
  Speaker 13: So this port is over it's almost a central part
• 25:47
  Speaker 13: of her chest, which is where a lot of bones
• 25:50
  Speaker 13: would be. And anybody who would put this port in
• 25:54
  Speaker 13: this place, on this somebody so young should have their
• 25:59
  Speaker 13: medical life and it's taken away from them.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: The lung is over there.
• 26:03
  Speaker 13: You can puncture the lung, you can puncture the heart,
• 26:06
  Speaker 13: you can puncture a lot of the major blood vessels
• 26:09
  Speaker 13: trying to access that port if it was in this location.
• 26:13
  Speaker 13: So there are ports to be put on the chest.
• 26:15
  Speaker 13: But this location is not where you want it.
• 26:17
  Speaker 9: It's too risky.
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: Let me go to Stephanie Condon Aldreve joining US founder
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: director Craigs Cause Pancreatic Cancer Society, who lived through pancreatic
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: cancer with her father.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: He was the victim. How I don't know, does it
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: make you mad or does it.
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: Make you sick what this girl did stealing people's money,
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: parteaming she had pancreatic cancer.
• 26:42
  Speaker 7: I guess there's a range of feelings. You know, you
• 26:44
  Speaker 7: certainly feel sad, you know, but where you know some
• 26:48
  Speaker 7: people in our society are headed or what they're doing
• 26:52
  Speaker 7: to very you know, the people that donated to her
• 26:55
  Speaker 7: cause donated to her cause because they wanted to help,
• 26:59
  Speaker 7: They want wanted to make a difference in her life.
• 27:01
  Speaker 7: They wanted to give her hope. And you know, so
• 27:05
  Speaker 7: she took advantage of all of those donors, all of
• 27:08
  Speaker 7: those supporters that wanted to make a difference in her life.
• 27:11
  Speaker 7: But she also just took advantage, you know, she she
• 27:15
  Speaker 7: spread incorrect information about pankretic cancer. And for all those donors,
• 27:21
  Speaker 7: I imagine, you know, they'd be quite jaded and and
• 27:25
  Speaker 7: not trust maybe to donate to a you know, an
• 27:31
  Speaker 7: accredited cause or you know, and to continue to make
• 27:35
  Speaker 7: those differences, you know, and that in turn can impact
• 27:38
  Speaker 7: you know, many organizations programs because they're dependent on donor
• 27:42
  Speaker 7: trust and donors wanting to make a difference. So I
• 27:46
  Speaker 7: feel sad that you know that there's people out there
• 27:49
  Speaker 7: that do that. I feel you know, disappointed, you know
• 27:54
  Speaker 7: that there's so many donors that were taken advantage of.
• 27:59
  Speaker 7: You know, you certainly feel angry from a personal perspective
• 28:02
  Speaker 7: because I know my dad lasted eight weeks with pancredic cancer,
• 28:07
  Speaker 7: and you know, you never forget that, you know. So
• 28:11
  Speaker 7: for someone to pretend that they had such a deadly
• 28:15
  Speaker 7: disease and to take to take those feelings and emulate
• 28:21
  Speaker 7: them in such a false way, is really taking away
• 28:24
  Speaker 7: from somebody else's experience.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: Is basically making money off other people's misery and heartache
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: with me also forensic psychologist Dodger Sherry Schwartz, and Special
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: Deputy share Greg Smith. Greg take a listen to our
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: cut thirty three. You haven't heard it all yet. Listen
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: to her talking. Isn't it my family skin?
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: I was informed that here on my pancreas was shrinking
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: and it was responding to treatment. However, it also spread
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: to my blood and is a cute phoblastic leukemia. There
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: is a mental health crisis in America right now, and
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: I want to touch on the impact that cancer and
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: chronic disease patients can go through. When your life changes
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: in an incent in many days are spent vomiting and
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: pain and being stricted with what you can do, your
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: mind also becomes sick.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: Her mind was sick, all right, because she was ripping
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: off people with a fake pancreatic cancer diagnosis and capitalizing
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: on people that are suffering along with their families, watching
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: them with this disease that moves so swiftly through your body.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: But that's not all Greg, listen to cut thirty four. Yeah,
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: I get a.
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: Lot of questions on my hair, like you looks so good,
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: like how are you keeping your hair? It just comes
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: down to my brand of chemo, which is oral chemo.
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: I am really looking with that so thank on his
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: fingers crossed. That's something to be so grateful for.
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying. Greg, I'm so mad. I wanted
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: you in alle and a half. Why is our hair
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: looks so great? And the Daily Mail picture I'm looking
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: at that they took from TikTok because it's healthy.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: She's healthy.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: I mean Greg Smith as special deputy there in Johnson County,
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: and you can find Greg at Kelsey's Army dot com.
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: You know, sometimes I feel like we've seen it all,
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: but this little girl right here has shown me I
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: have not seen it all. There's still more ways to
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: irritate and discussed us all well.
• 30:28
  Speaker 16: Nancy, this is a classic example of what I would
• 30:33
  Speaker 16: call the oldest profession in the world, and that's the
• 30:36
  Speaker 16: con job. These people that do this, have no regard
• 30:42
  Speaker 16: for anybody else's feelings. The important thing here is simply
• 30:46
  Speaker 16: to be able to pull the con off for their
• 30:48
  Speaker 16: own benefit. The only person that matters is them. They're
• 30:51
  Speaker 16: very narcissistic. They're very empathetic in that they can pull
• 30:56
  Speaker 16: emotion from people in order to get whatever their goal is.
• 31:00
  Speaker 16: But when it comes to caring about other people, there's
• 31:03
  Speaker 16: zero of that. People say, oh, well, you know that
• 31:06
  Speaker 16: type of crime, it's a victimless crime because nobody's physically heard.
• 31:10
  Speaker 16: That's a bunch of bulls. The mental trauma, the emotional
• 31:14
  Speaker 16: trauma that people go through, particularly those in this case
• 31:17
  Speaker 16: that have had a loved one go through that type
• 31:19
  Speaker 16: of cancer. You know, it's unconscionable what she did.
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: The fact that a judge hands down straight probation just
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: is infuriating. This woman clearly premeditated her whole plot to
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: steal from generous souls trying to help her battle cancer.
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: It was all a scam, a fake.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: Guys, You've got to hear more of this woman.
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: I've got so much of this woman talking about her
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: ailment while other people like you heard our friend Stephanie
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: Condon Oldrieve talking about what she went through as her
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: father suffered pancreatic cancer. Okay, listen to our cut twenty
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: I hear she goes again.
• 32:03
  Speaker 5: The first word that comes to mind is just ugly.
• 32:07
  Speaker 5: You know, it's an ugly disease. It's nasty, it's it's
• 32:12
  Speaker 5: very just aggressive, and you know it wants to just
• 32:16
  Speaker 5: kill everything. But at the same time, I think I would.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: Describe it as kind of.
• 32:25
  Speaker 5: Like like a I don't know, like ever changing, because
• 32:29
  Speaker 5: it changes you as a person, and I guess I'm
• 32:33
  Speaker 5: kind of going into like the spiritual side of it
• 32:35
  Speaker 5: a little bit, but like when I can, it truly
• 32:39
  Speaker 5: changes you. Like I feel like I'm a whole different
• 32:41
  Speaker 5: person than from when I was, you know, before February,
• 32:44
  Speaker 5: like just my outlook on life and.
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: Her spiritual side, my rear end, her spiritual side. That's
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: her speaking to hosts on The Purple Podcast. Caleb Brantley
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: joining from dailymail dot com. I don't even know what
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: to say about this woman. So somebody noticed she had
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: her tubes and her.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: Port in the wrong place.
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: I'm just thinking about all the people across the world
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: that have to have a port where they're jabbed so
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: many times they finally just put in a semi permanent
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: port so they don't have to have needles stuck in
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: them all the time. And here she is with her
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: fake port. What is happening with this woman?
• 33:32
  Speaker 15: Well, when officers went to her house, I want to
• 33:36
  Speaker 15: take you through what was seized from her apartment. There
• 33:40
  Speaker 15: was a brown paper bag with medical supplies, an ivy
• 33:44
  Speaker 15: poll with a feeding pump that was filled with cotton balls,
• 33:49
  Speaker 15: two boxes of transparent medical dressing, a wig, some cash,
• 33:55
  Speaker 15: and pills for nausea that were actually in her mother's name,
• 33:58
  Speaker 15: not even for her. So she went through all of
• 34:02
  Speaker 15: the efforts to get the supply that made it look
• 34:07
  Speaker 15: like she had this disease. And not only that she
• 34:11
  Speaker 15: stole money, but she also stole photos from people who
• 34:14
  Speaker 15: suffered from these cancers and posted them as her own
• 34:18
  Speaker 15: to pass them off.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: You know, just when I think I've seen it all,
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: Kirby Clements, somebody like this comes along, and you and
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: I have seen a lot of bad people, and our
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: line of business that's really kind of alwas see are
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: the very worst of society. I've seen killers, rapists, child molesters,
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: you name it, drug lords, you have to but I
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: got to tell you, this girl is right up there
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: with the worst of the worst, basically taking advantage of
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: cancer victims.
• 34:54
  Speaker 9: Well, you know, now from the defense perspective, I.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: Would your dear lord, what go ahead?
• 34:59
  Speaker 9: She did take me while cancer victims are impacted. I
• 35:02
  Speaker 9: guess incidentally, she didn't actually take money from them. I
• 35:06
  Speaker 9: think she capitalized and there are some deep issues that
• 35:09
  Speaker 9: she probably has. As a defense lawyer, I mean, you're
• 35:13
  Speaker 9: not going to argue that she's not guilty. You just
• 35:15
  Speaker 9: gonna have to go in there and explain why she
• 35:17
  Speaker 9: did what she did and try to help get her
• 35:19
  Speaker 9: on the right track. I think there's some mental health
• 35:21
  Speaker 9: issues going on there. Maybe she liked the attention, now
• 35:24
  Speaker 9: self esteem, who knows. I mean, it's not an excuse
• 35:26
  Speaker 9: to cut a crime, which is why you obviously be
• 35:28
  Speaker 9: encouraging her to take a Please, I think I.
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: Know somebody's going to disagree with you, and her name
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: is Stephanie Condon old Rave. So, Stephanie, what do you
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: have to say to miss Madison Marie Russo?
• 35:42
  Speaker 7: Oh, I don't know. There's a range of feelings. You know,
• 35:46
  Speaker 7: you certainly feel you know, as a person that went
• 35:50
  Speaker 7: through a diagnosis with her dad, you certainly feel angry
• 35:55
  Speaker 7: that she would try to emulate those you know, symptoms
• 35:58
  Speaker 7: and pretend to be you sick when she's not. You know,
• 36:04
  Speaker 7: from you know, I certainly don't have a law degree,
• 36:07
  Speaker 7: but I know, from a you know, a charity perspective,
• 36:12
  Speaker 7: we'd certainly want to see individuals like that prosecuted because
• 36:16
  Speaker 7: it does so much damage just to our donor base,
• 36:20
  Speaker 7: you know, and you know, and anyone that supported her,
• 36:25
  Speaker 7: you know, would feel a sense of being taken advantage of.
• 36:28
  Speaker 7: Especially you know, when you look at pancredic cancer, the
• 36:31
  Speaker 7: average age is about sixty years old, and those are
• 36:35
  Speaker 7: a lot of the age groups that are being scammed
• 36:37
  Speaker 7: and targeted.
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: Oh, you're so right, and you think about it in
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: that perspective, Madison Russo scams nearly forty thousand dollars. The
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: judge hands down a suspended sentence.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: What happened?
• 36:51
  Speaker 18: Over four hundred people sent Madison Russo donations. Russo's claims
• 36:56
  Speaker 18: of being ill unraveled when medical professionals caught on to
• 36:59
  Speaker 18: just disrepancies in her story, resulting in her arrest. Russeau
• 37:04
  Speaker 18: pleaded guilty to first degree theft charges after she scammed
• 37:07
  Speaker 18: more than thirty seven thousand dollars. Russeou told the judge
• 37:11
  Speaker 18: that she faked the cancer diagnosis to garner more attention
• 37:15
  Speaker 18: from her family. The twenty year old apologized as she
• 37:19
  Speaker 18: sobbed in court, saying she knows what she did was
• 37:22
  Speaker 18: wrong and wished she had sought out help regarding her family.
• 37:26
  Speaker 18: A judge handed down a ten year suspended sentence. She
• 37:29
  Speaker 18: must pay thirty nine thousand dollars in restitution, and then
• 37:33
  Speaker 18: she must herself pay a one three hundred and seventy
• 37:36
  Speaker 18: dollars fine. If she stays out of trouble for the
• 37:39
  Speaker 18: length of her three years probation, Russo won't have to
• 37:43
  Speaker 18: go to jail. A defense request that Russo's conviction be
• 37:47
  Speaker 18: wiped off her record if Russo successfully completes her probation
• 37:51
  Speaker 18: was denied by the judge. Russo must also do one
• 37:55
  Speaker 18: hundred hours of community service.
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: Let's take a listen to the weak link and the
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: judicial system. Judge John helene.
• 38:03
  Speaker 19: I can certainly appreciate and understand their thoughts that a
• 38:09
  Speaker 19: criminal the time in jail is appropriate. However, you have
• 38:14
  Speaker 19: no prior criminal records. You were and are very run young.
• 38:20
  Speaker 19: You have been cooperative with the prosecution, and you agreed
• 38:24
  Speaker 19: that at least the victims that directly donated to your
• 38:28
  Speaker 19: campaign will be made whole by the restitution. You have
• 38:33
  Speaker 19: also suffered a very real and substantial punishment of the local, national,
• 38:38
  Speaker 19: and even international coverage of your crime. The Court has
• 38:42
  Speaker 19: determined that no further purpose would be served by rejecting
• 38:47
  Speaker 19: the plea agreement and requiring the parties to take this
• 38:50
  Speaker 19: case to trial, simply so the sentencing judge could have
• 38:55
  Speaker 19: the option of placing you in prison, which would that
• 38:59
  Speaker 19: would be the result if I did not suspend the
• 39:02
  Speaker 19: sentences here today.
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: Man, I would have this woman picking up trash on
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: the side of the road for the next five years
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: on the chain gang for Pete's sake, with a big
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: sign I faked cancer and I stole money. But you
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: know what, long story short, she dodges prison time. You
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: know what, Sometimes there just ain't no justice. Nancy Grace
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: crime story, signing off, goodbye friend.