Navy Officer’s ‘Death Hoax’ Fools Mistress

Celebrity death hoaxes have been all the rage these days. Perhaps that’s what inspired Navy Commander Michael P. Ward II to fake his own death. Of course, Ward didn’t come up with the hoax for the sport of social media or to cause a stir among his facebook friends.

He did it to get rid of his mistress.

The Stir reports that Cmdr. Ward was “recently relieved of his position when it was discovered that he concocted an elaborate plan to lead his mistress – who he had gotten pregnant – to believe that he died.” Classy.

Ward met the woman — who hasn’t been named — through an online dating service, and the two would spend time together when he was sent to the Norfolk, Virginia area for training, cites The Stir. When the mistress became pregnant by him, Ward “met with her to discuss how to handle the pregnancy, and soon afterward shelost the baby due to complications.”

Just before discovering he had fathered a child, 9News reports that Ward ended the relationship, having been made “commander of a nuclear submarine and moved to Connecticut” with his wife. Even after the relationship ended, however, the couple stayed in touch. Finally, Ward had enough. Instead of breaking off the relationship himself, he invented a fictitious colleague, whom he named “Bob.” Very creative. “Bob” then emailed the mistress, informing her that “‘Mr. Ward’ had died unexpectedly.” Again, classy guy.

Ward’s mistress, having just lost her baby and now informed that her lover had died also, was beside herself. Fox reports that the woman, accompanied by her mother and sister, “drove for hours to the man’s home in Virginia … to offer condolences.” Imagine her surprise when the man who answered the door said that Ward “was alive and hardly ailing: He had moved to Connecticut to take command of a US Navy submarine.”

A spokesperson for the submarine group told The Stir that Ward “has received a letter of reprimand for adultery and other military violations, and paperwork has now been filed to remove him from the Navy.” Maybe he should have just told the mistress he wasn’t into her anymore. Better yet, cites The Stir, maybe he shouldn’t have cheated at all. “That would have been the best for his wife,” after all.