Mom Accused of Faking Son's Leukemia

ROSEVILLE, Mich. - 47-year-old Carol Schnuphase of Roseville allegedly posted on her own Facebook page her twelve-year-old son was near death.

"This woman was telling anybody that would listen that her son was terminally ill with leukemia and she needed assistance to pay her medical bills, and many people stepped forward out of the goodness of their heart to help her," said Roseville Police Deputy Chief James Berlin.

At least $8,000, police say, and Schnuphase cashed the checks. She paraded her son around. He had leukemia, and he had a new look, too, as she took him to a benefit fundraiser at a church.

"She went so far allegedly to shave his head and eyebrows to make him appear that he was under chemotherapy, and as I understand the boy actually thought he was, in fact, ill, believing his mother, when he, in fact, wasn't," Berlin said.

A family member who does not want to be identified says that Schnuphase's own family not only thought the boy was ill. They never caught on the scam until she announced her boy had died.

"I was absolutely convinced of it until after he supposedly died, and she decided with no thought there's not going to be a funeral. There's not going to be any service. There's going to be nothing," said the relative. "I'm like, 'Why?' And she said, 'Well, because I just can't look at his little body in the coffin.'"

Schnuphase has lost custody of her son. His biological father is deceased. Police say the twelve-year-old boy is in excellent health, and he's now in the care of a foster home.

Carol Schnuphase faces arraignment on felony charges Friday morning. If convicted, she's facing several years in prison.