Audrea Gause claimed she suffered a brain injury from the attack, but she may have not been in Boston at all.
A 26-year-old woman was arrested on Friday for allegedly stealing nearly half a million dollars from the Boston Marathon bombing victim fund, reports Boston.com.
Audrea Gause claimed that she suffered a brain injury as a result of the April 15 attack, which killed three people and injured over than 260 more. According to Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, Gause submitted a claim to the fund, including several pages of false medical records that indicated she was treated for the injury at hospitals in Boston and New York. The claim alleged she suffered a brain injury from the bombing, long-term memory loss, impaired speech and loss of some motor function that would require future surgery.
The fund, One Fund Boston, wrote Gause a check for $480,000.
Authorities received a tip last week that the woman may not have even been in Boston the day of the bombing and the hospitals said they never treated her.
“There is no evidence that Ms. Gause was an actual victim of the bombing,” Coakley said.
She was arrested Friday afternoon on a fugitive warrant near her home in Troy.
“I think the outrageous thing is that for all of the One Fund’s due diligence and their care in trying to get dollars out to the people who needed them, we still have individuals with fraudulent intent who are attempting to take that money away,” Coakley said at a news conference.
Gause faces a charge of larceny over $250.
