I am gobsmacked

Guess I never had the privilege to know DreAnna. But it is sad someone would go to that extreme to fool people, and for what purpose? Am glad you found out the info and can move on. And am sorry this person apparently effected so many people on AB in such a negative way by their final actions. I pray all can accept what has been found out and then leave it in the past, just enjoy those on AB now. Pray all have a blessed day. (oh, for all your hard work I know ABers thank you).

I'm sorry but the whole thing struck me as odd from the get go. I'm not claiming any precognition, but more along the lines of if it sounds too strange to be true... I recall a few years back a similar story surrounding the Broadway production of RENT... the Uber fans created a network of friends and someone worked her way in, then claimed to be ill, and ultimately "died". Gotta think people like this are truly sick... desperate for any attention they can get.

Sadly, I had my suspicions from the start. For such an elaborate hoax, it all came crumbling down at the end due to some very basic things. For one, the email address provided by the attorney was hosted at a free webmail site. Attorney's have use of their own private email and when conducting business ALWAYS email from their work accounts. The biggest hint for me was that this person chose DreAnna's AB profile to ask people for their personal details. That is just not how these things are done. It reeked of a scam from that moment onwards. I didn't know "her" well at all, but I am terribly sorry for the people that felt they did and who have been so badly hurt by this utter manipulation of peoples good natures.

If you say it, I believe it! :) One of the most honest and polite ABer and quite famous too! lol

I am glad to put this to rest.

Show us the proof! (documents of your work, notaries, etc)

So what did this person do? Fake her death?

Yes I am ready to hear the truth. I thought that the additional call for more information from certain users was very unusual. What about the AB Blog? Indeed - they were right, "The fix WAS in". Could not this DreAnna situation been addressed there earlier?

OK, I'm all for "It's too bad people were duped" but, come on, this is a person that did not exist, or existed only as a block of words on a screen. No one here apparently ever met or had a cup of coffee with DreAnna and these are the people that you say were "hurt" by her "untimely passing." Embarrassed is more like it. I hope all you folks out there stop for a second and realize that this is the nature of the internet. I, personally, would have never called a person on this site a "loving friend" or sent them "huggs" because of the very issue you all are discussing here. Whoever this “psychopath” is, well, he’s a frigging genius with an immense amount of patience. OK, maybe that makes him a little OCD and scary, but I wonder how many of you actually sent your personal information to this scammer? So now that you people know you’ve been duped by a fictional person, you can all go back to your lives a little more open eyed, open minded and aware that names and pics without a body do not a person make. It’s actually kind of funny. Sorry, but it is. Personally, I didn’t think there was any DreAnna and I’ve only been coming here since about February.

My lips were sealed but something seemed fishy from the beginning, I joined with sympathy for my true AB friends as they were the hearts hurting the most from the evil actions. Thank you for clearing this up for us my dear phillis.

It's a shame that we were duped. But I have already been duped from an AB member, so I was not going to give any information until something was verified. With that being said, the fact that this person got their jollies from seeing what it would be like if they died is sick and disturbing. I will never stop interacting with my AB friend due to this, but I will always have in the back of my mind the chilling memories of this situation. The few positives that came from this is the fact that I got to meet and talk to the great Phylis. I also got to touch basis with my great friend LMD. It also told us all to just be careful of the relationships that we build on the internet.

would still like to see a blog report from the bigwigs at AB about this - nothing dramatic, just a notice that they are aware!

My freind dated one of these people, she is a lesbian and found it hard to find a GF after leaving collogge, as he quiet little town didn't have a gay scene, and the only lesbian inthe town she had dated. So she began an internet search for the one and came across a woman named Alexis Roselyn from North Dakota (sorry I cant spell it). She was at college and was freindly and backed up by pictures and videos. So the realationship was a good one, althought the question of visuiting was doged and further requests for pics where shot down the relationship didn't faulter, my best freind had truely found love atlast. Now my freind had a daughter, not the conventional daughter but a cousin she took in when her homophobic parents kicked her out and obviously the first place she went was to her gay cousin for solace and was welcomed with tearful open arms. But when my freind had to rush off to her homeland to save a brother who had gotten into some nasty trouble with some even nastier drug dealers she had to leave the daughter behind, relativly on her own, with only a watchful old neighbour as company, and a mothers partner. Now obviously my freind kept her daughter on a daily update and she intern relayed this info to Lexi and she used this info well. After a while however my freind returned home triumphant but what she found was not what she expected, her daughter was packing and getting ready to move in with Lexi. My freind was well aware of the dangers of interacting with dealers, and although everything was peaceful and she brought hired hands the risk of not ever returning was ever present, and she had to spend 4 days without contacting anyone. Naturally however she had set about a failsafe, and that was in the form of several letters and video messeges concealed around the house that all said the same thing, incase she did fall head to Dakota and meet with Lexi. Lexi had agreed with it completely and had the order to activate the failsafe if she did not communicate for 4 weeks to the hour, yet for some reason she activated this after only 3 hours of hearing that my freind had to go communicationless. Why? That is the question we all wondered and when, after we questioned Lexi she vanished claiming to have been killed. When we then used various sites to cmmunicate to her college wedescovered she never even existed, and instead used videos and pics of another student... Yet scarely her close freind Matt did exist, and was talking of dropping a few weeks priorand buying a house for himself. It was only then that we learn't Lexi had told the daughter that she would meet this Matt at the airport. Thankfully my freind arrived home the night before she was destined out.

wow. people are really eff'd up

Colour me unsuprised, but impressed by your detective work. I've seen this exact same thing happen on numerous community sites numerous times. The first thing I said to my girlfriend (who also is an ABer) when I read DreAnna had popped her clogs was that I thought this might not be all it seemed. That's why I didn't join in the mourning although I did feel, if true, it was sad. On anonymous website it is all too easy for this sort of thing to happen and, as I say, I have seen this exact thing happen on pretty much every community site I've ever been on.

D-O-N-E!!! Done deal! Glad it is over with and it is now where it should be. In the trash behind us. +5

Yes, things smelt alittle fishy so i do believe it. No one ever meet her or seen her over the two years of knowing her. Hmmmmmmmm, just do not see what she would get out of it. No, family at all at the age of 36...leaving her estate to people she meet through AB..another Hmmmm. And you have to be written in a will. Think she would of got address and names before hand knowing she was dieing. Dieing right before her so called party that she invited everyone too. If you are dieing of cancer at the end you would be WAY to sick to even think of having a party.

Has this happened before? I didnt get to know this 'DreAnna' as i only joined recently, but its really weird to see this happen!! Thank you Phillis for informing us that this can and does happen and i will always remember this whenever im on the web. Good day to you all!!!

If these words could serve of any consolation, no one, whether you were "her" friend who interacted with "her" consistently or just a few rare occasions such as myself, has anything to feel ashamed or embarrassed for expressing your heart felt condolence for the passing of member-friend you honestly believed it did exist. If you care or are willing to look at it this way, you demonstrated that as a human being, you're more than capable of being moved and emotional for the passing of "anybody"--whether you knew that person or not, or whether that person actually existed or not. Me personally, I'm neither angry nor shocked. I have this human peculiarity of turning certain things into a laughing matter, and this is one of them. I've been walking around at work with a sign I painted myself on my forehead that reads: "DUPED", just laughing my ass out how silly I feel about a little poem I was "emotionally inspired" to write by the supposed passing of a supposed member. I told the story to my co-workers and we all are cracking up about this whole thing. PEACE Y'ALL!

I don't see how it can be allowed to go "just like that". After all, someone close to "DreAnna" made a very touching post about her "passing". How did that happen? But I'm not making the rules, and don't have any personal stake in this. Just don't let "Anonymous" be a fraud, please.

nothing surprises me anymore

I only joined AB last month and cant even begin to say how I feel about this whole thing. Its freaked me a little I must say.

I'm really sorry that happened, Phillis. I didn't know her. But what a bloody creepy person. Whoever they are.

If she doesnt exist, how was it known she died.

I personally never new this person nor do I remember communicating with them but the initials D.A.K.S wasn't there a DAKS on DS9 ??? ~Nemo~

Eeep what the hell. Some people sure do go some long ways to get attention.

Wow.Thats pretty much all I can say right now.

...wow....I am wordless, for once in my life..... ..what an amazing, and sad drama....

well this is crazy!! LOL!! i only wonder about who else was in on it?? i mean there are a few members without naming that claim to be real close to her. ????? ;D

OMG.... I wonder if this is someone that was pissed off at people on AB when that account was created? I barely spoke to "DreAnna", now I'm glad for it.

I didn't know her well. But now it makes me wonder if my other friends are real or not. Whoever did this is a sick person.

oh my god i can not get over this one at all who the hell was the photo of then and who would be so cruel? and making everyone so upset who ever you are you are nothing but SCUM.

Thanks Phillis, i'm sorry you were treated in this manner. DreAnna you suck and are gutless.

Quite frightening! Who can you trust nowadays? what a sad state of affairs! Of course reminds us how careful one should be on such site.

Insane...Though, it doesn't surprise me. This would not be the first person from AB that I have found to be a fake, which is the reason why I have, for the most part, ceased all usage of AB, and any other chat site for that matter. I'm sorry for your loss.

I cried when I read about "her" "demise", but I thought it was odd when I read, "Her estate names members of the Answerbag website as beneficiaries." in "her" profile. I know that not everyone's estate and trust situations are the same, but it seems that most people would will their estates to family members or others with whom they've had extended in-person relationships.

Yeah... I heard about this from another. I just did a few quick checks online: http://www.google.com/search?q=%22john+p.+mccracken%22+(lawyer+OR+attorney)+ohio&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a (EDIT: Guess you'll have to copy-and-paste the link. Seems one of the parens truncated it) will show search results for [ "john p. mccracken" (lawyer OR attorney) ohio ]. Only two for a recent one (died at 88, April 2, 2009, in Ottawa, OH.) There ARE a number named "John McCracken" in Ohio (same search, remove the "p.", but a number are with John as the 2nd name. Besides, I would NEVER trust a REAL lawyer who used a generic/throw-away email account. (gmail.com? Come on... Lawyers will have their own professional accounts, associated with their practice.) We DO know what "P. McCracken" CAN stand for, right? P being the initial for Phillip, or Phil? (Can we all catch that one without really spelling it out?) The ONLY records online for a "DreAnna Schenk" WERE on the petition supporting Jodie's return to AB. Ancestry shows NO records for a "Dre* Schenk" (They have recent public records.) The only John P McCracken listed in Ohio in Ancestry's public records is the lawyer who died (above Google search). ** A comment thread I read, recently, leads me to believe that this may have been a persona set up by a small group of "klds", if it wasn't just one of them. If it was just a name on AB, this wouldn't bother me so much, but I've seen too many AB friends and friendly acquaintances grieving quite strongly for the "death" of this person. The fact that many of them have talked to "her", that many have emailed "her", that many have TRIED to meet "her"... THAT bothers me the most. I'd like to say that NO ONE caught up in this probable hoax is to be considered "dumb", "stupid", or "gullible". AB has a LOT of very caring and loving people on it, and most have a very innate trust of others that I don't want to see destroyed by one person (or even a small group). Supposing that this is a hoax (and I believe it to be one): I don't think this was the work of a "psychopath", but a kid or two. They created this persona (maybe based on a real person), realized they may have to "kill them off" at some point, so researched a disease that would work, and started playing the part. Maybe the kid (or one of them) lived in or near the small town that "she" was supposed to have lived in... Maybe they just threw a dart at a map. Who knows? Since people wanted to meet them, they had to appear amenable to it, but have something come up whenever the actual meeting time rolled around. They may even have recruited a parent (or used theater makeup) to be pictured, and/or meet people on Skype. Unless and until you see PROOF (and at this point, it'd BETTER be GOOD) that 1) DreAnna DID die; 2) you are listed on the will; 3) the "lawyer" is REAL, and has credentials to prove it; 4) you've checked "him" out online, via phone calls (not numbers they give you) to the state agencies who license lawyers/attorneys; 5) you feel COMPLETELY comfortable that your research is valid; I would NOT be giving ANYONE anything. See the Chief's answer, here, for more. ( http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/6677743 ) BE CAREFUL. There are a LOT of scammers on the internet, and this (or even just the conjecture that it's a hoax) should be enough to make most of us wary. To those who feel embarrassed to have believed the probable hoax: Take it as a lesson to be wary, but don't let it ruin your faith in most humans. MOST ARE good. It's only a minority who are not. Now... Let's AB the way we always have, with caring, empathy, sympathy, compassion, etc.. Just be wary when it seems you're getting "close" to people on the 'net... NOT just here at AB.

Hi Phillis. Have you checked her profile lately? Curiouser and Curiouser... http://www.answerbag.com/profile/?id=149870

If that's true then that's pretty chilling. Not to mention diabolical. Anyone who would do that knowing how many people it would hurt, and, anyone having that much patience (two years) before pulling the string, is someone who is probably very dangerous.

As I said in an earlier answer; Are any of us 100% as we are represented on AB? Anyone like 95%, 50%, 25%, 5%, etc. This is the internet and we all are protecting our privacy. I am perhaps one of the most open here on AB and that is not 100% either since some very personal things (including my personal address, etc., etc.) are not published. So, maybe the user of the account was wishing he/she would have been like DreAnna and lived through her name. ???? I'm all for letting it pass as something that can happen on the WWW. Cheers and keep up your spirits everyone. :):):););).

I know you have many people here ready to help, but as always, I stand ready if I can be of assistance in any way, Ma'am.

Ec still mourns for the 'death' of that entity we all loved. The person who perpetrated such a sick, twisted hoax however can kiss my ass yo...

ARGh. Sorry that you all fell prey to a predator. I want to tell you a story: I was part of an online community (www.1giantleap.tv) for 5 years. Many of the people there did actually meet up and many of us traveled and met the owners of the site. Over time one individual became a problem - not so much to all - many of us saw through him - but he did prey on women - and young girls. One woman, from AU, "fell in love" with this guy. His story was that he was unhappily married, 2 sons, living in Colorado Springs. He tells girl in AU (I call her "Pam") that he is leaving wife. He goes to AU and marries Pam. In 6 months (Au winter) he tells Pam that he has to return to USA to see his sons and will be back in a few months. He returns to US and summers in CO. When winter comes to USA, he returns to AU. This went on for 2 years - during which time, Pam exiled herself from the community. The man, (I call him Chas) continued to harrass members of community, and caused division. Eventually, Pam finds out that Chas is accessing her computer and sending emails using a "bounce" system. Chas is hitting on Pam's friends online, also he has become a member in other communities and has meetings with other unsuspecting women. Chas threatened me with bodily harm (a foolish thing to do when you don't know who you are dealing with). I skip traced Chas and found out who he was, what he did, where he lived, and everything else. I did not tell Pam what I found out as she was told by Chas not to talk to me. I busted Chas out with a return/forward option I had built into my website - his email bounce was broken. Chas left Pam with over a quarter million dollars of debt, a child, and years of wondering what she did wrong. She is fine now, married to a nice man, talks to me all the time.... Chas has moved on to Hawaii (last I heard) and other women who trust too much. the internet is an anonymous place where people can do whatever it is they do on an international stage. We can all say how nice it is to "talk" with this person or that person, and we can share lots of stuff - one thing one should never share online is their personal info. If ID theft and fraud isn't enough to scare you, then consider your families and loved ones and the future of everyone involved. I am not against physical meets with people I chatup online. I still do it and have done so for years. But there are ways of checking things out if you are not sure of what your intuition is telling you. Again sorry to you all for what happened to you.

i was criticized for not posting my identity by an ABer...so ,i did..was scorned and told NEVER to do such on an online network....so i undid it.... i am sorry for everyone's hurt and loss..... i still worry about "trouble" but no way to find out anything...... again , i am sorry all .....:)thatsJustme

So she's bootlegged?

Will this be as much of a cliff hanger as "Who Shot JR " ?

Hi phillis! well where do i start? you must be EXHAUSTED! Thank you for being truely "community geared" that you always want to give everyone the information that others have been denying. took a while, but finally have my head around the whole dre thing. sigh, just didnt see that one coming! oh well, live and learn. i hope he/she is having a good laugh, and i hope you get a well deserved rest after that airport incident! thanks again for all the info. now its time to move on :-)

Angry, oh so very angry.

This sunds like the work of Quentin Tarantino :|

This isn't over yet.

Let the truth be known....

I have two thoughts: 1) On a certain level, the depth and complexity of the scam is impressive. 2) Given 1), couldn't the perpetrator have done better by simply getting a job and applying as much effort to a legitimate occupation? C'est la vie...:-P...

WOW!! This must be the TROLL OF THE FRICKIN' CENTURY!!!!! +6

Pretty pathetic.....it is sad to have to make up a life because you don't have a real one.....I am not ashamed or embarrassed about my reaction or those of the others it seemed to affect. I was told I am gullible, but I would rather be gullible then a liar any day. Another lesson learned......I have so many more to experience......

I thought there was something a bit funny about this whole death of DreAnna when i went on her profile and looked at her last ever comment or post or answer or whatever it was, it was about death, 'if you died tonight what would to wish you had done' or something similar. I believe this was another last attempt to cause pain, as it was so ironic of a last post... ---Anybody else notice that? (this point may have been put forward already, if so i am sorry, i just didnt have it in me to read ALL of the above)

Wow Phillis! It took forever to find your answer to find out what was going on. What an odd thing to do... what was the point?

I don't get it, no one here is real. We use avatars as identity cards. How can you have a fake person here? What would be the point of killing them off? This is just a casual answer forum, not a soap opera.

You should speak to Phillis, she has information, she posted it but the question was flagged. http://www.answerbag.com/profile/?id=384233

There are masses of people on this site who have various IDs and admit it long after the fact. So I really don't see the problem. If they produce questions and answers and are polite and helpful, they are no different to the next person on AB.

I hadn't heard that. Do you mean she was a fake all around or just her death or what I am confused. She sure did go through a lot if she did fake it. I read her profile after she died...that would be kinda weird if it was all fake. But than again this is the Internet so who really knows what is the truth when talking to others online.

So, I really dislike this question. There is no link to your answer, just a slew of 'i had my suspicions...' What is the consensus of what happened? kids? A total scam to get 6 peoples email addresses? To me it doesn't make sense. I can't honestly believe it was kids or bored teenagers. And a scam doesn't hold up for me either.....I love books about cons and scams, and no one puts up that much time for no return. So then what? One thing we do know is that someone put in a whole lot of time answering questions, responding to emails and all the rest. Maybe that person really died, and maybe they didn't. It wouldn't surprise me all that much to learn that the person doing all the leg work for the account actually died. But what the hell do I know? I did find your answer after all....http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:Y2XR4_JMsAMJ:www.answerbag.com/q_view/1492212+dreanna+schenk&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

What do you mean 'she was fake'? Everyone is fake on this site. I should think there are very few people who use their proper name. And so what? Didn't she ask questions and give answers like everyone else. I think this whole thing is being blown out of proportion. And just because she asked for people's personal information on AB, she is now damned. Everyone knows not to give out personal information on the internet, so why get so uptight about it if she asks for it? Seems alot of hype about nothing.

I don't see your answer here. I really don't want to see anything more about this person, but the AB community should be warned about the possibility of this happening more often. I have heard from another ABer about how things didn't add up with this person. I had been an AB friend of this person for more than 2 years and I never had a reason to be suspicious. She never asked for any personal information until the post-death profile. Sad how one person's sick idea of fun has pretty much ruined any trust I could have in the AB community. How many more 'DreAnna's' are there here?

What happened?

Do you have a dog in this fight sweetie? Are you among those who were conned, scammed, tricked, deceived, manipulated, lied to and hurt? I'd leave it alone. I'd simply back off and not keep pouring salt in the wound. Many were sucked in by this "it" whatever the "it" or whomover the "it" was. I'd leave it alone.

Well she was a member of Sillyville..so that kind of explains it:):)

I am trying to figure out just what it is DREANNA did that has everyone so upset.She faked her death and took things from some of you ? Is that it? Not sure what is going on that you are all so upset for so long. We all have fake names and Ids here so is this suppose to be a reality show ? What about Colt? What happened to him ? Was(is) he real ? I know I'm real and so is my friend Silentpurr, but our AB names are not. :-) Be Happy