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Inset: Haleigh Knight. Background: A GoFundMe that Haleigh Knight’s victims say she launched to scam people with a phony cancer diagnosis (KLAS/YouTube).
A resident of Nevada has confessed to fabricating a pancreatic cancer diagnosis to garner sympathy and affection from those around her, including an authentic cancer survivor who unwittingly became her benefactor. The survivor refers to herself as the woman’s “chemo angel.”
“She’s a sociopath,” expressed Rachel Riedel, one of Haleigh Knight’s affected victims, during a conversation with local NBC station KSNV. Riedel criticized Knight, stating, “She will scam you if she can reach you.”
Hailing from Henderson, a city about 15 miles from Las Vegas, Knight recently admitted guilt to a felony theft charge. She acknowledged deceiving many individuals out of more than $20,000 between June 2023 and April 2024, as reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Knight confessed to collecting funds via GoFundMe and directly from victims to cover her expenses and purchase items for her children.
Legal documents examined by Law&Crime indicate that Knight’s sentencing is slated for June 24, with more victims continuing to surface with stories of her deception.
Among those deceived is Suzanne Duroy, a genuine breast cancer survivor, who shared with KSNV how she became Knight’s “chemo angel,” donating nearly $1,000 in cash and gifts, touched by the fabricated cancer tale.
“I felt heartbroken for her,” Duroy said. “I had a bilateral mastectomy, 33 radiation treatments, six chemotherapies, full hysterectomy, and I’m still currently taking medication for the cancer.”
Duroy is among several people who have come forward after Knight was charged in January to speak out about what happened. Court documents obtained by local CBS affiliate KLAS say Knight admitted to cops, in addition to prosecutors, that she orchestrated an elaborate cancer scheme to gain people’s cash and sympathy.
Prosecutors said text messages Knight sent to her victims showed her confessing to posing as different people and creating GoFundMe accounts to keep up her cancer act, KLAS reports. One victim, Cydney Fink, provided photos to local media showing Knight taking selfies with bandages on.
“She goes on apologizing to Cydney for what she’s done and then states she has no excuses, and she did what she did because her head feels messed up and like she’s two different people and she can’t control it,” court documents say about the text messages Knight sent. “Haleigh states she faked having cancer so that Cydney and her family along with Haleigh’s family would feel guilty and more inclined to love and be around her if she claimed she was sick.”
In the texts, Fink asked Knight how she pulled off her scheme, and she said “very very sneakily,” according to the court documents.
“I was following her updates on her GoFundMe because they were posting continuous updates on her treatment plan,” Riedel told KSNV.
“I feel so manipulated that she would just use me for information when I was here with my husband, crying because I felt so bad for her,” Duroy said, noting how she used to spend hours on the phone with Knight answering questions about cancer and what Duroy went through. “What she’s done to all these other women is absolutely terrible, because so many were her friends, and they would have helped her if she needed help.”
Under the terms of her plea deal, Knight has agreed to pay $19,787.12 in restitution, according to the Review-Journal. If the restitution is paid in full and she completes her probation and other court-imposed requirements, she can withdraw her felony plea and plead guilty to misdemeanor theft and receive credit for time served, per the Review-Journal.