Scoop

Blogger Fakes Pregnancy and Infant Death

Beccah Beushausen fooled thousands with her lie

-Stephanie Elliot

When Beccah Beushausen blogged about her pregnancy and her fetus who was terminally ill, she was inundated with support from the blogging community. Turns out, Beccah was not pregnant and had created the whole story in order to (one can only assume) gain an audience, solicit blogging comments, and get sympathy from readers.

With real-life blogging tragedies, such as the Spohr family, who lost their beloved daughter, Maddie, in April, and Matt Logelin's blog, who is raising his daughter alone after his wife Liz died the day after childbirth, one would think that only a person with a very sick mind would fabricate such a tragedy as the one Beccah Beushausen created.

Yet she did. And the response to her made-up plight was amazing. Since Beccah's "baby" was diagnosed as terminally ill in the womb, thousands of abortion opponents lauded her as a hero. Others who suffered the same tragedy reached out to Beccah, there were campaigns to help her, people sent gifts, advertisers were lurking, just waiting for the right moment to approach Beccah.

But because of a glitch in Beccah's horribly schemed and sick plan, the world caught on. When she gave birth to the "baby" at home, whom she named "April Rose", she published a photo holding the dead child, who apparently had died hours after the birth. An astute fan of Beccah's blog noticed something was amiss in the photo, and not just that it was a dead baby. It was a fake baby.

Elizabeth Russell, a dollmaker from Buffalo, had been a follower of Beccah's story and when the photo came out, she knew immediately that there was no baby.

"I have that exact doll in my house," said Russell. "As soon as I saw that picture, I knew it was a scam."

And what does Beccah have to say about it all? In an interview on ChicagoTribune.com, she said, "I know what I did was wrong. I've been getting hate mail. I'm sorry because people were so emotionally involved." Beccah said she had always liked writing. "It was addictive to find out I had a voice that people wanted to hear."

"Soon I was getting 100,000 hits a week, and it just got out of hand," she said. "I didn't know how to stop ... One lie led to another."

Yes, one lie led to another, and because of this snowball-of-an-internet lie, thousands of people were duped into believing this young woman was suffering and in need of help. She certainly is in need of help, but not for the reasons everyone was conned into believing.

There are no rules for blogging, and a person can write freely about anything she chooses, but when you manipulate the feelings of others for your own benefits, and without consideration to those reading, then that's wrong.

We took to the cyber streets to hear what other mommy bloggers think about this hoax:

I'm torn about this one. On one hand, she obviously manipulated her readers both emotionally and financially. On the other hand, I feel sorry for her because she's clearly in need of some sort of validation on a personal level. - Maureen Lipinski, author, A Bump in the Road, www.nowthatyoumentionit.com

Only a non-mom would have time to make up blog posts! I barely have time to write my real posts. - Amy, Snarky Mommy

Disgusted doesn't even begin to cover it, and pissed off, and I'm looking at her and thinking she needs some serious mental health help. I would also like to see her prosecuted for fraud unless she returns every single item she received. There are some things you just don't joke about. With blogging, you do help people and you really do care and you build real friendships ... you want to help people. The blogging community does care, and to take advantage ... is awful. There's always going to be scam artists, but to take advantage of that situation is an evil act. - WeaselMomma

Unfortunately, this happens more often than we like to think. I have been "had" by a poser online, too. Someone who stole my heart and drew me in looking for support and prayer. I cried with this person, got angry that she was dying and prayed my ever-loving heart out only to find out ... she was a BIG FAKE!

I have a hard time believing things people tell me online anymore. The sad part is, this poor girl is still hurting, is still in need of love, support and prayer and I am not sure she is getting it from anyone. I am still angry and know I should contact her but I am not ready. I still pray for her but I am still angry. It's one of those things you are SURE you would never fall for ... and then you do. - Michelle Kemper Brownlow, My Semblance of Sanity

Sadly, this fake mom blogger's story will likely keep real mom bloggers from helping each other out. As they spend more time vetting other bloggers and less time lending a hand, social media will become decidedly anti-social. - Jen Singer, author, Stop Second-Guessing Yourself, creator of MommaSaid.net

After being caught as a fraud, Beccah posted this on her blog:

"I lied and I am not trying to hide that, nor am I trying to minimize it. Worse still, I lied to a community of people whose only intention was to support me through this time and that is wrong, and for that I am sorrier than you could know."

Is Beccah's apology enough? If you were a victim of her scam, how would you feel about it? How do you feel about the fact that she lied about having a baby, about giving birth, and about a baby who died? I think Beccah is in serious need of some quality medical help; there's no excuse nor reasoning for something like this, and she should face some sort of consequence for what she did. Although I don't know what she should do - perhaps volunteer her time helping mothers carrying terminally ill children. That might make her understand the severity of her acts.

And I definitely know that if she gets a book deal out of this, there is seriously something very wrong in our world!

Stephanie Elliot is an associate editor at Betty, and she also answers your parenting questions at Just Another Manic Mommy. Visit her at manicmommy.blogspot.com or stephanieelliot.com.

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