Phony Dying Bride Ordered to Repay Victims’ Cash

Cases like the one of the phony dying bride seem to pop up more and more now that people can use the internet to raise money for shaky “causes,” but preying on the generosity of others for financial gain is not a phenomenon exclusive to the era of the social network.

In this case, phony dying bride Jessica Vega, 25, spun a tale of terminal cancer and a final dream of a big wedding.

Two years ago, Vega told family and friends that she was terminally ill with the frightening disease, and that all she wanted in her supposed twilight time was to marry her boyfriend and the father of her child, Michael O’Connell.

And according to a local news source, the Albany Times-Union, Vega’s loved ones coughed up for the phony dying bride- the paper says friends and family “donated her dress, the wedding rings, an Aruba time-share for the honeymoon and more for her 2010 wedding.”

It wasn’t just those who knew the phony dying bride that invested in Vega’s big day- another local paper ran the story, and strangers also opened their hearts and wallets to finance Vega’s dream wedding.

But it couldn’t last forever, and soon O’Connell began to question his new wife’s story of a cancer diagnosis.

Her tale soon unraveled, and the couple divorced. In April, Vega pleaded guilty to charges of scheming to defraud and possession of a forged instrument, and today was sentenced to time served, which would be the nearly two months she has been in custody since her arrest.

In addition to jail time and probation, the phony dying bride was ordered to repay $13,000 to those she defrauded.