Texas teen charged with false cancer claim

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HORIZON CITY, Texas, April 22 (UPI) -- A Texas teenager was arrested for allegedly conning folks in the El Paso area with a false story about battling cancer.

Angie Gomez, 19, Horizon City, was indicted by an El Paso County grand jury on theft-by-deception for allegedly accepting about $17,000 in donations based on claims she had been stricken with leukemia.

She was locked up Friday on $50,000 bond.

Gomez had told her high school classmates last year that she had been given six months to live. The revelation was the basis of various fundraisers, including one that bankrolled her attendance at her senior prom, and the establishment of a foundation to assist cancer patients, the El Paso (Texas) Times said.

After six months, however, police received a tip that Gomez was not only still alive but did not even appear to be sick. An investigation turned up no evidence the girl ever has cancer, the newspaper said.