Original subtitles

I sent Nancy an email.

"Hi, Nancy, I am contacting you

"because I saw a comment you left

"on the Exposing People Who Fake Cancer Facebook page.

"And I believe that I have a story

"that you might be interested in checking out.

"There is a 30-year-old woman in my Silicon Valley city

"who is now claiming to have stage four blood cancer."

I can't believe I wrote all this.

I'm accusing someone of faking cancer.

This is the first time I've seen this since I sent it.

Okay. "I would be happy to speak with you

"on the condition that my identity

"will not be revealed."

I wanted to remain anonymous at the time.

I knew she was a member of the press.

She wasn't going to say who I was.

And literally, I think within the hour,

she responded to me.

When I was contacted about someone faking cancer,

I couldn't help but think about what I had been through in...

in my past.

I had a sister that had died from cancer.

When she was diagnosed with lung cancer,

at a very young age,

she was a mom of two, much like Amanda,

and it was something that hit home.

With this particular tip,

there was a lot of information to look at.

It was really something that if she didn't have cancer,

it was a pretty elaborate scam.

She said, "I'm very interested in this story.

"Can we talk about this further?"

And... I said yes.

She starts telling me these stories

about Amanda's cancer diagnosis...

...and how much they did for her...

and the money they gave her...

and it wasn't until Amanda proceeded to swim underwater

with no regard for just having fluid drained from her brain...

that she was like, "These things are not adding up,

"and I don't think she's sick."

Then Lisa lets me know this is in 2010 and 2011.

I mentioned, kind of in passing,

that there had been a fundraiser

for a member of our community who had cancer...

...and the community rallied together

and raised 100,000 dollars for him and his family.

And the very next day,

Amanda called me and told me that she had cancer

and that she had a lot of medical bills.

And that was late 2010 she told us that.

In 2012, Amanda said

she was just newly diagnosed with cancer

and decided to share that in a blog.

Lisa felt comfortable enough to say, "Listen,

"she told us she had four months to live,

"and that was in 2010 and 2011,

"so I just know that this is all lies

"from 2012 on. It's just lies."

And so, I started to check out Amanda's blog.

"The doctor said

"my mature white blood count is too low,

"so I will probably need the Neupogen shots."

"Today is the day my hitchhiker is being 'beamed' out!

"Time for some brain surgery!!"

"Five hospital stays and 32 doctors' appointments

"and lab visits in January alone!"

It was already years into her blog

and her journey fighting cancer.

Everything was photographed and documented.

"Here's me in a hospital bed."

"Here's me with an IV in my arm."

"Here's me at doctor's appointments."

Tons of pictures.

Tons of information on people that donated.

She would post all the events that she went to.

Her treatments.

All the different hospitals.

And there was a great deal of detail to it.

So, it was really important to sit down

and just pick apart that blog.

Everything took time to fact-check

and had to be documented carefully.

So, then once I'd fact-checked those first three years,

I'm now watching her post in real time.

"So, apparently, no one wants to hire

"a terminal cancer patient?!

"The nerve... I know, right? I'm of course kidding,

"but I am having a hard time finding a career

"while disclosing the 'C' word."

Nancy and I talked quite regularly

because every time there was a new blog post,

one of us would text the other.

Didn't matter what time of day or night it was.

"What is she-- Can you believe she's claiming this now?

"Like, is any-- What-- Is anybody questioning this?"

It was everything from,

"I'm now part of the Lymphoma Society."

"I went to this cancer conference."

And anything she posted was just more for me to fact-check.

"As of right now,

"the only drug left I can try

"doesn't even have an active trial

"in the United States, except for lung cancer."

Clinical trials are not hard to verify

because clinicaltrials.gov is very accurate.

That's where you go to check on trials

and to know what's legitimate.

The information that Amanda gave didn't make sense.

And I spoke to somebody

that was an expert in this field.

She took a look at the blog and gave me a bunch of notes on,

"Hey, these are the things that didn't sound right to her."

So, I knew that something's not passing the sniff test.

Nancy believed me, and she believed in the story.

Once I felt like Amanda did not have cancer,

that's when I felt most comfortable

to start reaching out.

But I was being really careful

in who I reached out to because, you know,

Amanda was really beloved in the community.

Three days after I had my son,

I heard the words, "You have stage three blood cancer."

My God.

I was really concerned about reaching out

to somebody at the church because she was on that stage.

She was in the audience. People knew who she was.

I felt that reaching out to anyone there directly

would not go well.

But I knew, from looking at court records,

that Amanda's husband, Cory, had an ex-wife.

I saw she had an Etsy profile, so I reached out.

Cory's ex-wife responded to me, and she said,

"I have nothing nice to say, but I can tell you

"that they're always lying."

I felt like, "Wow, okay.

"I'm onto something."

I am Aletta Bernal. I am...

...the ex-wife of Cory, Cory Riley.

I met Cory playing pool.

And we just hung out and talked, and he asked to see me again,

and that's how we ended up dating.

It just kind of went from there.

Um, I was pregnant with Jessa a few months after,

and then we ended up getting married...

which was a little quick.

I was seven years old when my mom and Cory had met.

And being a little girl,

knowing that I was going to have a little sister

was so exciting. I remember being over the moon.

But I was very sick leading up to that.

I remember countless hospital visits

and stays and tests

and everything, trying to figure out

what was going on with me, why I was so sick.

And then we were told that I had leukemia.

I was nine months pregnant with Jessa

and my daughter, Jaymie, was diagnosed with leukemia.

So that was a difficult time.

Probably gonna get emotional.

I remember the first time I finally held my baby sister.

I was going through treatment for two months at that point.

Bald-headed, little girl, just holding this little...

little bundle of life.

She went through a lot. She really did.

Her white blood cell counts were out of whack

and she could get sick very easily.

There was different periods of time where,

you know, she couldn't be around other people.

Jaymie was at home a lot with cancer.

She couldn't go to school because of her immune system.

And that's when Amanda comes into the picture.

She's hired by Aletta to teach dance

and cheerleading classes at the house.

That's how she met Jaymie and Jessa, as well as Aletta

and Aletta's husband, Cory.

We, as a family, wanted Jaymie to have

a normal childhood even though she had cancer.

I was working at a gym.

So, I'm like, "Wait a minute, I might have someone

at the gym that could teach classes."

And I brought Amanda over to my sister's house.

She was a college student.

And they connected immediately.

It was really tough being sick.

So, Amanda would come over and teach me and my cousin

how to cheer and dance.

She didn't seem like an adult figure in my mind.

She was like a big, cool friend.

And it was a really fun time.

The kids loved her. She clearly loved the kids.

Jaymie and my daughter went to San Jose State

at a talent show with Amanda.

We have a very special performance here.

I just really wanted to do well by her.

Oh, let's see what the judges think.

So, I'm gonna give you a six-point-six.

Amanda wasn't happy with that.

She had the two girls go up

to the judges

and try to persuade them to give them a better score.

We're like, "Hmm, okay."

Beyond strictly cheer or this or that,

Amanda would hang out with us

and be a part of our family outings

and gatherings and stuff.

She was very much a part of the family in that sense.

So, I would have never imagined that someday...

Amanda would marry my sister's dad.

Cory and I divorced.

Amanda started hanging over at Cory's house,

and they eventually ended up together a few years later.

Is that anything you ever could've imagined?

No.

Cory and Amanda.

I don't know where it began.

I never saw any signs

of them even being interested in each other.

I don't get it. I don't get it at all.

Despite the 12-year age difference,

despite the fact that Amanda had become part of the family

of Aletta, Cory, Jaymie and Jessa,

as a young 17-year-old,

Cory and Amanda got together.

And then the next thing you know,

Amanda and Cory are married.

And it was kind of crazy that this young,

like, big sister then became Jessa's stepmom.

What a big kick in the teeth to Aletta.

If I would have known,

I would have never had Amanda come to our house.

But how are you supposed to know?

She ripped apart my family.

And then they took my reputation and squashed it.

Cory is kind of an enigma.

So many people have questions about Cory, me included.

Jessa!

- Oh! - Ooh!

- Play-Doh maker French fry. - Play-Doh.

What we do know about Cory

is that from a very young age, he didn't have his father.

His father died by suicide when Cory was young,

and he was raised with his mother.

I became involved with the organization,

"Big Brothers, Little Brothers."

And I got matched up with this kid called Cory Riley,

and the absolute minute that I met him

and the minute he met me, it was just a really,

really cool connection.

Cory was super fun. I mean, he always had a smile.

My role was just to give him

some kind of a male figure just to do stuff with,

and he became a huge part of my life.

And I was proud of him as he grew up.

When I first met Amanda,

Cory was so effusive and,

"You gotta meet my wife, you gotta meet my wife."

And Cory, it was almost like a...

how you would treat a sculpture.

I mean, he was so enamored with her.

And I walked away very... you know, very happy

that he just seemed to be in a good place in his life.

I knew nothing, absolutely nothing

about his first wife.

Cory and I never spoke about his... his first wife.

Amanda would say how Jessa's mother

caused them a lot of grief and a lot of anguish.

She didn't get her daughter to school.

She laid in bed all day.

And when Cory was married to her,

Cory had to do all the work,

all the housework, all the cooking.

Jessa was going back and forth between Cory and I.

And I expected that we would have all worked together.

I would have never expected that Cory and Amanda

would try to take custody from me.

Amanda called Jessa her "bonus daughter."

And Jessa was the subject

of an awful custody battle for years.

Amanda was, like, the one who was more pushy

to get the custody of Jessa

to bring her bonus daughter to their house.

Amanda loved being a stepmom.

Amanda would talk to me pretty openly about Jessa's mom,

and it seemed like Amanda was a savior,

is how it was painted.

She came in and provided stability and love,

and Cory's ex-wife was...

a nightmare.

It was like something out of Hollywood.

Cory's ex-wife was bad news.

And we'd think, "Oh!

Well, good thing Jessa has Amanda."

I thought Jessa was from one night stand.

That's what Cory told me.

He was a bouncer at the bar, met this woman,

went home with her, and Jessa was the result of it.

Come on, baby.

The one night stand,

that makes me wonder, how many other people

did they tell that to?

Yeah! Whoo!

Cory and I were married for four and a half years.

They were married. They had not only Jessa,

but they had myself.

Like, I just-- I don't know where that comes from.

My sister went through hell.

She went through hell. She was in so much pain.

I felt very threatened.

Amanda would sign letters at school,

saying that she was Mom,

and they put her as the mother and Cory as the father

and didn't put me down, even as an emergency contact.

She texted me and said, "Legally, I am her mother,

"and you are her birth mother."

Who does that?

I mean, there was a lot of turmoil going on,

but Cory told me that she had cancer,

and, of course, I felt horrible.

I actually felt bad for Cory

because he had just gone through it with Jaymie,

and now he's gonna go through it with his wife.

I don't remember exactly when I had gotten the news

about Amanda being sick...

...but I know I felt terrible for her,

myself being a cancer survivor.

Amanda had invited me to a Relay for Life event,

Pack the Park Purple, at the San Jose Giants game.

I went to that event,

planning on just keeping it to myself.

'Cause at that time, I...

I knew about the custody battles.

And then I had found out that...

Amanda not only put it on her blog

that I had attended the event with her,

that we went together was her narrative.

But she had also brought it up in court against my mom...

that, "Oh, Jaymie and I attended an event."

Like, I was just a part in her...

grand scheme.

And that was nowhere near my intention of going

to that game.

It was a painful time when they kept trying to get custody.

When Cory ended up with his high-powered attorney,

they convinced the judge that I was mentally unstable

and that I was a bad parent.

And they did finally get full custody.

After several years of going back and forth in court,

a decision was made

to give Cory and Amanda full custody of Jessa.

It's hard to know why the judge made that decision,

given everything that was going on,

but Aletta was devastated.

She was 11, and she needed her mom.

It didn't-- It wasn't right.

It struck me

that Amanda wanted Aletta's husband.

She wanted Aletta's daughter.

She wanted to be Aletta.

That's what I feel. I think she wanted to be Aletta.

After I lost custody of Jessa, Nancy contacted me.

And I told her, "They lie about everything.

"I have really nothing good to say about them."

Aletta was very kind.

She said, "They're putting me through hell,

"but Amanda is dying with cancer,

"and I really don't want to say anything

"because she's so sick."

And that's when I felt a little more comfortable

of telling her why I was looking into Amanda.

I never thought it wasn't real.

But when Nancy contacted me,

I certainly wanted to get to the truth.

You know, my daughter's involved here, so...

I did not start this investigation.

But I was certainly gonna do what I could

to help them finish it.

When I told her,

"I don't believe Amanda has cancer,"

Aletta was really helpful in what I was doing

with my investigation

because she was able to verify different things

just by knowing what Amanda and Cory was up to.

But I was keeping my focus on Amanda

more than Cory at that point.

If Amanda posted something about being somewhere

or being at the hospital,

I could talk with Aletta and say,

"Okay, did you see that post?"

And she says, "Oh, yeah, I saw that." She said,

"But that's weird because,

"you know, I spoke to Jessa last night,

"and Amanda was in the background."

When my mom had told me

that they were looking into Amanda for cancer fraud,

and I remember at first

thinking, like, "There's no way."

And I remember looking through her pictures,

her in a beanie, "Stupid cancer,"

her getting treatment, this and that,

and she didn't look sick.

When you have cancer, it eats away from you

from the inside out,

and then the chemo comes in to combat with that,

and that eats away at you from the inside out,

and you... you look like you're dying.

And Amanda... ...never looked sick.

She looked totally fine.

And everything started kind of clicking,

like, what my mom had told me about the investigation.

As my investigation moved forward,

I was being really careful about who I reached out to.

But a few times, I would see something

so egregious on Amanda's blog.

I was like, "Oh, God, I want to let this person know."

"I have to give thanks

to some incredible human beings."

Angie was one of those people.

She was a cancer survivor herself.

I was born with fibrosarcoma. It's a bone spur cancer.

They operated on me when I was two days old.

I was supposed to not make it past age two.

Amanda, the first time I saw her,

I was just very intrigued by her story...

wanting to share mine, wanting to relate to her.

I was devoted.

Like, out of nowhere, I was like,

"I'm gonna help you."

"In my last post,

"I mentioned Angie reached out through a mutual friend

"and donated her entire 730-dollar commissions check

"for the month."

It felt really good.

After that, I was sharing the site

for people to donate directly to her.

I was actively...

promoting her.

I'm reading it in the blog

and also on Angie's Facebook

and, you know, Angie's posting about how she was so moved

by Amanda and so proud to be able to give this money

to her and to help her family.

Angie was so proud of her own daughter,

who took money from her piggy bank

and her allowance and donated it to Amanda.

It just broke my heart.

And it was at that point I said, "You know what?

I'm going to reach out."

My phone rang.

And she said, "Hi, this is Nancy."

And she immediately told me what she was working on.

My-- Like, I-- I still, like, feel that.

I just-- I felt so sick.

Like, my heart, like,

just literally went into my stomach.

I didn't necessarily believe what she was saying,

and I didn't want to know the truth.

It was easier to not know.

I didn't want to talk to Nancy.

And then I just kind of stopped talking to Amanda.

Very quickly, I learned that kind of tipping my hand

a little bit just let them know

that there was someone looking into things.

It just didn't go well.

But I just kept going.

Nancy found that Cory and Amanda claimed bankruptcy

because of Amanda's medical expenses for her cancer.

And she just couldn't leave it alone.

Despite all the money that was raised,

it never seemed to be enough to keep up

with Amanda's medical bills.

And eventually, Cory and Amanda went to court

to claim bankruptcy

due to the financial hardship of paying

for Amanda's cancer treatment.

In those bankruptcy papers,

they talk about the medical debt that they have.

But in the meantime, there's hundreds of people donating.

So, from a financial standpoint,

I remember there was one blog post that came out,

and it was like,

"I've been chosen for some type of trial or experiment.

"And if we don't have the money within a week,

"then I can't take part in the trial."

"I'm working part-time to help cover bills,

"but the co-pays, medicines,

"and tests still add up so fast on top of life.

"We're so grateful for the insurance coverage,

"but that's still 1,250 dollars

"for medicine alone every three weeks."

And I can remember writing a check

for 3,000 dollars for that trial.

And it was in New York, so I reached out

to a friend of my husband's who lived in New York.

We used our Southwest points to buy her plane ticket.

There was all kinds of support.

I didn't have a ton of money.

I wanted to give back to her in a way that was meaningful.

And one thing that I had known about myself is

that I had a high platelet count,

and I was a good platelet donor.

I would drive up to San Jose to the Red Cross,

get my finger pricked, get my blood pressure and pulse,

and if all went well,

I would be able to donate platelets.

I had a "Team Amanda" magnet.

I brought this magnet each time I went to donate,

and I made sure that not only did

I take a picture of it, but everybody around me knew

why I was there, who I was donating to.

That is how I made it into the blog.

"A special shout-out to Lindsey,

"who maxed out her platelet donation this year in my honor.

"You go, girl. You're helping so many people,

"and I feel pretty special you do it for me."

I felt like I had made it into her life.

I was one of the important people that had

done something for her

that she felt the need to mention.

God taught me how to be prayed for.

We were like, "Let's support her," like,

"Look at all that she's gone through.

Look at God's faithfulness in her life."

And now, I mean, I'm like,

"Hands on, let's go, everybody together."

If you'd gone to FCC long enough,

you knew who Amanda Riley was.

My parents were members of FCC Church,

and they went one Sunday.

Amanda and Cory ended up on stage

and they couldn't help feel

that the church was being taken advantage of,

and this was before the investigation.

I think my mom kind of knew that something wasn't right,

but you know, it's one of those things

you just don't say out loud.

I just love you. I really do.

Amanda was really, really highly thought of,

and the thought that maybe it wasn't as it seems

was not even a possibility

to the majority of the people that surrounded her.

And as my investigation moved forward,

one of the things Amanda kept telling everyone was

that Aletta hired me

to just cause problems.

What it looked like to me was,

"Oh, Cory's ex-wife is on this vendetta.

"She's probably jealous that he's got this younger wife

"and who's filling in now as a mother to her daughter,

"and she is going after her and wanting to do anything. "

And I was enraged.

To be very clear, Aletta did not hire me.

I did not know Aletta.

But the crazy thing was, it fit Amanda

and Cory's narrative,

that there was a bitter ex-wife that was out to get them,

and I just found that-- It's just outrageous.

Lisa had told me she had contacted law enforcement.

She had left messages on a tip line.

But she wasn't sure

if they had been checking anything out.

So, that's when I started calling

the San Jose Police Department and asking questions.

Who would handle a fraud case like this?

Who would-- Who could I contact there?

I was eventually directed to Detective Jose Martinez

in the Financial Fraud Unit.

I am Detective Jose Martinez.

I was an investigator

with the San Jose Police Department

at the time of this investigation.

Detective Martinez reached out and said,

you know, "I'm the only person in this department."

And he had checked out that

there wasn't already an open case,

but that he was interested in checking things out.

I remember that phone call...

...because it was not a common case.

I had never had a crime where somebody was pretending

to be sick with cancer.

So, when something's unique,

it kind of gives you a little motivation

to look at it a little more.

But you have to be realistic.

So, when that phone call came in,

I wasn't sure if it was just an angry family member

or somebody who was scorned,

just trying to get somebody in trouble.

I had compiled a good amount

and so I had that information for him

and what Amanda was saying in the blog.

Nancy was really persistent.

She knows how to find things. She was like a bulldog.

You know, she just kept coming at the information

and bringing it.

I thought, "Okay. This is interesting,

No doubt. But how do I prove it?"

I knew that this wasn't going to be an easy road.

That it's very difficult to,

you know, prove that someone doesn't have cancer

when everything out there is,

"Not only do I have cancer, but here's pictures

to prove it," right?

There was no reason for us to doubt

that she was telling the truth.

We believed everything that came out of her mouth.

If Amanda truly was faking cancer,

there's a real seriousness to this

because she harmed a lot of people.

You don't ever want to know

that people are living in the world faking cancer.