Author: warriorelihoax

First of all, I want to mention that the person who tipped our group off about “Prayers for Arianna Rae” being fishy was none other than Jadzia.  Earlier this year, Jadzia was exposed as a hoaxer on this blog but since then she’s seen the error of her ways.  I am proud to call her my friend and I’m thrilled she helped us expose this.  Jadzia has a blog that everyone should check out.

As you can see from reading the comments on our blog post from yesterday, “AJ” made many friends online, some who actually considered her to be part of their families.  They loved her and they are devastated to find out it was all a big lie.  These people cared for her, prayed for her and her daughter and were a constant source of love and support.

And they also sent her money and gifts.

From the very beginning of her public Facebook prayer page, AJ included the address of a PO Box where people could send little Arianna cards or gifts.  How did she explain having a mailing address in th US when she lived in the UK?  Well, her cousin, of course, would gather up anything sent to Arianna and forward it to her.  The cousins in these imaginary families are just amazing people, I have to say.

Now who owns this PO Box?  A young lady named Staci in Michigan.

Interestingly enough, Staci doesn’t have an online presence with her real name at all.  (If you’re looking for that name on Facebook, there is a Michigan Staci on there.  This isn’t our hoaxer. Please don’t contact her).

What do we know about Staci?  I talked to a few family members and she is in her early 20′s and lives at home with her parents.  As far as the family members were concerned, she seems like a normal person and she doesn’t have a history of lying and scamming people on the internet.

Except this isn’t the first time Staci was caught pretending to be someone named AJ online.      In 2008, a faker named AJ Rocca was exposed on the message board mygurl.com.

This time around, Staci posed as AJ, a pregnant teen from Maryland.  People became extremely close to her on the board.  Some even planned to visit AJ and her new baby once the child was born.    AJ was called out as a fake after she posted proof of her pregnancy.

Incidentally, in the Photobucket account AJ used on MyGurl.com, there are also pictures of one of Staci’s cousins and her young child.  It’s not clear if she was using them as characters in her elaborate web of lies, but they tie MyGurl AJ to Staci.

Yesterday, I heard from many people who sent “AJ and Arianna” gifts.  One generous woman mailed them a check for $500.  It was sent to the PO Box and “AJ” asked that it be made out to her brother, Jeff.  The woman who sent the check is requesting a copy of it from her bank this morning.  It will be interesting to see if Jeff is a real person or if Staci signed the check over to herself.

One woman messaged “AJ” asking if she could send little Arianna something.  This must have been before Staci set up her PO Box because she gave this woman her home address.  It matches up to an address of a house owned by Staci’s father.  The IP address from emails sent from both “AJ” and her “cousin Staci” tracks to this area too.

If you donated money, gifts or anything else to “AJ and Arianna,” please contact me at warriorelihoax@gmail.com.  This is a criminal matter now and you have options when it comes to pressing charges.

I have been in contact with Staci today.  She confessed that she is indeed the person behind AJ and Arianna.

Poor Aurella Rocca-Greer, better known as AJ, can’t catch a break.  She had two extremely traumatic late term miscarriages before giving birth to a beautiful baby girl, Arianna.  Unfortunately, little Arianna is deaf and suffers from Goodpasture Syndrome, a rare disease that causes kidney and lung failure.  This disease usually targets older men, but luckless Arianna is only four years old.  In fact, she is the youngest person ever diagnosed with the disease.

Luckily, AJ has a lot of support.  Arianna had a Facebook prayer page (screen capped there but since deleted after friends upset AJ and caused her to give up drama) and had racked up over 4000 fans.  AJ celebrated every time the number of people praying for her daughter went up.

AJ also organized prayer chains on the day of Arianna’s kidney transplant to help guard against a possible bad outcome.

Arianna and AJ lived in England with AJ’s husband Joshua.  (They are also expecting twins, of course).  After Arianna had a kidney transplant and experienced complications, the doctors in the hospital decided that the best treatment option for the little girl would be to transfer her to a hospital in Lansing, Michigan.

So, on October 28th, AJ, Arianna and a couple of medics boarded a small helicopter and took off from England bound for Lansing, Michigan.  Even though the helicopter ride must have been quite bumpy, what with flying through Hurricane Sandy and all, they arrived safely in Michigan just a handful of hours later.

Once she arrived in the land of medical miracles, Arianna quickly started feeling better.

She was released from the hospital on November 8th (eleven days after the perilous life-saving helicopter flight) and apparently felt well enough to stop and do a family photo shoot in a cornfield on the way home.  You know, just like all families with immunosuppressed children do.

The real “AJ” is a woman from Nebraska named Danielle.  Her sister, Sydney, has a pretty public Facebook page.  Sydney’s pictures were used as AJ’s sister Maddie.

The picture of the family in the cornfield after “Arianna’s” hospital stay was found on Danielle’s husband’s father’s Flickr account.

The main profile picture for “Prayers for Arianna” was also found on Sydney’s Facebook profile.

Even these pictures of “Arianna’s” birthday party and new bedroom accessories were taken from other places on the internet.

Danielle’s pictures have been used as “AJ” for many years.  Here’s a profile at TeenSpot.com that was made in 2009.  Here’s another profile, this one from Yunti.com, with more baby pictures of Danielle’s real life child used to portray “Arianna.”  That’s also from 2009.

“AJ” is also an admin on various Mommy related Facebook groups, including Kid’s Prayer Network, Mommys Matter, Moms and Future Moms and The Journey Through Parenthood.

We’ve figured out the person behind “Prayers for Arianna.”  I’d like to talk to her before publishing more about this.

Also, if any friends of AJ Rocca-Greer want to contact me, I’d love to hear your stories.