A Nevada mom confessed to fabricating having pancreatic cancer in hopes people would “feel guilty and more inclined to love and be around her” — while she accepted more than $20K in donations to splurge on herself and her children.
Haleigh Knight pleaded guilty in a Las Vegas court on Monday to a felony theft charge and admitted to lying about a cancer diagnosis to set up a fake fundraising page to scam thousands from numerous people, including a longtime friend and breast cancer survivor, between June 2023 and April 2024, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Prosecutors said Knight’s own text messages showed Knight confessing to posing as different people and creating GoFundMe accounts to maintain her cancer ruse, and was using the funds to pay her bills and provide for her children.
One of Knight’s victims and her former high school classmate, Cydney Fink, said Knight apologized for what she was doing and told her it was like “she’s two different people and she can’t control it,” according to court documents obtained by KLAS.
“Haleigh states she faked having cancer so that Cydney and her family along with Haleigh’s family would feel guilty and more inclined to love and be around her if she claimed she was sick,” according to the documents.
Breast cancer survivor and victim Suzanne Duroy told KSNV she donated to Knight’s GoFundMe and was left “in shock” upon learning she had never had cancer.
“I couldn’t believe it. I really could not believe it,” Duroy said, adding that she first met Knight in 2022 while they were working at a surgery center.
Duroy said she had relocated to Florida to care for her mother when Knight’s sister reached out to her about the fake cancer diagnosis — and being a cancer survivor herself — became her “chemo angel,” sending the con artist nearly $1,000 in gift cards and presents.
“It’s really not the money for me. It’s just the point, like I felt heartbroken for her,” Duroy said.
Prostate cancer develops in the prostate gland, which plays a key role in male reproductive function, according to the Mayo Clinic.
It is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in men and, when detected early, is often highly treatable, though advanced cases can spread to other parts of the body.
Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in American men, claiming roughly 35,000 lives in the US each year.
Another of Knight’s victims, Rachel Riedel, described the fraudster as a “sociopath” who “will scam you if she can touch you.”
“It infuriates me that she would take advantage of her community, of her family,” Riedel told KSNV.
Following her guilty plea, Knight agreed to pay $19,787.12 in restitution as part of her plea deal, the Review-Journal reported.
If Knight pays the restitution and completes probation and other requirements, she can withdraw her felony plea, plead guilty to misdemeanor theft and receive credit for time served.
Knight is scheduled to be sentenced on June 24.
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