A teenage girl established a strong online presence as she journaled her experience with leukemia. When she passed away, her supporters were grieving. Another blogger published a post questioning Kaycee's legitimacy, sending many into an outrage. But as time went on, more and more questions were being raised. What was actually going on with Kaycee Nicole?

This episode of Mugshot was co-created by Wendy Scripps.

Visit Patreon.com/mugshotpod to find out how you can support the show and get early, ad-free access to episodes as well as bonus episodes. Any donation is appreciated and goes right back into helping produce the show.

Mugshot merchandise can be found at mugshotpod.threadless.com. Get shirts, mugs, and more!

Music by:

Swelling

"Night II"

Meydan

"Insomnia Pt. 1"

SoundCrate

"Squad"

SoundCrate

"Shady Dealings"

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/


Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factitious_disorder_imposed_on_self#Munchausen_by_Internet

https://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/Entertainment/manti-teos-fake-girlfriend-bizarre-online-cons/story?id=18239232

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MetaFilter

https://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/31/technology/a-beautiful-life-an-early-death-a-fraud-exposed.html

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/kaycee-nicole/

https://books.google.com/books?id=c5BEJ0nug7QC&pg=PT56&lpg=PT56&dq=kaycee+nicole&source=bl&ots=2huSUNWJKS&sig=ACfU3U1uKxnzevqlyPsPIQqjFBMbR8NKyQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjz8du0mZTuAhWSjlkKHf1yBYQ4ChDoATAHegQICRAC#v=onepage&q=kaycee%20nicole&f=false

The short life of Kaycee Nicole | Media | The Guardian

Wired Women: Beautiful Cancer Victim a Hoax - ABC News (go.com)

Is it possible that Kaycee did not exist? | MetaFilter

https://www.vice.com/en/article/paeegy/mnchausen-by-internet-on-lying-online

https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2016-07-15/munchausen-by-internet-what-drives-people-to-fake-an-illness/7631990

https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Cybermuncher

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3510683/