Miss Pennsylvania charged for faking cancer and extorting people

                                                                                     (C)Brandi Lee Weaver-Gates/Facebook

23-year-old Brandi Lee Weaver-Gates, a beauty queen who was crowned Miss Pennsylvania U.S. International, has been arrested for lying about a cancer diagnosis and allegedly scamming people out of thousands of dollars. Weaver-Gates who told people she was battling with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia was charged with theft by deception and receiving stolen property.

                                                        (C)Brandi Lee Weaver-Gates/Facebook

"We received an anonymous letter back at the end of June, beginning in July from an unknown person stating we should investigate this woman for faking cancer," State Police Trooper Thomas Stock said. "Apparently she didn't know her doctors' names and things of that nature."
Stock said that Weaver-Gates said she was a patient at Geisinger Medical Center and UPMC Medical Centers, yet both facilities advised investigators that there were no records of her ever receiving treatment. He added that she was said to have shaved her head to make it appear as if she went through cancer treatments.
Police say she received $14,000 from a bingo benefit held for her because, as the pageant sponsor put it in a Facebook post, "she was dealing with this horrible disease."
Pageant directors later released the following statement on the pageant's Facebook page:
"We at Butler's Beauties are saddened to hear of the news of Miss Brandy Weaver-Gates. We were also led to believe that she was dealing with this horrible disease and stood by her as she struggled being a beauty queen and a cancer patient," they wrote.
"We at Butler's Beauties believe that with a crown and sash you can accomplish many great things as a role model, spokesmodel and community leader as a beauty pageant queen. When you deceive the public and take people's money that is under the pretense of fraud, we will not tolerate those actions. Our hearts go out to those affected by cancer and to those who were taken advantage of by Miss Weaver-Gates," the pageant directors added.
"Effectively immediately, Ms. Weaver-Gates is no longer a representative of the Miss Pennsylvania U.S. International organization and will be required to return her crown and sash upon her release from being detained," the statement noted.