Here is an article someone just sent me, it is mostly old news on this case....however it does outline the details of how Jessica was caught. I also never knew the exact ammout of the bail....$140,000! That's a lot of $200 mattress scams....lest anyone forget how I came to know Jessica and her internet scams. Again we see a mention that O'donnell posed as an attorney. I love how that keeps coming up in these articles....because we have such undeniable proof of this RIGHT HERE ON THIS SITE!
I would site this but have not source info...sorry!
Jessica O'Donnell offered hope to couples desperate to have a child. For some, it was too good to pass up. Authorities say the 28-year-old woman billed herself as a surrogate mother at a fraction of the typical cost. She claimed to be a nurse. She told them her husband, a soldier, had been killed in Iraq. Police now say the South Carolina woman lied -- about everything. O'Donnell, a mother of two who is still married, remained in a Greenwood County jail Thursday, unable to post $140,000 bail. She was accused of bilking about $14,000 from at least six people she met on the Internet and charged with obtaining money under false pretenses. Her husband also has been charged. "They were just ripping these poor people's hearts out," said Greenwood County sheriff's Maj. John Murray. "She admitted what she was doing and said she knew it was wrong." It was unclear if the O'Donnells have hired an attorney. A woman who answered the telephone at the couple's home hung up when asked about Jessica O'Donnell. A subsequent message was not returned. O'Donnell told people to send sperm in a plastic cup and use ice packs and a cooler to preserve the fluids, according to a police report. She said she would then have a friend who is a nurse inseminate her. Authorities started investigating two weeks ago when someone who contracted with O'Donnell called the hospital where the woman claimed she worked. The hospital said O'Donnell had never worked there and called the sheriff's office. Police this week said they found several coolers and contracts at the home of O'Donnell's parents, where she lived with her husband and children, in the small town of Hodges, about 80 miles northwest of Columbia. After discovering an Internet message board that warned couples about O'Donnell, police began contacting potential victims. According to police reports, victims of the scam were from Tennessee, New York, Alabama, Minnesota and Pennsylvania. The people, whose names were not released, told investigators they connected with O'Donnell through an Internet site. When she was arrested, O'Donnell told investigators she was 15 weeks pregnant with her husband's child, Murray said. Investigators are awaiting test results to determine whether she actually is pregnant. Dr. Florence Hightower, a psychotherapist and coordinator of in-vitro fertilization at Advanced Fertility and Reproductive Endocrinology Institute in West Columbia, said couples looking for a surrogate are often vulnerable. "The Internet is a fabulous source to get on to find surrogates," Hightower said. "Women in that situation where they are looking to surrogacy, they have exhausted all other avenues." Hightower's office does not work with surrogates in which the woman carrying the child also is the egg donor because of the potential for legal complications. The process can cost about $50,000, depending on the surrogate's fee, Hightower said. O'Donnell was charging a lot less, police said. A Pennsylvania woman told investigators she and her husband agreed to send O'Donnell $1,000 up front and another $1,000 after confirmation of O'Donnell's pregnancy, according to the police report. The woman said O'Donnell received the first check Oct. 8. About a week later, O'Donnell sent an e-mail requesting another $1,000 for car repairs. The woman sent the money but later received paperwork purporting to confirm the pregnancy that made her suspicious. She contacted the Greenwood County health department and found the documents she had been sent did not match official county letterhead, police said. Police said the woman e-mailed O'Donnell, who admitted that she sent a fake document because she couldn't get to the health department without a car. The couple stopped communicating with O'Donnell and hired a mediator. O'Donnell then sent e-mails to the mediator, posing as an attorney, police said.
