Why would someone spend so much time and effort pretending to be someone else, or in the Dirr case, 75 other people?
Munchausen by Internet is a term coined by Dr. Marc Feldman in 2000. It’s a pattern of behavior in which a person seeks attention and sympathy online by posing as someone who has a terrible illness. I emailed Dr. Feldman about this case and he said it was the most elaborate case of Munchausen by Internet he’s ever heard of, at least in a long time.
Here are some links on Munchausen by Internet. Clear some time out of your day because it’s a fascinating disorder and the cases are bizarre.
Wired Interview with Dr. Feldman
Article about the Livejournal community fake_lj_deaths
2001 article about the Kaycee Nicole hoax, one of the first big cases
Some interesting notes about all this.
Dr. Feldman told me that faking cancer is very common, both in real life and on the internet. He said in real life the motivation is scamming people for money, but online the primary motivation is for attention.
Emily didn’t (as far as we know) make any money off of this hoax. In fact, she spent a lot of money having bracelets made to draw awareness to Eli’s cancer. This is a message between a reader and “Dana Dirr.”
The reader above lives outside of the United States, so the postage was significant.
Another reader writes:
“I just a month or so ago, got a package of Warrior Eli Bracelets from “JS’s sister”. She put a SHITLOAD of time, energy and especially, MONEY into those things! She had to have spent THOUSANDS of dollars — each one is in a ziploc snack bag with the size written in marker, with a little print-out note that says “I asked Eli what he wanted for his 5th birthday. He said ‘Daddy, I want to cure childhood cancer so other kids don’t have to get sick like I did’ and the link to the lemonade stand site, and the links to “read Eli’s story” at caringbrindge and on facebook., with a little yellow ribbon in the loop, with a tiny safety pin, so the recipent can pin it on their coat.”
Another common thread in MBI cases is a vast knowledge of medical terms and procedures. Emily is a medical student (who claims to be on a leave of absence from school) and her mother is a nursing professor.
The vast majority of MBI sufferers are female, in their 20s and 30s, and often fall back into the same MBI pattern after their lies are exposed.
Dr. Feldman also let me know that BBC radio is doing a radio documentary on Munchausen by Internet starting June 4th. It will be accessible online here.
(Thanks to Reader R for the pic and everyone else who sent in bracelet stories!)
It wouldn’t surprise me if Emily’s parents unwittingly paid for a lot of the supplies involved with organizing and sending the bracelets.
I wondered this too.
Can anybody confirm whether these march the bracelets for Eli Holt? I thought that somebody had linked a blog entry where Eli Holt’s mom talked ab boxes of camo colored Warrior Eli bracelets.
That’s a good thought. Maybe Emily ordered these from this family.
The Holt family never had any interaction with Emily or the Dirrs.
Ah. Hey, did Dr. Feldman say anything about the possibility of a group of people doing something like this or is it usually just an individual?
He didn’t. That is something to look into for sure. I tend to think Reader 5 is another sock puppet but the real life links make me wonder.
It’s very unlikely something like this was committed by more than one individual. It would require more than one individual suffering from a factitious disorder coming together to create one scenario and keeping it going for many years. Statistically, it’s not a likely assumption.
Agreed, but we want to be sure.
I know there is such a thing called (and my spelling may be off ) foley eh due which is ‘shared madness’ or something, and its when two people (and sometimes more but mostly two) share an extensive delusion And actively work to keep it alive, its a mental illness type thing as well, though I don’t know how prevulant it is.
My phone autocorrected to Holt. Instead of Horn. His are not the same.
Sorry, I meant Horn too.
Is this “JS”? http://www.flickr.com/photos/95961461@N00/3018534188
Yes! He’s not “Phil” so he’s either the owner of that account (Ryan?), or he’s “Sterny”
The guy on the left looks like a guy from one of the mobog pictures, but I didn’t follow the story long enough to know if this is who she used.
did anyone get a hold of Ryan Tallent?
I contacted him but have not heard back yet. Since the Flickr album is still public, I’m assuming he hasn’t gotten my message yet.
He is Ryan Tallent! Wow, Diane.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tallrs0/2813460974/
I ran some of the pictures through “Who stole my pictures” — it’s an add-on for Firefox. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/who-stole-my-pictures/
You guys are amazing! That’s him!
So the pic with JS and Dana together. Was that an Esther look alike? Was it photoshopped?
I think it is.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tallrs0/6845037270/in/photostream has anyone contacted the owner of this account
People are working on making sure the person isn’t involved in any way but hopefully we’ll be cleared to contact him soon.
I bet Emily had some sort of crush on Ryan….it seems like she had an obsession with him.
I don’t think this Ryan kid ha anything to do with this, other than having his identity be stolen. I’ve looked through hundreds of his flikr photos and this is someone who is very well travelled, had tons of friends and seems to enjoy life. I would be shocked to find out he is a sociopath. He looks like a fun loving college guy to me.
I agree but these people have more experience with this stuff than I do so I’m waiting for them to clear it.
I really doubt he had anything to do with it, she seemed to target people who had tons of pictures available so she could build on the story, like all the hospital pics of Eli and his mom. There were literally hundreds of pictures, so it would seem she would pick a good looking guy with tons of oics to attract followers.
This is the picture that “Dana Dirr” had as her profile picture http://www.flickr.com/photos/tallrs0/4104457162/in/photostream/ later she used the same picture and added the kids around it… I believe Ryan had his ciber identity stolen by Emily who was obsessed with him
I think that Emily was so obsessed with Ryan (JS) that she needed to removed perfect Dana from his life. Who knows what was/is going on in her head, I hope she gets help.
I was trying to look up the link of Esther to see if Kathleen and her are the same person… or is she only a look a like????
Now that I think about it, “Dana” had a daily photo challenge and in one of her pictures it was a pic of JS where she wrote something like this, something you are afraid of (and there was a picture of JS) to lose him to another woman..
I don’t think that Esther and Kathleen really look alike. They are definitely two different people. I think Emily has stolen images/identities from a lot of people and I think that there’s no way to know exactly how many (although I think you guys have found much more than I would have ever guessed you would/could).
I remember looking at that collage “Dana” had posted and thinking to myself “If all these women are supposed to be her, something is really off here. I really think that these pictures are of different women…or I’m crazy…or “Dana” has had some plastic surgery at some point.” 🙂
Ryan’s hometown is Cincinnati.
Hey guys
I’ve yet to comment but I’ve been following along with all of you. Just a question (and I hope this makes sense because this story makes my brain hurt) is the photo of the female hand holding the bracelet “Emily’s” hand? Because I immediately noticed the checkerboard flooring. Then I followed the link someone posted about this Ryan Tallent, who Emily used as JS?? His apartment photos were included in his flikr account. Same flooring. Checkerboard is not that common. Anyone have suggestions?
Hey
Can I be anon please taryn?
What do you mean, delete your user name?
Nevermind. Not necessary.
Found them. Seems more than coincidental?
Taryn thanked reader R for the pics.
So much info all around, can you post both pics? this seems like something no?
When you start a business, the startup is expensive; you invest in your product in the hopes that you’ll make that money back and then some after a year or so. As more information comes out on this Eli scheme, it’s almost as if whoever is involved in this scam made an initial investment to prepare for a win-fall later. Who knows if the Mother’s Day Accident wasn’t actually supposed to be the “Grand Opening” where people would start sending money to this man who was now left to raise 11 kids all on his own? Just like with a new store, you want to get the word passed around on a day that most people go on FB to send wishes to their family and friends. Those few associated with “Emily”, “JS”, etc. saw the news and “Emily” knew they would pass the word about their friend’s situation (as what happened in this case) and then the “sister’s” address get passed around and gifts and money start raining down.
Great point. Can I use this on the blog? I have a post coming up about soliciting for “cards” etc.
Taryn
Can you tell me if the photo of the bracelet is Emily or a reader holding it?
It is the reader, R.
You can most definitely use it.
Thanks! Ok, I guess checkerboard floors are more common than I thought. My parents have one, so I shouldn’t be surprised. But I saw it and my mind wandered. I so want to get to the bottom of this. I wish we had more info.
That makes so much sense! I think its exactly what was supposed to happen!
That would make sense since Dane commented about fake people (lol) trying to collect money and that he would later set up something tor donations.
Crap that was a reply to Mrs.O above.
You steer people away by saying “donate to XYZ in honor of my son” and then here’s this sudden death. Poor sick Eli and his 9 siblings and this newborn baby and this young man who now has to carry the burden. No way there wouldn’t be hundreds of people sending money and gifts. The address has already been sent around to several people. Those people msg their FB friends who in turn msg their FB friends and, as the old shampoo commercial used to say: “and so on and so on and so on”.
And steering people away by claiming there are others trying to benefit off of your wife’s death would raise even more money simply because of people feeling even more sorry for the family. It’s all pretty ingenious honestly. This has taken so many turns, I am having a hard time processing it all.
well how many factories actually produce these kinds of bracelets? Could the person behind the scam not be traced that way? They must have left a shipping address.
We have the return address and also the company she used.
This is just so mind-boggling.
I DO believe that there would be an expectation of people sending money, etc even if “JS” said, no I don’t need it — people send flowers AND donate to causes, even when the obit says “in lieu of flowers please donate to ____”.
Just imagine, if all the people on the friends lists of JS, Dana, Dane, Warrior Eli, and the xanga, if ALL those people bought a $50 or $100 VISA or Mastercard gift card, and mailed it to JS sister asking her to pass it along to him to help him raise his family… imagine if a couple of people started a fund for raising the new baby. There were over 6500 people on the Warrior Eli facebook page … say, x $100 … that`s $65,000. Add in a few hundred on each of the facebook profiles of Emily, JS, Dana, Dane, the xanga … there would have been a LOT of money to be had!
There is NO WAY in hell that Emily started this when she was 11 … My daughter IS 11 and an exceptional writer (she is already writing a book, and she`s GOOD!) but there is no way she could have come up with all that. She would not have been able to figure out terminology, not medical especially, and the cancer that Eli was born with is a kinda unusual one, which would require a fair amount of research. So this Emily is STILL LYING — because no 11-year-old kid has the kind of time required to create all of this. NO WAY.
According to public records, Emily Dirr (there’s 2) is 22, the other is 34, I’m thinking what if the real Emily Dirr behind this is the 34 year old? Who’s to say she didnt steal the other Emily Dirr’s identity? Or who’s to say she didn’t steal someone else’s?
Oops meant to say thst she isn’t someone else, not that she stole someone elses. But I’m thinking more along the lines of she’s pretending to be the 22 year old and shes actually the older. No one would doubt it because the young one has a medical background.
I have talked to the “young Emily” on her medical school email account and also have talked to her on a cell phone number that is registered at her address.
So basically that confirms that she did in facf start this at 11 years old.
Just so I understand, Eli’s hoax didn’t start 11 years ago, she just started pretending to be other people 11 years ago, right? Didn’t someone say that the oldest post they could find was in 2004? So she would have been 14 then. Also, the real E* is only 5(?), so she wouldn’t have been able to use his pictures until then, making her 17. So, who was she pretending to be when she started?
I’m calling the beginning of this as 2005, not 2003, so she was 15. She was pretending to be JS since he only had one child, Timmy. (2003 I think) We don’t have many other sources for this, but she did have a fake band website for Johnny Dirr from that time.
Did you ever take a look at the links I posted for the xanga archives? I think those went back to 2004?
I don’t know, but my guess would be she started at 11 by writing some of the story, as creative writing, a fiction, and then a few years later she brought JS to life, maybe added twists like Eli as she went on.
Have you ever heard of JT Leroy? People talked to ‘him’ on the phone too. I think whoever you spoke to is the main player but she/he is not 22.
She definitely is 22.
i just actually found out about this hoax today, and have seen multiple people wonder if she acted alone. and also that she had 75 (!!) different ‘identities’. i don’t know how many of those profiles were created with each individual site, (for example, 5 of those were twitter, 7 of them were facebook, etc) nor do i know how relevant what i’m about to say is to this horrible, horrible story.
what i do know is that with facebook, when an individual tries to create multiple accounts and use those accounts, after the first, facebook will ask you to confirm your new account with a phone number, which they send a confirmation code to, that you then have to type in to the facebook page before being able to use your account. sure, this is easy. who doesn’t have a cell phone & house phone. but for every account you want to register, you have to have a different, NEVER BEFORE USED phone number. like i said earlier, im not sure how relevant this is to the story, but how many different phones numbers can a 16 year old girl have? i only know this because i get bored at work and play those facebook games, like castleville and farmville, in which you need friends to send you the items you need, so i tried to create extra accounts to send myself what i needed. it worked for the first, which i activated using my cell number. but then when i tried to login to my real account (which ive been using for years), they made me confirm that also with a new phone number before logging in.
anyways, i hope this is somewhat relevant in trying to crack this whole hoax, and my deepest apologies to anyone who got hurt from this or who had pictures stolen. hopefully this girl gets what’s coming to her.
You can simply use different email addresses. I’ve never had to use a phone to verify my account. Also, google voice is free.