Updates on Antranette Nolan and Chelsea Hassinger

Manny Munoz, the founder of Gamerosity, received another request out of Memphis, TN for a child to be added to the site’s Wall of Heroes and to receive a donation from the charity.

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A few hours later, he got a second email requesting an update as to when “Annabelle” would be added to the wall.  Since this was the exact same thing Antranette Nolan did when she tried to add “Emily” to the site, Manny was suspicious.

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It turns out he had reason to be.  “Annabelle’s” mother has the same cell phone number as the fake Emily.  Antranette Nolan was at it again.

I contacted Antranette at the phone number she gave Gamerosity.  At first she denied it but then admitted that she had indeed made up cancer patient Annabelle as well as Emily.

Antranette wrote an apology email to Manny Munoz.  He was gracious enough to share his reply with me.

“Antranette,

This CAN’T happen again. Don’t make me cynical, don’t make me suspicious of EVERY child that comes through the site. They don’t deserve it.

There are REAL KIDS with REAL ISSUES that we’re trying to help. How can you make something so POSITIVE becomes so NEGATIVE? A 17 year old boy that’s extremely close to our heart is on the verge of dying RIGHT NOW because Leukemia has overtaken his body and you think it’s a game?! This is not a game, this isn’t a joke. We bring care packages to kids to take their mind off the fact that they can’t keep a meal down, or to distract them from the needle that’s going in their back injecting them with chemotherapy… this is REAL STUFF. That’s why we do it.

There’s other platforms to receive the attention you need, Gamerosity and any other childhood cancer platform is NOT one of them. I’m sorry about the devastating losses of your parents and a loved one around you, it’s hard to come back from that, but there are programs that can help you. Taryn pointed you in the direction of one as well as providing a FREE session, I suggest you take her up on that offer. Nobody is judging, and they may offer a way for you to constructively navigate this life without stealing from children.

We have records of everything, we will hang on to them. We cannot see any more fraud coming your way from here on out in any of the childhood cancer communities. We’re all closely knit and work together to ensure the right people are being loved and cared for. Please don’t help us build a case.”

Unfortunately, Antranette also reached out to someone else trying to scam donations.  The father of Super Sammy, a three year old neuroblastoma patient, was Facebook friends with Antranette when she was claiming her daughter Emily was sick.  The day after Antranette’s exchange with Manny, Danny Johnson received a Facebook message from Antranette.

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So, there you have it.  “Emily” was misdiagnosed with cancer and Antranette is still trying to raise money online.  After Danny Johnson sent her the link to this blog and told her he was on to her, Antranette AGAIN apologized and promised she’d never do it again.  Her new page was deleted.

Moving on, we’ve had several readers sent us the link to this blog, Taryn Wright is Wrong.  It’s a blog written by someone claiming to be Chelsea Hassinger who says our blog entries about her are untrue and fabricated.  After this blog came to our attention in March, I contacted Chelsea and she denied writing it.  She was very concerned that someone was trying to give me more material for blog entries about her.  I told her to report the blog as fake and she did.

Then, in April, I received this letter from a lawyer claiming to represent the family of Chelsea Hassinger.

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Very intimidating, but it turns out, there’s no lawyer by that name liscensed to practice law in Pennsylvania.  In fact, there’s no law firm by that name either.  When I called the number listed on the header, I got the voice mail of a man doing a very convincing British accent saying I had reached the law firm of Hargold, Gormann and Beckinridge and for me to leave a message after the tone.  I did, but I’ve never heard back from this lawyer.  The number has now been disconnected.

The address of the “law firm” is a building that houses no legal offices.

Chelsea also denies being the person behind this.  She says she’s discussed it with her family and they are pursuing an investigation into who is assuming her identity in order to give me more material to write about.

The letter was mailed from Pennsylvania, and Chelsea lives down south, so her story checks out that she’s at least not the one who mailed it.

Since the letter from “the attorney” and the Taryn Wright is Wrong blog tell basically the same story, the same person might be responsible for both.

We still stand by the entries written about Cheecha Kicks Cancer, including the apology written by Chelsea wayyy back in March.

Every one of these hoaxes has strange elements, but this one has definitely been the strangest.

Again, I want to say I’m not saying Chelsea sent this letter or wrote the blog.  I have no proof one way or the other, and I am taking Chelsea’s word that she did not.

An Apology from Chelsea Hassinger

Chelsea asked me to post the following on her behalf.

I have been staring at a blank page for close to an hour and it has yet to become any easier for me to write what I know I have to.

I have tried to type this out in dozens of different ways and come to the conclusion that there won’t ever be a way to say it perfectly. It just has to be said period. I don’t know for sure that this will even begin to make a dent in making anything better. That is not what this is about, though. This is about me coming to tell you what you deserve to hear, which is that I am sorry; two words that really should not be near as hard to say as what they are.

It startles me to come to understand how hard it is to say “I am sorry” when you know that the situation they’re affiliated with is one that really hurt people. Especially when it hurt not only one, but several people who opened their arms and hearts to embrace someone without having any way to know how many layers the person they are embracing has.

I am sorry that there was so much hurt and so much destruction caused by my words and my actions. I am sorrier still, that I did these things and told these lies to begin with and even more that I have no good reason to explain why.

I don’t have an evil heart or an evil spirit or mind. I believe that what I do have, goes deeper and is more conflicted than that. It isn’t evil because people are not evil. You told me, and in a way, taught me that. Despite whatever wrongs human-beings may commit against one another, nobody is really evil.

You are right in saying that something about me is missing and spiraling out in no-man’s land. It will be something I have to take control of and repair and in order for me to do that, I need to accept that I need help.

Nobody is perfect. We all know that much, but imperfection is corrected in the best ways possible when we take action to right the wrongs it has caused.

Now and then, we have little choice except to accept our poor decisions as our own and learn from them. I will do that. I will take your words into my heart and remember them, but keep them at a safe distance as we sever our ties.

Thank you for the chance to do that and allowing me to have this shot in life at turning this around to become something real.

EDIT: Chelsea added the following in our comment section.

Chelsea says:

It was me. It was my lies. My bullshit. Nobody else’s. Pulling other people’s names into it is bullying. If you want to talk about someone, focus on the one who lied, faked a blog, a disease, plagiarized, and hurt people. Leave innocent bystanders and their names out of it.

and

Chelsea says:

Everything I am accused of, I have done and sincerely regret it.

Please leave me to handle this as best as I and therapists can.

Thank you.

Chelsea Hassinger and hitRECord.org

In August of 2011, a group of people became friends in a chat room on the website hitRECord.org.  This site is an online community made up of artists who are encouraged to upload songs, artwork, video and other creative projects.  The terms of service for the site specifically states that each person must upload work that is their own.  Occasionally, uploaded work will be used in a live show for the website or in a book and the submitter will receive compensation for their contribution.

Chelsea joined the group and was welcomed with open arms.  Her artwork was very well received.  In fact, two of Chelsea’s tiny stories (the site’s term for illustrated short fiction) were used in the collaborative book “The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories.”

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Chelsea’s screen name on the site was chelsea.e.  Very impressive artwork, right?  She soon had a following of fans and her work was shared on Tumblr and other social media sites.

The hitRECord folks had several live shows, and Chelsea attended two of them, meeting her friends from the chat room.  Soon, she shared with them she was tired and worried she might be sick.  On November 11, 2011, Chelsea announced that she had been diagnosed with AML.  Her friends were devastated and worried for her.

Over Thanksgiving, Chelsea’s hitRECord friends came to her house in Raeford, North Carolina to visit and show their support.  It was during this visit that they helped Chelsea shave her head.  Friends of “Chelsea” will recognize this picture, taken during that visit.

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Soon, the hitRECord friends started questioning certain aspects of Chelsea’s cancer treatment.  Doctors waited almost a month to begin chemo.  Chelsea had to drive three hours to Washington DC for a spinal tap.  When she was inpatient, the only person who was allowed to visit was her sister, and care packages had to be sent to her parent’s house in Pennsylvania.  They pushed these questions to the back of their minds and concentrated on supporting their sick friend.

Then, Chelsea’s hitRECord contributions were found elsewhere online.

Check out this piece from a deviantART user.

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And this turtle sketch also looks familiar.

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While the plagiarism accusations were being investigated, Chelsea’s hitRECord friends began looking into her cancer story.  She claimed she was receiving outpatient chemotherapy at Duke.  Friends called the hospital and there was no patient by that name who had ever been treated there.

Duke also doesn’t do outpatient chemotherapy for AML.

Friends looked closely at her Facebook page and found that Chelsea had used the exact same picture of platelets that she used on her Cheecha Kicks Cancer blog.  They found it elsewhere online, just like we pointed out in our first post about her.

Then, a social security number posted on a hospital bracelet picture from Chelsea’s Facebook turned out not to belong to her.

Finally, hitRECord went public with the accusations of plagiarism against Chelsea.  Although she had received credit in the book, she had never been paid for her contribution.  Immediately after being publicly accused, her blog, Tumblr and twitter were deleted and her phone number was changed.  Any friends from the hitRECord community were deleted from her Facebook.

Another update will follow shortly.  I’ve been contacted by a lot of people who were involved with Chelsea in the past and I’m trying to slowly sort through the information in a way that makes sense.

(Thank you so much to the many hitRECorders who contacted me with information about this).

Also, please refrain from name-calling in the comments section.  Venting or giving new information is fine, but attacking other commenters is not.  Please be respectful to both the victims and the person behind the hoax.  I appreciate it.