A dad whose toddler vanished in a suspected kidnapping nearly 50 years ago says an American woman is impersonating his daughter to steal cash in a fundraising scam.
Richard Lee, 76, says the shameless conwoman set up fundraising pages and banked hundreds of dollars by pretending to be missing Katrice Lee.
Katrice vanished on November 28, 1981, on her second birthday while looking for her mum in a shopping centre in Germany, where Richard was stationed in the British Army.
Richard, a former sergeant major who served in the army for 33 years, vowed to solve the mystery and says he will keep going until the day he dies.
Dad-of-two Richard, from Hartlepool, County Durham, says an American woman is now claiming to be his lost daughter and set up a donation page in February.
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The woman, calling herself Heather McCord, claimed she needed money to travel to the UK to arrange a DNA test to prove her identity.
She’s managed to raise $225 on GoFundMe, but Richard says the attempt has the hallmarks of a scam.
‘When I was informed about it, I was livid. I’m fuming about it. My goal is to get answers about where Katrice is. Their goal is purely to get money,’ he said.
‘It was a friend of another admin page who told my other daughter Natasha about this woman. She’s in a circle of admin people who have missing children. She identified that this individual had set up a donation page. She was using our material, my interviews.’
Richard said the woman has taken segments from his former interviews and put up a fake storyline about wanting to reach out to the family to do a DNA test.
‘She started pulling on the heart and playing those strings on February 27. It had gone out in America, and about $225 had been donated,’ he added.
‘By all accounts, it’s not the first family she’s done this to. In my mind, she’s a career scammer. Going off what I’ve been told, she has a number of donation pages on the go at the same time.’
Richard said the only thing the woman would clarify is that she wanted to fly to the UK for a DNA test, but added that her story has a plethora of red flags.
‘All she had to do was go to the American military police, and they would’ve contacted the UK military police. They would’ve faxed over the DNA results, and we’d know,’ he explained.
‘This woman is trying to cash in on our tragedy, and it shouldn’t be allowed. It’s scandalous to pretend to be such a thing. To make money from it is unbelievable.’
The family have since reported the incident to the UK Military Police, who are in talks with the US to trace the woman.
Richard, who is still searching for answers over his daughter’s disappearance, added: ‘I won’t stop until I get the resolution of knowing what’s happened. Love doesn’t die, and that’s what it’s all about. My main aim is exactly that.’
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