Category: Warrior Eli Hoax

Emily sent me the following information the day after she was revealed to be the person behind the “Warrior Eli” hoax.

No one had come forward to admit they had sent “JS’s US sister” any money, gift cards or gifts.

Until today.

Obviously this woman, Reader 3, didn’t get the address from the return address on the bracelets and then send an unsolicited gift.

About those bracelets.  Emily sent out hundreds and hundreds of them.

She sent them internationally and ordered them from a company in China.  Depending on her order size, Emily spent anywhere between 19 to 57 cents per band, including shipping.  And she sent a lot of them out.

This is pure speculation, but a reader wonders if maybe the death of “Dana Dirr” was going to be the set up for the big scam.  The family asked for donations for Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, but you know that anyone who had the return address was going to send something.

Again, we don’t know if it’s true, but since Emily lied about only receiving unsolicited gifts or cards, it makes you wonder.

If you sent anything to JS and Dana Dirr through their “relative in Ohio,” I’d love to hear from you.  warriorelihoax@gmail.com

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.

Wikipedia

Long Guardian UK article

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

Obit article

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!)

We know that “JS Dirr” and the rest of the “Dirr family” befriended many many families suffering through childhood cancer diagnoses.  These people were at their most vulnerable and support from the online cancer community must have felt like a warm hug.  Of course, none of them knew that “Eli” didn’t exist and neither did the other nine or ten Dirr children.

That’s one of the things that bothered me the most about this entire situation.  Some of these parents who spent time consoling and supporting “the Dirrs” ended up losing their own kids.  Can you imagine how it feels to look back now, knowing that Emily is a hoax, and realize they spend precious moments of their deceased child’s life talking to a phony?

That is devastating.

Speaking of awful, another reader has come forward to share her relationship with “JR Dirr.”  I’m calling her Reader #2.  Here’s what she had to say.

“I met him on Xanga through his blog.  My mother had just died from cancer and I kinda bonded with him over the cancer thing.  At first we exchanged long emails and then he asked me to instant message him and it progressed from there.  We were in contact with each other every day.  There were days that we would instant message all day long.  Like 12 hours at a time.  He texted my phone from his email but I did not have his number since “he was a cop and couldn’t give out that info”.  I have known some cops before and they also were not allowed to give out their numbers so I didn’t see anything wrong there.