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Courthouse clerk accused of faking cancer - Fundraisers netted more than $10,000 worth of assistance

Published: Monday, August 24, 2009 2:24 PM CDT

PINEVILLE, Mo. (AP) - Tammy R. Young let her co-workers in the McDonald County Courthouse know this past winter that she was stricken with cancer.

She told them that she was diagnosed in February with Ewing's sarcoma, a malignant form of tumor most often found in bone or soft tissue.

She let it be known that she was undergoing treatment for the illness through Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Tulsa, Okla., and at St. John's Regional Medical Center and Freeman Hospital West, both in Joplin.

Sympathy naturally arose for the 42-year-old clerk in the county prosecutor's office. Coworkers tried to help her financially with some fundraisers.

Young accepted the help and sent out letters of solicitation for funds and for items to be donated to a silent auction on her behalf. Young even designed T-shirts that she and co-workers wore at fundraising events.

Then, this summer, suspicions began to dawn among co-workers that perhaps Young's claims were less than truthful, according to McDonald County Sheriff Robert Evenson.

Those suspicions led to Young's dismissal from her job in July, her appeal of the firing to the McDonald County Commission on Aug. 4 and an ensuing investigation by the Sheriff's Department, according to a probable-cause affidavit filed Friday in McDonald County Circuit Court.

“It turns out that it doesn't look like she has cancer,” the sheriff said. “So it was all just a scam.”

Evenson said Young arranged to turn herself in Friday on two felony counts of stealing filed by a special prosecutor. The rural Goodman woman posted a $10,000 property bond and was released.

The sheriff said the investigation showed that Young received about $10,000 worth of assistance from the fundraisers.

At the meeting of the County Commission, Young insisted she was receiving treatment at the Cancer Centers of America in Tulsa, the probable-cause affidavit states. She told the commissioners she had treatment records from Cancer Centers of America that she had obtained for the purpose of completing Family Medical Leave Act paperwork, the affidavit states.

But, when the commissioners asked her for copies of those records, she told them that she returned them to Cancer Centers of America, the affidavit states.

The Sheriff's Department obtained several subpoenas of records in the investigation. The affidavit states that the returns of those subpoenas showed that Young never received any treatment at Cancer Centers of America in Tulsa, or at St. John's or Freeman.

The affidavit further states that when the sheriff confronted Young about the matter this month, she was unable to identify any physician who ever diagnosed her with Ewing's sarcoma or name any health-care provider who ever treated her for cancer.

Then, on Aug. 19, Young finally admitted in a telephone conversation with the sheriff that she had never been diagnosed with cancer or treated for it anywhere in the country, the affidavit states.


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Thanks.

boxergal wrote on Aug 25, 2009 2:17 PM:

" Do you believe in Karma?? I do and some day this will catch up to her. "

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misshoneybee wrote on Aug 25, 2009 1:43 PM:

" Cancer is a terrible disease--everyone with it and those surrounded by it suffers. If she had ever been diagnosed with or helped a loved one through this illness, I think she would have thought twice before she could ever have cooked up this scheme. Of course, there are dishonest, avaricious, provincial, heartless people out there and Tammy R. Young is one of them! Trifling wench! "

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