By Doyle Murphy
Times Herald-Record
Published: 2:00 AM - 09/06/10
Michael O'Connell preferred to pretend there was only today and to forget that his wife's cancer would probably kill her in less than a year.
That's the way he used to think.
"I had to prepare for her to die," O'Connell said.
Now O'Connell says his wife, Jessica Vega, had pretended — saying she had terminal leukemia in order to scam him, everyone they knew and a long list of strangers who heard her story and wanted to help.
O'Connell and Vega were featured April 26 in a Times Herald-Record story about the many people who had come together to organize a dream wedding while the bride was still strong enough to walk down the aisle.
The story prompted dozens of others to help the 23-year-olds and their baby daughter in the week leading up to their May 2 wedding.
Strangers had donated everything from Vega's dress to wedding photos. For the couple's honeymoon, they flew on donated plane tickets to Aruba, where they stayed in a donated time share and spent donated money.
O'Connell said recently that it was all based on a lie. Vega's health hadn't gotten any worse, and he believed she never had a terminal illness.
O'Connell insisted a letter from Dr. Dan Costin that described her diagnosis was a fake.
When I was reporting the April 26 story, Vega showed me the letter to verify her diagnosis.
Now O'Connell had invited me to listen in when he called Costin's Westchester office and asked about Vega's medical records: "Never a patient here" was the response.
Read more at recordonline.com
