Michigan Woman Finally Sent To Trial For Faking Cancer
Michigan woman Sara Ylen, was finally sent to trial after faking cancer. Ylen gained deep sympathy and financial help in her community by claiming to have cancer. She was ordered to stand trial Friday on fraud and five other charges.
After hearing 10 witnesses over two days, a Sanilac County judge said prosecutors revealed enough evidence against Sara Ylen, who even received hospice care worth $100,000 over a two-year period.
The 38-year-old Lexington woman is charged with false pretenses, fraud and using a computer to commit a crime. State police say she created documents to show she was a patient at University of Michigan cancer center in Ann Arbor and Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Zion, Ill. Both hospitals say she never was treated there.
When investigators went to her home to seize computers in 2012, Ylen subsequently arrived in the passenger seat of a car. She had a scarf around her head and a device supporting her back while a friend was retrieving a wheelchair from the rear of the vehicle, Det. Sgt. Brian Ferguson testified.
Ylen, who showed no signs of health problems while in court, didn’t present a health professional to rebut the charges. She declined to comment as she left the courthouse, although her attorney, David Heyboer, was hostile.
It’s not clear what Ylen’s motive would have been. Money raised through community fundraisers helped her with rent and other expenses, but there’s no evidence of extravagant living.
This case is not the first time Ylen’s credibility has been challenged. In a separate case in a neighboring county, she is awaiting trial on a charge of making a false report of rape against two men.
She’s been in the public eye for more than a decade in the Port Huron area, 60 miles northeast of Detroit. Ylen agreed to be interviewed and have her name published in an award-winning series in the Port Huron Times Herald after a man was convicted of raping her in a very busy parking lot during daylight in 2001. All charges were later dropped on the man.
Michigan finally brought Ms, Sara Yeln to justice on Friday.
