Woman accused in surrogate-mother scam
A woman accused of promising couples she would be their surrogate mother has been charged with cheating at least six people out of $14,000 (€9,500), police said.
Jessica O’Donnell, 28, used the internet to lure couples desperate to have children, prosecutors said Thursday. She was charged with obtaining money under false pretences and was being held on bail today.
According to investigators in Columbia, South Carolina, O’Donnell told people to send sperm in a plastic cup and use ice packs and a cooler to preserve the fluids. She said she would then have a friend who is a nurse inseminate her.
She claimed to be a nurse, and told them her husband, a soldier, had been killed in Iraq, authorities said. Police found several coolers at her home in Hodges, about 80 miles northwest of Columbia.
O’Donnell’s husband, Daniel, 28, has also has been charged with obtaining money under false pretences, said Maj. John Murray of the Greenwood County Sheriff’s Office.
“They were just ripping these poor people’s hearts out,” Murray said. “She admitted what she was doing and said she knew it was wrong.”
Authorities began investigating two weeks ago when someone who contracted her to be their surrogate called the hospital where she claimed she worked. The hospital said O’Donnell had never worked there and called authorities.
O’Donnell claims she is 15 weeks pregnant with her husband’s child, Murray said. The couple have a one-year-old daughter and a 12-year-old son, who are living with Jessica O’Donnell’s parents in Hodges, Murray said.
Investigators are awaiting test results to determine whether she actually is pregnant.
