Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Woman With 'FOOTBALL-SIZED TUMOR' Scams Internet til Well-Wishers Spot Fake Tubes!

Episode Date: March 13, 2023

A 19-year-old Madison Russo told the world she was battling pancreatic cancer and had a tumor “the size of a football. It was all a lie. After Russo bilked donors out of more than $37,000 through her posts on social media, some eagle-eyed medical professionals began questioning her diagnosis. The anonymous witnesses noticed inaccuracies in the photos she posted of herself and contacted authorities. The witnesses noted that some of her medical equipment and its placement did not look right. Joining Nancy Grace today: Kirby Clements- Attorney at Law, Author: "How to Keep Your A$$ Out of Jail;" Instagram: @kirbyclementsjr, Twitter: @kirbyesq  Dr. Shari Schwartz- Forensic Psychologist (Specializing in Capital Mitigation and Victim Advocacy); Author: "Criminal Behavior" and "Where Law and Psychology Intersect: Issues in Legal Psychology;" Twitter: @TrialDoc   Greg Smith- Special Deputy Sheriff, Johnson County Sheriff's Office (Kansas), Executive Director of the Kelsey Smith Foundation Stefani Condon-Oldreive - Founder and Director of Craig’s Cause Pancreatic Cancer Society; Craig was her father, who passed away shortly after his diagnosis 16 years ago.   https://twitter.com/CraigsCauseCan https://www.instagram.com/craigscausecan/ https://www.facebook.com/CraigsCauseCan/ Dr. Tim Gallagher- Medical Examiner, State of Florida; Lecturer: University of Florida Medical School Forensic Medicine; Founder/Host: International Forensic Medicine Death Investigation Conference   Kayla Brantley-  Reporter, DailyMail.com; Twitter: @_KaylaBrantley, Instagram: @KaylaBrantley  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Pancreatic cancer. Two words nobody wants to hear, especially a 19-year-old girl. So how does this story end up on Crime Stories? Just listen. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. First of all, take a listen to our cut one. I want people to live. I want to live. You know, I want, I want them to be a cheer. That's Maddie Russo, a 19-year-old college student speaking about suffering from cancer.

They found a mass on my pancreas and I had stage two pancreatic cancer at just 19 years old. She documented her treatment in a series of heartbreaking social media posts. Before I even started chemo, I harvested my eggs with the OBGYN. And basically, it's just to, you're kind of like freezing your eggs. You're hearing this young girl, Madison Marie Russo, speaking to our friends at Inside Edition with me, an all-star panel. But first, I want to go to a special guest joining us. It's Stephanie Condon-Aldreve, founder and director of Craig's Cause Pancreatic Cancer Society. And you can find that at craigscause.ca.

Stephanie, thank you for being with us. Thank you for having me, Nancy. Stephanie, to so many people, the two words pancreatic cancer is a death sentence. Now, I'm just a JD, not an MD, but from what I understand, the pancreas doesn't feel like other organs may feel. When your heart is in trouble, you feel it. I've seen my father in pain with a heart attack. With other organs, you feel it. But a lay person's understanding of this, your pancreas doesn't feel the way other organs do. So it's only when cancer of the pancreas metastasizes or goes to other organs that you finally feel it. Is that right? Yeah, absolutely. It's often been referred to as a hidden organ.

And, you know, it's hard for any general practitioner or specialist to feel a pancreas. And quite often when the symptoms first present to patients, either there's a misdiagnosis. For instance, my father, they thought he had hepatitis because he was presenting as jaundice and he had an upset stomach. And so he went through several misdiagnoses before actually being diagnosed. So often the pancreas symptoms will present as other illnesses before it starts to advance. of three to four months after a diagnosis if it has metastasized. And then, you know, you certainly feel back pain. And like I said, you'll notice jaundice, white stool, dark urine, fatigue, unexplained weight loss. You might experience new onset diabetes.

So there's a lot of different symptoms that can present with pancreatic cancer, but they're often misdiagnosed in the earlier, shall we say, stages when they first present until the patient knows for sure there's something serious wrong. I'm really sorry about your dad. Thanks. Guys, you're hearing the voice of Stephanie Condon-Oldreave, the founder and director of Craig's Cause Pancreatic Cancer Society. And it's especially rare in a young girl just 19 years old. Now, that wasn't her only ailment to top it all off. Take a listen to Hour Cut 30. This is Maddie on TikTok. My name is Maddie Russo, and this is my story.

So when my older brother, Tyler, turned 18 years old, he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, which is a chronic autoimmune disease where the pancreas no longer produces insulin on its own. With this being said, I was also tested to see if I would develop type 1 diabetes and see if I was positive for any of the antibodies. So when the test came back, I ended up being positive for all five other antibodies. And in February of 2020, I was also diagnosed with type 1 at 17 years old. And it's because of the diabetes tests that she discovers the pancreatic cancer. Take a listen to her one more time. Fast forward to February of 2022. I had yearly lab work done just with my primary care provider as a standard checkup. And aside from starting to feel just a little bit off, my lab work came back and my white blood

cell counts were not in normal range. So further testing was then done. And on February 10th of 2022, quite possibly the worst day of my life occurred. I got the call from my oncologist and they found a mass on my pancreas. And I had stage 2 pancreatic cancer at just 19 years old. She describes her fear as a young girl with pancreatic cancer in our cut 32. Scared is an understatement. I was terrified, and I definitely still am. But I'm really glad I went to my yearly health check because it would have been so easy to just skip it and say I'm fine. So please take my experience and get regular lab work done because the sooner you catch anything that is wrong, the better chance of outcome and survival you would have.

And it really could save your life like it did mine. So after finding out, I started treatment right away, consisting of oral chemo and radiation. So far, I have included eight rounds of chemo and over 50 rounds of radiation. You know, Stephanie Condon-Oldreave joining us from Craig's Cause Pancreatic Cancer Society. I'm sure you've talked to so many survivors and people that are battling pancreatic cancer. And, you know, that moment when you realize that you could be facing death is something that no one ever forgets. I remember when I had a shotgun pulled on me when I was a prosecutor and I was knocking on a door to deliver a subpoena. I remember when I learned I had a melanoma, a very aggressive cancer on my leg. That was many years ago it's been treated. That moment when you find out that something could threaten you and your family forever. Stephanie,

I know you've heard that a hundred times from people you work with. Yeah, absolutely. It's, you know, it's a devastating diagnosis. It's a scary diagnosis. And quite often for the majority of patients, they really don't have time to digest everything they're being told before they find themselves either going in for what's called the Whipple procedure, which is a life altering surgery. They call it the atomic bomb of surgeries or, you know, they're facing a terminal diagnosis. So not only are they faced with a cancer diagnosis, they're faced with a cancer diagnosis that has really scary statistics with it. And quite often, you know, we've talked about it almost, or not almost, it being having a PTSD effect on many of our patients and caregivers. Because it's just a moment in time that they know their life is going to change drastically. We're talking about a young

girl, a teen girl, Maddie Russo, who discovers that she has pancreatic cancer. Take a listen to Dave Mack at Crime Online. Madison Russo was sitting in an accounting class at St. Ambrose University when she received bad news from an oncologist. The 19-year-old has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, leukemia, and has a football-sized tumor on her spine. Russo has an 11% survival rate for five years. After undergoing 15 rounds of chemotherapy and 90 rounds of radiation, she shares her story on TikTok to raise awareness. This offers Russo comfort and hope.

And it's the message that leads to more media coverage for Russo. She does interviews with her local press, which is picked up by larger outlets. This leads to Russo discussing her cancer journey as a guest speaker at St. Ambrose University, where she is a student. Despite her illnesses, Russo continues attending class with a 4.0 GPA and works part-time job at John Deere. In her free time, Russo enjoys playing golf. Not only did she continue her schooling and get a 4.0 GPA, she takes to GoFundMe to spread awareness about pancreatic cancer

and to raise money for her treatment. Take a listen to our friends at Inside Edition. She raised over $37,000 on a GoFundMe page. Louis Frillman was so moved by her plight, he donated $1,000. What struck a chord with you about her story? She was a very young person that appeared to be in a serious amount of trouble. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, let's dig a little deeper. Take a listen to our friends at GMA. This week is not a chemo week. It's just a radiation week. Authorities allege Russo spent the past year claiming she'd been diagnosed with leukemia, stage two pancreatic cancer and a tumor the size of a football that wrapped around her spine.

Posting dozens of photos and videos like this, she's since taken down, now reposted on TikTok by another user. So it's my week off chemo. So I did she take down all the information about pancreatic cancer and her battle against one of the deadliest cancers known to man? What? Listen to this. In one interview, Madison Russo claims doctors told her she had an 11% chance of survival and people, charities, cancer organizations, they all donated to help her fight cancer. The problem is, according to authorities, she doesn't have cancer. She never did. And that's not just a lie.

It's a felony. I am too sick from treatment where I can't go anywhere. I can't do anything. This morning, an Iowa TikToker accused of faking a cancer diagnosis, charged with stealing from people who donated to help her battle a disease authorities say she doesn't have. Investigators say Madison Russo took more than $37,000 from Maddie's fight against pancreatic cancer, a GoFundMe set up on her behalf that's now been taken down. I'm so mad I could chew a nail in half right now. Kayla Brantley joining me, investigative reporter with DailyMail.com.

Kayla, what? This is a crazy story, but unfortunately not the first time we have seen people deceive the public to get some money and especially use GoFundMe to raise funds for something that isn't even real. And the way that Madison was caught was by her own hand, by posting on TikTok, by posting photos and videos of her medical tubes. And what's so amazing is that it was the public who caught on and said something doesn't look right there and started commenting and eventually reporting until she was caught. Yes, the tubes were in the wrong position and some of the photos she posted. Joining me, Dr. Tim Gallagher, medical examiner for the entire state of Florida at PathCareMed.com,

lecturer at the University of Florida Medical School, host of the International Forensic Medicine Death Investigation Conference, and treated cancer patients as a surgeon. Dr. Gallagher, thank you so much for being with us. I was thrown over to start with when I heard she had 90 rounds of radiation. Is that normal? That's absolutely abnormal. You know, radiation, basically what it does to your body is it microwaves the tissue. So it actually burns the tissue. So if she had 90 rounds of radiation, a lot of her tissue would be burnt, the disease tissue, as well as the surrounding live tissue that she still needs, and she would suffer the aftereffects of burning a lot of her viable tissue, her live tissue

as well. So no, she does not look like anybody who has undergone 90 rounds of radiation, and I would really question a department that would schedule somebody for 90 rounds of chemotherapy. I'm sorry, of radiation, typically 10, 12, maybe 15, but nowhere near 90. As a matter of fact, my dear friend is undergoing radiation for breast cancer right now. And it's supposed to be over once a week for, I don't know, maybe 10 weeks or 16 weeks. And when I heard her say she had 90 rounds of radiation, but just as a JD and not being an MD, I wasn't sure that I was right. But I bet you were spinning in your seat, Dr. Gallagher,

when you heard that not only has she had 15 rounds of chemo, 90 rounds of radiation, she still was attending class every day, had a 4.0 GPA, a job at John Deere, and enjoyed golf in her free time. You know, when we had these patients come to the hospital, they are jaundiced. I mean, the whites of their eyes are yellow. I mean, bright yellow, like nuclear yellow. Their teeth sometimes are even yellow. You know, and in a lot of these photographs, her eyes are yellow. I mean, bright yellow, like nuclear yellow. Their teeth sometimes are even yellow. And in a lot of these photographs, her eyes are wide open and they look perfectly white to me. She does not look sick. We had a saying at the hospital, sick people look sick. Wait a minute. Look, I said I'm not an MD, but listen, I did not bring you on Crime Stories to

have you spout out something my grandmother could have told me. Sick people look sick. It sounds simple, but it's true. I'm just giving you a hard time. You're right. And you know what else, Dr. Gallagher? I know you heard our special guest, Stephanie Condon-Oldsrieve, talking about how pancreatic cancer patients are often treated for other ailments because they look jaundiced or yellow looking. That's exactly what you're saying. In these photos that you looked at for us, she looks perfectly healthy. Now, how would her eye, what would she have looked like if she had stage two pancreatic cancer? Well, she would be jaundiced, meaning her skin would be yellow and her skin would be so yellow that the white part of her eyes would also be a

very bright, vivid, vivid yellow. And I'm looking at these photographs here and they're not. People who are jaundiced, they do not have suntan lines because their entire skin is now yellow. And I'm looking at some of the photographs and you can see around her clothing, she has suntan lines. So that's how we in the clinic would determine if somebody was having pancreatic disease or liver disease that was leading to jaundice. We would look to see if they had a suntan line. We would look in their eyes to see if they were yellow. And then we would start the blood test from there. Now, why can't you get a suntan line? Because the yellow pigment that is produced by the disease

gets absorbed by the skin evenly throughout the skin. So your skin is the exact same color from the top of your head to the bottom of your toes, meaning that any whitish area that you would have would also be darkened by the yellow pigment from the disease. Guys, you've got to hear our cut for. This is Reggie Terry, a KWQC6. Listen.

This search warrant is revealing some new details about what led to her arrest and what was taken from her apartment. This warrant says medical professionals came forward to report the inaccuracies of Russo's medical equipment placement on her body in the pictures that she shared on social media. The warrant also states the pictures appear that she took them from inside her apartment and not a medical office. Court documents say those medical professionals who came forward are prepared to testify. Yeah, I'm looking at one photo. Let me go straight out to you.

Kayla Brantley joining me from DailyMail.com. I'm looking at a photo on your article from DailyMail.com and it shows Madison Marie Russo. She looks like she's got a glamour pic going on. She's beautiful, white smile, bright white eyes, healthy tan. Her hair is parted over, like kind of slung over. The only thing that makes you think, well, maybe it's not a glamour shot. You know, those shots that you can go to the mall and get and you look very, very glamorous. Well, it's that she has a medical bag and she's got her shirt undone a good bit. Not judging. Don't care. But that reveals all of these tubes taped and it looks like with scotch tape to her chest she has a tube from the

ear to the nose now and she's holding the tube with perfectly manicured hands that's in your article Kayla and so that's what I keep looking back at it's the Daily Mail article Jackie is wildly waving a note to me that Dr. Gallagher says, if you looked at this Daily Mail photo, let's see where you guys got the photo. TikTok. Yep. Straight from her own TikTok. Dr. Gallagher, you said something along the lines of, if Jackie is to be believed, that any first year med student could tell you that placement is wrong. Tell me, Dr. Gallagher, in depth what you're talking about.

Well, absolutely. If you're looking at the same photograph, she's got a tube that's going in her nose to an IV bag, and she's got one taped to the front of her chest. The one that's going to her nose, the IV bag is actually lower than the tube that goes into her nose. So how is that going to be gravity fed into her nose? If it's a bag that collects fluid out of her body through her nose, then there's going to be gravity fed you know into her nose um if it's a bag that collects fluid out of her body through her nose then there's no fluid coming out of that tube going into the bag called it dr gallagher right there i'm coming back to you because

you're brilliant as i have said a million times and i'm dying to go to your international forensic medicine death investigation conference by the way That sounds like heaven to me. International Forensic Medicine Death Investigation. But Kirby Clements, my longtime friend and colleague, prosecuted with me in the inner city Fulton County District Attorney's Office. Still a lawyer. You've managed to hang on to your law license. That's pretty good, Kirby.

And author. What? How to keep your A money sign money sign out of jail I'd wash your mouth out with soap young man and he is at clementslawgroup.com Kirby Clements say did you just hear Gallagher did you hear him are we too busy counting your money oh no I heard him go to the Daily Mail please. Please go to this article and look at this picture. Hey, Kirby, you heard Gallagher. That is why, I don't know if you remember this, I would always try to start any homicide prosecution off with the medical examiner once I had laid a foundation, you know, outside the jurisprudence, because the way they tell it, I mean, case closed right there. I don't even need to hear the rest of what he's saying. When he told me about the bag

being in the wrong place, it all came together for me. That's why I like to kick cases off with a medical examiner. Absolutely. I mean, the medical examiner just makes it all make sense. I mean, I did the same thing when I was a prosecutor. It's like, hey, just come in here and tell us what you need because you're going to rule out most of the defense's arguments. And these photos, even from my perspective, I'm looking like, all right, you don't. First of all, you don't look sick because I've seen people with cancer and you are the healthiest looking cancer patient I've ever seen with the sheer number of cancers that you claim to have. The placement of all these devices. Again, I'm no doctor, but I was like, that doesn't doesn't look right to me now were you saying something about your wife oh no i'm saying my wife was the nurse and then she went on to uh become a podiatrist so i remember you

know her classes and you know going to you know i go to have lunch with her and you know we talk about the work that she did and she would always kind of opine on various things so i know and my mom used to have health issues so i know for a fact when i'm looking at that that bag i'm like what is this bag doing i don't i'm i've just been i'm just married to a doctor and i still know enough to know that's wrong i'm telling you i agree with you okay dr gallagher i just had to go to kirby on that because he seems you know amiable and friendly right now. You put him in a courtroom, he turns into a wild animal and wins all his cases, which I don't like because you're a defense attorney now. So, Dr. Gallagher, another thing. Jackie's now waving another. What did you

just say about the bandage and the port? She wants me to ask you about, in the same picture, a port. It looks as if there is a port in her chest. And what does the bandage have to do with that? What does that reveal to you? Right. So sometimes if people have cancer, they'll have a port, which is a plastic device that goes under the skin that you can stick needles into which will spare your arms and your and your legs you know from getting IVs in it so this port is over the it's almost essential part of her chest which is where a lot of bone

would be and anybody who would put this port in this place on this somebody so young should have their medical license taken away from them. The lung is over there. You can puncture the lung. You can puncture the heart. You can puncture a lot of the major blood vessels trying to access that port if it was in this location. So there are ports to be put on the chest, but this location is not where you want it. It's too risky. Let me go to Stephanie Condon-Aldree joining us, founder, director of Craig's Cause Pancreatic Cancer Society, who lived through pancreatic cancer with her father. He was the victim. How? I don't know. Does it make you mad or does it make you sick? What this girl

did, stealing people's money, pretending she had pancreatic cancer. I guess there's a range of feelings. You know, you certainly feel sad, you know, about where, you know, some people in our society are headed or what they're doing to very, you know, the people that donated to her cause, donated to her cause, because they wanted to help, they wanted to make a difference in her life, they wanted to give her hope. And, you know, so she took advantage of all of those donors, all of those supporters that wanted to make a difference in her life. But she also just took advantage, you know, she spread incorrect information about pancreatic cancer. And for all those donors, I imagine, you know, they'd be quite jaded and not trust maybe to donate to, you know,

an accredited cause or, you know, and to continue to make those differences. And that in turn can impact many organizations' programs because they're dependent on donor trust and donors wanting to make a difference. So I feel sad that there's people out there that do that. I feel disappointed that there's so many donors that were taken advantage of. You know, you certainly feel angry from a personal perspective, because I know

my dad lasted eight weeks with pancreatic cancer. And, you know, you never forget that, you know, so for someone to pretend that they had such a deadly disease and to take to take those feelings and emulate them in such a false way is really taking away from somebody else's experiences basically making money off other people's misery and heartache. With me also, forensic psychologist Dr. Sherry Schwartz and special deputy sheriff Greg Smith. Greg, take a listen to Our Cut 33. You haven't heard it all yet. Listen to her talking. Then at my three-month scan, I was informed that the tumor on my pancreas was shrinking and it was responding to treatment. However, it also spread to my blood and it is acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

There is a mental health crisis in America right now and I want to touch on the impact that cancer and chronic disease patients can go through. When your life changes in an instant and many days are spent vomiting and pain and being restricted with what you can do, your mind also becomes sick. Her mind was sick, all right, because she was ripping off people with a fake pancreatic cancer diagnosis and capitalizing on people that are suffering along with their families

watching them with this disease that moves so swiftly through your body. But that's not all, Greg. Listen to Cut 34. Yeah, I get a lot of questions about my hair. Like, you look so good. Like, how are you keeping your hair? It just comes down to my brand of chemo, which is oral chemo. I am really lucky with that.

So, thank goodness, fingers crossed. That's something to be so grateful for. That's what I'm saying, Greg. I'm so mad. I want to chew a nail in half. Why does her hair look so great in the Daily Mail picture I'm looking at that they took from TikTok? Because it's healthy. She's healthy. I mean, Greg Smith, as special deputy there in Johnson County, and you can find Greg at kelseysarmy.com. You know, sometimes I feel like we've seen it all. But this little girl right here has shown me I have not seen it all. There's still more ways to irritate and disgust us all.

Well, Nancy, this is a classic example of what I would call the oldest profession in the world, and that's the con job. These people that do this have no regard for anybody else's feelings. The important thing here is simply to be able to pull the con off for their own benefit. The only person that matters is them. They're very narcissistic. They're very empathetic in that they can pull emotion from people in order to get whatever their goal is. But when it comes to caring about other people, there's zero of that. People say, oh, well, you know, that type of crime, it's a victimless crime because nobody's physically hurt. That's a bunch of bulls. The mental trauma, the emotional trauma

that people go through, particularly those in this case that have had a loved one go through that type of cancer, you know, it's unconscionable what she did. I'm thinking about all the cancer patients that hear about Madison Marie Russo basically using them as a way for her to siphon money. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Dr. Sherry Schwartz with me, along with Greg Smith from Johnson County Sheriff's Office. Dr. Sherry Schwartz, forensic psychologist who specializes in capital mitigation, author of Criminal Behavior and Where Law and Psychology Intersect. You know, Dr. Sherry, it's bringing back a memory. My sister was a professor at the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania.

And when she was studying there, she met her dream man. Brilliant guy, played basketball through high school, won scholarships. So smart. And they married and had a child. And it wasn't long after that, he was diagnosed with MS. It rapidly ravaged his body. It wasn't many years after that that he went into a wheelchair. He was basically paralyzed from the neck down.

I remember being with my sister and Peter and her husband, and we would drive somewhere and all the handicapped spots would be taken. And she would literally, and she raised two children and worked full time and took care of her husband. She would literally lift him up somehow. She's a tiny person. Get him in the wheelchair. And she did this many times a day, even holding down a full-time job and a demanding one at that, mentally demanding anyway. And push him into where he was going to go and then turn around and a perfectly healthy person

would come get the spot after my sister had somehow hauled him across a huge parking lot to get to the door of, let's just say, the grocery store. I mean, she, because she's so much of a better person than I am, would take it in stride. I would want to go slit their tires. And I'm feeling that same thing here. Explain to me what kind of a person does what Madison Marie Russo did? Well, the kind of person that really lacks a conscience on some level, definitely lacks empathy for others. And it's very self-directed in terms of what she wants to accomplish. In this case, it appears to be that she wanted money by starting the GoFundMe. Maybe she was looking for some sympathy.

We call this, I know you'll know this term, Nancy, it comes up in court a lot, malingering. It's straight up faking medical or mental health disorders for personal gain, whether it's getting out of work or very often some sort of monetary gain, some sort of compensation, as opposed to something like Munchausen's, where people might inflict self-harm and do really horrible things themselves to make them sick with no obvious gain other than maybe sympathy for medical workers. But in this case, it seems that she was very motivated by money and was going to ride that ride all the way to the end. Guys, you've got to hear more of this woman. I've got so much of this woman talking about her ailment while other people, like you heard our friend Stephanie Condon-Oldreef talking about what she went through as her father suffered pancreatic cancer.

Okay, listen to our Cut 28. Here she goes again. The first word that comes to mind is just ugly. You know, it's an ugly disease. It's nasty. It's very just aggressive and, you you know it wants to just kill everything but at the same time I think I would um describe it as kind of like like a I don't know like ever changing because it it changes you as a person and I guess I'm

kind of going into like the spiritual side of it a little bit. But like, yeah, when I can, like it truly changes you. Like I feel like I'm a whole different person than from when I was, you know, before February, like just my outlook on life. Her spiritual side, my rear end, her spiritual side. That's her speaking to a host on the Purple podcast, Kayla Brantley, joining me from DailyMail.com. I don't even know what to say about this woman.

So somebody noticed she had her tubes and her port in the wrong place. I'm just thinking about all the people across the world that have to have a port where they're jabbed so many times they finally just put in a semi-permanent port so they don't have to have needles stuck in them all the time. And here she is with her fake port. What is happening with this woman? Well, when officers went to her house, I want to take you through what was seized from her apartment. There was a brown paper bag with medical supplies, an IV pole with a feeding pump that was filled with cotton balls, two boxes of transparent medical dressing, a wig, some cash, and pills for nausea that were actually in

her mother's name, not even for her. So she went through all of the efforts to get the supplies that made it look like she had this disease. And not only that, she stole money, but she also stole photos from people who suffered from these cancers and posted them as her own to pass them off. You know, just when I think I've seen it all, Kirby Clements, somebody like this comes along. And you and I have seen a lot of bad people. And our line of business, that's really kind of all we see are the very worst of society. I've seen killers, rapists, child molesters, you name it, drug lords. You have too. But I got to tell you, this girl is right up there with the worst of the worst.

Basically taking advantage of cancer victims. Well, you know, now from the defense perspective, I would say... Oh, dear Lord. What? Go ahead. She didn't take... I mean, while cancer victims are impacted, I guess, incidentally in this, she didn't actually take money from them. I think she capitalized.

And there are some deep issues that she probably has. As a defense lawyer, I mean, you're not going to argue that she's not guilty. You just have to go in there and explain why she did what she did and try to help get her on the right track. I think there's some mental health issues going on there. Maybe she liked the attention, low self-esteem, who knows? I mean, it's not an excuse to commit a crime, which is why you obviously be encouraging her to take a plea. I've got to ask you something, Kirby Clements. Who killed you and is wearing your skin? Because you never would have said that as a plea. Gotta ask you something, Kirby Clements. Who killed you and is wearing your skin? Because you never would have said that as a prosecutor.

What happened to Kirby, Lord? Where did he go? Bring him back. I will decide a truth, justice, and freedom now. Right. You know what? I think I know somebody that's going to disagree with you, and her name is Stephanie Condon Oldreve.

So, Stephanie, what do you have to say to Miss Madison Marie Russo? Oh, I don't know. There's a range of feelings. You know, you certainly feel, you know, as a person that went through a diagnosis with her dad, you certainly feel, you know, angry that she would try to emulate those, you know, symptoms and pretend to be, you know, sick when she's not. You know, from, you know, I certainly don't have a law degree, but I know from a, you know, a charity perspective, we'd certainly want to see individuals like that prosecuted because it does so much damage just to our donor base. And anyone that supported her would feel a sense of being taken advantage of, especially when you look at pancreatic cancer, the average age is about 60 years old. And those are a lot of the age groups that are

being scammed and targeted. Oh, you're so right. I didn't even think about it in that perspective. To Kayla Brantley, isn't it true that she is soon to be arraigned? Yeah, she will be arranged in March, the beginning of March. She was arrested, got off on $10,000 cash bond, was posted on her behalf. But she's facing very real charges. This is a crime. Well, you know what? When I asked Stephanie Condon-Oldry what she had to say to the defendant, she was much too polite. But see, I don't have that problem.

So I think I can speak on behalf of a lot of people. Rot in hell, woman. Rot in hell. And you can count your $37,000 you stole from donors with Satan over dinner. We wait as justice unfolds. Goodbye,

friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.