The FBI is hunting for a woman accused of faking terminal brain cancer and scamming her loved ones out of thousands of dollars.
Vanessa O’Rourke, a 37-year-old originally from Harleysville, Pennsylvania, lied about having glioblastoma, a terminal brain cancer, and told her friends and family she needed money for treatment, investigators alleged. She was indicted on 15 counts of wire fraud in 2018 and remains on the run.
In 2015 and 2016, O’Rourke told her loved ones she needed money to get to Australia for an “experimental treatment” — but when she traveled there in April 2016, she “engaged in a variety of leisure activities and did not receive any medical treatment,” according to the FBI.
Once she returned, her loved ones helped raise more money for her treatment, including by launching a webpage and hosting a fundraiser at a restaurant, investigators said.
She traveled to Australia a second time later that year, again engaging in “various leisure activities” and receiving “no medical treatment for her nonexistent illness,” the FBI said. In total, she’s accused of scamming donors out of $100,000, according to court documents reviewed by CBS Philadelphia.
O’Rourke currently has a federal warrant out for her arrest. She’s also gone by the aliases Vanessa Gulinello and Cecilia Vincent Gaeta Lazaro, according to investigators. Her case was shared on the FBI’s Most Wanted social media account last week.
When prosecutors unsealed O’Rourke’s indictment in 2020, she was last known to be living in Queensland, Australia, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
“The allegations in this case are nauseating. O’Rourke is charged with preying upon the kindness and generosity of good people who wished to help those in need. As alleged, there was no need here – only lies, greed and callous manipulation,” U.S. Attorney William McSwain said in a statement at the time.
“Misleading people about a significant medical diagnosis in order to take advantage of their kind hearts and open wallets is reprehensible,” added Michael J. Driscoll, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Philadelphia Division.
The Independent has contacted the FBI’s Philadelphia Field Office for comment.
