A woman promised to have a baby for a couple who were desperate to become parents – and even phoned them while she was 'giving birth' to a girl she would hand over to them. But it was all a cruel lie.
Heather Taylor duped childless Mark and Tracy Dziekanski into believing she was pregnant and convinced them to hand over money to support a baby that didn't actually exist.
The couple, from North Carolina, US, had advertised on Craigslist that they desperately wanted children but hadn't the means to adopt in the traditional way.
So they were thrilled when Taylor contacted them, saying she was expecting a baby, but couldn't afford to keep it and was looking for a 'nice couple' to adopt.
Delighted – but also way too trusting – the Dziekanskis agreed to financially support Taylor through her pregnancy.
Then, incredibly, Taylor strung them along by sending them photographs of her posing with a mocked-up baby bump and giving regular reports on her supposed 'condition'.
As if that wasn't unbelievable enough, the story took an even more astonishing twist when Taylor called Tracy to say she had gone into labour and was speaking to them from the delivery room.
The conwoman told them she was going to have a C-section and moments later played them a recording of a baby crying down to the phone to embellish the lie.
In an interview with