Let’s remember when Bethany Storro was charged with theft, after being caught lying about an acid attack, on this day in 2010 (September 20)
Vancouver area woman Bethany Storro made headlines in 2010 when she claimed to have been doused with acid by an unidentified black woman. Storro received over $28,000 in donations from people all over the world before it was revealed that it was a hoax and Storro actually threw acid on her own face.
ABC News wrote of the incident:
Storro told police that she was attacked outside a Vancouver, Wash., coffee shop by an African-American woman who approached her and asked her whether she wanted something to drink. She claimed the woman said, “Hey, pretty girl,” and then threw a cup of acid into her face, disfiguring her.
Police set off on an intense search for the alleged attacker, but soon began to suspect that Storro had faked the story.
A Vancouver Voice reporter interviewed witnesses who were in the park where Storro was allegedly attacked and they said Storro was alone when she dropped to the ground and started screaming.
Storro told ABC News that she never intended to blame someone else, but said she began to believe her own lies, and relished the attention she was getting as a result of the widespread media attention.
“In that moment I felt like I was cared for and I mattered,” she said.
Storro held a news conference shortly after surgery, with her head wrapped in gauze, and was booked as a guest on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” but canceled the appearance.
After two weeks during which police investigated the story, Storro confessed that she had lied. Her parents, Joe and Nancy Neuwelt, did not know about her deception or the severity of her illness. Storro said she never reached out to them for help.
Nine years ago today, Storro was charged with theft for accepting donations for her hoax. CBS News says:
The felony second-degree charges filed Monday by Clark County Deputy Prosecutor Tony Golik relate to donations collected for Storro after she was chemically burned Aug. 30.
According to the probable cause documents filed by Vancouver police, fundraisers for Storro reportedly raised $28,000, of which Storro apparently spent about $1,500 on dinner for her parents, clothes for herself and a bill for a previous laser facial peel. Police said Storro spent some of the funds she collected on a new computer and a trip to Seattle, reports KOIN.
In a statement to media Friday, Storro’s parents, Nancy and Joe Neuwelt, claimed that the money donated to their daughter would be returned “in the appropriate manner.”
“The aggravator is that the defendant, Ms. Storro, took money from victims who were acting as good Samaritans when they gave the money,” said Golik.
Sources:
