The terminal illness sufferer: Carrie Jade Williams 

Carrie Jade Williams is an English woman in her 30s who claimed to have Huntington’s disease, a rare and terminal neurological condition.

She arrived in Cahersiveen, County Kerry, in 2019 rather out of the blue and soon befriended a woman whose daughter had died. 

She first made headlines when she won the Bodley Head Financial Times literary award in 2020 – a prestigious essay competition with a £1,000 prize. 

Her compelling and emotional essay called: ‘My brain is in a battle it will lose’ told the story of her diagnosis with Huntington’s and how she could no longer write or hold a pen. The essay was said to have been written using assistive technology.

After winning the prize and having the essay published in a national newspaper, Carrie garnered a huge platform and everyone wanted to interview the terminally ill chemical engineer-turned star writer. 

She began hosting virtual writing workshops during the pandemic and told those who had joined that she would help them get bursaries of up to £10,000 to kick-start their literary careers. Carrie claimed the money was coming from a literary app she was set to launch.

But as time went on, the app never launched and the group attendees never saw any money. Growing suspicious of Carrie, people began to question her and after months of stringing them along, Carrie said she was going to the US for life-saving surgery and soon ghosted the group completely. 

Yet she continued to build on her platform following the win, and made YouTube videos detailing her horror diagnosis. Her story captured the public’s heart.

But in 2022, high on her success as an online disability activist, Carrie told a lie that would eventually unravel her lies. She posted a TikTok calling out Airbnb for allegedly siding with guests who had complained about having to use her accessible doorbell.

‘I know able-ism exists, and I’ve experienced it,’ she said in a teary video.  

Carrie claimed the guests, who had stayed at her home, were so ‘traumatised by being around her as a disabled person’ they had complained to Airbnb – and that Airbnb had instructed her to refund them as a result.

The video went viral as people were horrified by the overt display of able-ism and Carrie soon posted a follow-up video – where she claimed the guests were now suing her for 450,000 euros for the trauma caused. They also allegedly slapped her with a list of 13 bizarre demands to cope with the trauma, including an emotional support animal and 25 adult colouring books a year for the remainder of their lives.

However on October 5, 2022, someone on Reddit posted links to articles about a convicted fraudster – who they claimed was Carrie. 

Carrie issued a statement saying this was in fact her sister who had struggled with mental health problems and that it was defamatory for anyone to link the pair. 

This led journalist Kat to investigate the story and over the course of two months, she uncovered the truth. Carrie Jade did not exist. 

The autism expert: Rebecca Fitzgerald 

In 2017, 29-year-old au pair and ‘autism therapist’ Rebecca Fitzgerald moved to Fermoy, a town near Cork, Ireland.

She lived and worked with a local family and formed relationships with parents in the community, advertising herself as a qualified autism therapist who could ‘teach non-speaking autistic kids to talk in just two months’. 

Parents in the local area described her as kind, empathetic and the ‘perfect person’ and she was soon invited into their homes to help their children. Rebecca began working at Fermoy’s kids community centre and school.

It is not possible to reverse non-speaking autism in two months, Rebecca had no qualifications and she was not a child therapist. 

Julie Lee, a mother in her 50s originally from Johannesburg and a taxi driver who often drove Rebecca from house to house, clocked that she was a fraud. 

Rebecca would have no money when arriving at the houses of these families, Julie said, and yet when she picked her up she would have hundreds of pounds. ‘That’s how I knew what she was doing.’

During the drives, Rebecca told Julie she was opening a clinic for children and families and tried to recruit Julie to work there, before asking for a copy of her passport and money. Having recruited other people in the area, one woman even quit her job as an au pair to work for Rebecca.

‘That’s when I realised it was a scam,’ Julie said. ‘An unqualified person doing that, then looking for passport copies, then money.’ 

People at the school started to ask questions about the qualifications of their child’s new therapist. The school headteacher contacted the Garda [police] but they never followed up. 

Julie also reported Rebecca, and the Garda told her they had a thick folder on Rebecca, and had been keeping track of her.

Officers were sent to Rebecca’s home and shortly after, she disappeared.

The speech therapist: Lucy Fitzwilliam

A year earlier, in 2016, bright and bushy tailed Lucy Fitzwilliam, 28, moved to County Geery, Ireland. 

She introduced herself to the locals as a speech and language therapist who also ran a domestic violence refuge and quickly became a beloved member of the community.

Lucy met Lynn, not her real name for anonymity, a single parent and domestic abuse survivor whose youngest daughter has Rett syndrome, a genetic neurological disorder that affects the way the brain develops. Lucy offered to be her carer.

Lynn declined the offer but Lucy was persistent and instead said she could do art therapy with Lynn’s oldest daughter Sofia, eight, who had witnessed her father’s abuse.

The family became close with Lucy, and after months of ‘therapy’ she offered them a trip to Lapland. This was apparently being organised by the church who were covering half the cost. 

Lucy said she needed a £500 deposit to secure the trip – which would be raising money for the domestic abuse refuge she claimed to run. The community rallied and Lynn’s mother made up 400-500 euros worth of food packages for the refuge.

As the Lapland trip drew nearer, Lynn said she had been trying to find a specialist nurse to care for her youngest daughter. It was at this point Lucy said she would take Sofia to Lapland alone and Lynn and her youngest could join them later once care was organised.

All Lucy needed was Sofia’s passport and birth certificate, Lynn said.

‘She had zoned in on my Sofia and I still to this day believe she looked for a signature from me so she could bring Sofia herself to Lapland.’ 

Suspicions in the community escalated when one of Lynn’s friends, a woman called Pauline whose son is autistic, said Lucy had also tried to convince her to hand over her son’s passport. 

Lucy was reported to the Garda for trying to scam families in the community out of money and passports, but she was let go without charge. She packed up and left County Geery that same night. 

The au pair: Lucy Hart

Two years before there was Lucy Fitzwilliam, there was a 26-year-old woman called Lucy Hart.

Bonnie, not her real name for anonymity, a woman in her 40s from Tullamore, had been looking an au pair to help look after her children.

She came across Lucy on an au pair website in 2014. Lucy said she was experienced in childcare and following a quick video call, Bonnie hired her.   

‘She was so convincing, and really lovely in the interview we had,’ said Bonnie. 

Bonnie and her children ‘loved’ Lucy and she quickly became part of the family – regaling them with her interesting stories about her previous au pair jobs and her own family. Lucy said she was adopted and that her mother Jane Hart lived in the United States. She said her mother was the ‘main supplier for sandpaper for B&Q’.

In a video for the ALS ice bucket challenge, Lucy nominated her mother ‘Jane’ and Bonnie’s children poured the water over her head. 

Lucy soon opened up to Bonnie about her love life, saying she was dating a man in the UK who had two children from a previous relationship. 

Bonnie also received an insight into Lucy’s tragic past, as she told her that her previous fiance Liam had had motor neuron disease and killed himself by hanging. Lucy said she had found him.

The pair’s friendship grew but things changed during Christmas in 2014 – when Lucy accused Bonnie’s children of stealing her money and engagement ring. Bonnie did not believe her children would do such a thing and the relationship began to break down. 

Bonnie went back over many of Lucy’s elaborate stories and found they did not add up, so one day challenged her au pair as she launched into yet another tale. Kind and smiley Lucy was quickly replaced with an angry woman who accused Bonnie of attacking her and stormed out of the room. 

Things remained tense until one day in January when Lucy said she was going on a writing retreat and disappeared. 

After a few weeks, Bonnie accepted Lucy was not coming back and went into the room she had been staying in. In the wardrobe she found piles of documents and one truly chilling letter that made her ‘blood run cold’.

Among shopping lists and legal documents was a statement about visitation rights for Lucy’s child – a child whose name matched the one she claimed was her boyfriend’s from another relationship. More chilling still, Bonnie came across a statement.

The statement read: ‘I stand shoulder to shoulder with the coroner and I did not murder my daughter. I pray she is at peace.’

Her real identity: Samantha Cookes

Behind all of the aliases is a real woman – Samantha Cookes. 

Born in 1988, Samantha grew up in Gloucestershire, before moving to Shropshire with her mother and her new husband after her parents divorced. 

Samantha had a reputation for being a liar, her friend from school said. Her lies included her mother having cancer and her being pregnant and miscarrying.

Aged 18, Samantha was dating a boy called Liam. She went as far as to set up a website to plan their ‘wedding’. There was no wedding. 

The pair split up some time later and aged 20, Samantha started a degree in Occupational Therapy at York University.

However, Samantha later discovered she was pregnant and left university in her first year, returning home to Shropshire. She gave birth to a daughter called Martha in 2008.

Tragically, just four months later, Martha died. 

A five-month inquest found Martha had died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) – a result which appeared to vindicate Samantha, who seemed to have taken the inquest as an accusation.

It was at this point Samantha made the statement later found by Bonnie in Tullamore six years later. 

‘I stand shoulder to shoulder with the coroner, and I did not murder my daughter,’ it read. ‘I pray she is at peace.’ 

Samantha did not return to university as she chose not to fill out criminal records check forms. 

Two years later in 2010, Samantha started a relationship with a man, whose identity is not being revealed to protect him and his family. The pair had a child. 

The same year, 23-year-old Samantha offered her services as a surrogate on Facebook. 

After making contact with a couple about being their surrogate, Samantha passed on the contact of a woman called Claudia, who had previously used her as a surrogate. Claudia gave the excited couple a glowing review of Samantha.

Having never met her face to face, the couple gave Samantha £1,200 out of their savings to cover the cost of the insemination kit, legal fees and other expenses. 

Sadly the baby never came, and as both Samantha and Claudia avoided the couple’s messages, they realised they had been duped. The police were contacted and a 23-year-old woman was arrested at her home in Shropshire.

The case came to trial in 2011 and Samantha pleaded guilty to fraud. She received a suspended sentence of 9 months’ imprisonment and a fine of £1890 to be paid to the couple.

But what the trial also revealed was that Samantha and Claudia were the same person. Claudia did not exist.

A year later, Samantha gave birth to a second child with the man she had been dating but due to mental health problems, the father was given sole custody. In 2013 she became pregnant with her third child with the same man. 

Determined not to lose custody of this unborn child, Samantha fled to Ireland in the winter of 2013. She gave birth in January 2014.

However, a neighbour reported her to Irish social services and the child was taken into care. After appearing at Irish family court, the father was again given custody and the baby was transported back to the UK. 

Samantha had permanently lost custody of her third child by August 2014. 

A month later she had changed her name to Lucy Hart and was working for Bonnie as an au pair. In January 2015, she left Bonnie’s home. 

In 2016, Samantha moved to County Geery and became Lucy Fitzwilliam and in 2017, Rebecca Fitzgerald arrived in Fermoy. 

When Samantha arrived in Cahersiveen, County Kerry, in 2019, she became someone else – Carrie Jade Williams.

A Seattle landlord was forced to take matters into his own hands and confront a squatter he claims owes $80,000 in rent and refuses to leave his $2 million home.

Jaskaran Singh rented his five-bedroom home on 123rd Avenue near Seattle, Washington, to the man’s family in the summer of 2022.

He received the first and last month’s rent, but said the tenant then stopped paying, leaving him $80,000 out of pocket.

Singh filed for eviction, but after the tenant was granted an extension with a court date set for April 5, Singh took matters into his own hands, confronted the tenant and organized a protest with 200 people outside the house.

Singh said KOMO news: ‘I suffered a loss of $80,000. This should stop. This is a fight against injustice.’

The moment Singh confronted the tenant was captured on camera.

During the protest, Singh walked to the front of the 1,900-square-foot home and knocked on the door.

The tenant, whose name is not known, opened the door and came out.

Singh said, “You haven’t paid the rent for the last year.”

The tenant tried to go back to the house, but Singh said, “Wait, I need to talk… You haven’t paid the rent for six months. This is my house.’

The tenant then walked back into the home and closed the door.

Singh told KOMO News: “He is not willing to pay. He’s basically exploiting the system.”

Singh filed eviction proceedings when the tenant first began missing payments, but the Housing Justice Project (HJP) intervened on behalf of the tenant, seeking a stay of the eviction and paying a portion of the back rent.

The HJP even paid a three-month advance on the rent, so that the family had time to move.

But when the three months were up in May 2023, Singh said the family still didn’t move out and they started missing rent payments again.

Singh told KOMO News: “He never paid rent after May 2023 of last year, so it’s been almost eleven months now.”

The tenant reportedly claims to have lost his job during the pandemic and has been unable to find work as a consultant in the medical field.

But Singh’s lawyer, Stephen Freeborn, told them KOMO news: ‘That man can’t pay his rent, but he has two brand new cars parked in the driveway.’

Singh and his lawyer staged a protest outside the house on Saturday, attended by around 200 people, holding banners and chanting ‘No pay, no stay’.

Seattle-based journalist Jonathan Choe filmed the protest.

Kory Hahn, vice chair of the King County Republican Party, led a “Go Away, Crook!” shouted in Korean and said, “If you’re not going to pay, you shouldn’t stay there.”

Police had to intervene when some protesters banged on the door of the house.

Freeborn told KOMO News: ‘I was there and I thank them for coming. Not only was it a community gathering, but there were people from as far away as Tacoma, Olympia.

“We had representatives from the Democratic and Republican parties and I was surprised and happy to see it because this shouldn’t be a partisan issue. This should be a bipartisan issue because it affects everyone.

“I’m glad that this kind of thing (the protest) is starting to happen because they’re afraid no one is listening. Nobody listens to them.

“These landlords are dying on the vine, which is bad for the economy.”

According to KOMO News, the tenant has been granted a temporary restraining order against the Singh.

By Makayla Muscat for Daily Mail Australia and Australian Associated Press

Published: 00:57 EST, February 29, 2024 | Updated: 03:44 EST, February 29, 2024

RARE coins hiding in your bag or wallet can sell for hundreds of pounds.

If you are lucky enough to find a rare €10 note, you may be able to sell it for several times its face value.

1

Make sure you keep an eye on the serial numbers; these will tell you if you have a rare example.

These numbers are found on the side with the Monarch's face, just below the £10 denomination in the corner of the banknote.

If you find the serial number on your note to be quite quirky, it could be even more valuable.

That is because these banknotes are highly sought after.

For example, one seller pocketed £3,600 after finding a specific serial number on one of their banknotes relating to the year Jane Austen was born.

What are the rare and valuable £10 notes?

You don't always raise such large sums of money for your rare banknotes.

It depends on what collectors are looking for, and some are willing to spend more than others.

The £10 notes with AA serial numbers and also £5 notes with these numbers can earn you large amounts of money.

Interestingly, as the £10 note is slightly larger, there are 54 notes per print sheet, compared to 60 on the £5 note.

This means that potentially millions of AA combinations could emerge.

How do you know if your tenner can make you thousands?

The Bank of England launched its £10 note featuring Jane Austen in 2017.

At the time changechecker.com revealed its predictions for the banknotes everyone would be paying attention to.

Serial numbers for each note are essential. You will find these numbers on the top left of the face with the image of the deceased queen.

This is slightly less than the value of €10 stated in the corner of the note.

ChangeChecker.com said to pay attention to the serial numbers Are:

• The serial numbers 16 121775 and 18 071817, as these represent the author's dates of birth and death.
• The serial number 17 751817, as it is her birth and death together
• The serial number 28 011813, as this is the date her most celebrated novel, Pride and Prejudice, was first published.

Jane Austen notes aren't the only ones that can be popular with collectors.

Also keep your eyes peeled for James Bond 007 notes and AK47 notes.

Consecutive numbers such as AA12345 are also highly sought after.

Depending on what they are looking for at that moment, sSome collectors will part with earnest money for the right note.

Which banknotes never enter circulation?

Every time the Bank of England issues a new note, it donates an important low serial number to those involved in its development.

For example, when the £5 note was launched, the Churchill War Rooms received a note with serial number AA01 001945, the year the Second World War ended.

And the Queen received a note with the serial number AA01 000001 – the very first of its kind.

How can you make money with your rare banknote?

You can earn thousands of dollars if you find a rare banknote.

The lowest serial number £5 note available to the public – AA01000017 – sold for £4,150 at auction in October i2016.

Since then, some plastic fivers have sold for thousands of pounds on eBay.

Meanwhile, a £5 note would sell for £16,000 in October 2023.

To check if your notes are worth anything on eBay, check 'completed and sold items' and filter by the highest value.

It will give you an idea of ​​what people are willing to spend on banknotes, but keep in mind that your banknote is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it.

A British serial killer has served his 50th Christmas behind bars after spending more time in solitary confinement than any other criminal in the world.

Notorious killer Robert Mawdsley, 70, has now spent 50 years in a prison cell, including 45 years in solitary, which investigators say would be a world record. The mirror.

The criminal, nicknamed ‘Hannibal the Cannibal’ after false reports that he had eaten one of his victim’s brains, was just 21 when he was jailed for the murder of 30-year-old John Farrell in 1974.

Just four years later, he was placed in solitary confinement after killing three people in a prison.

He now spends his days in a 5 by 5 meter cell, which was built especially for him in 1983 and is protected by bulletproof glass.

Mawdsley was declared unfit for trial following the murder of Farrell, who was allegedly a child molester.

He was sent to Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire in 1977, where he took a fellow inmate hostage before stabbing him to death with a plastic spoon.

Rumors swirled that Mawdsley had eaten part of his brain after the victim was found with the spoon in his ear.

Mawdsley was then sent to Wakefield Prison in West Yorkshire, where he murdered two more inmates, ending up in solitary confinement in 1978.

In a Channel 5 documentary HMP Wakefield: Evil Behind Bars, Liverpool’s Maudsley’s cousin Gavin revealed how his soft-spoken, ‘well-read’ uncle is content to be cut off from the rest of the world.

He added: ‘[If you] place him with rapists and pedophiles. I know because he told us he’s going to kill as many pedophiles as he can. “I don’t condone what he did, but…the people he killed were really bad people.”

Mawdsley has previously said he is “happy and content in solitude,” but also once described spending most of his day in his small space as “like being buried alive in a coffin.”

He has been repeatedly rejected from requests to spend time with other people and spend his days in a specially built cell.

In 2021, he lost an appeal to spend Christmas with other people and was told he will be locked in his ‘glass coffin’ until his death. He also has a table and chair made of compressed cardboard.

In the first days of his captivity, the killer wrote to newspapers campaigning for better treatment.

In 2000, Maudsley launched a legal bid in court asking to be allowed to die.

He wrote a letter asking: ‘What use is it if I stay locked up 23 hours a day? Why would you even bother feeding me and giving me an hour of exercise a day? To whom am I actually a risk?’

He then wondered why he couldn’t have a pet parakeet, promising that he would love it and “wouldn’t eat it.”

Mawdsley is believed to be Britain’s longest-serving prisoner, after Moors killer Ian Brady, who served 51 years. He died in 2017.

US prisoner Albert Woodfox, who died last year, held the world record for solitary confinement at 43 years before being released in 2016.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice told The Mirror that ‘there is no such thing as solitary confinement in our prison system’.

They added: ‘Some offenders will be segregated if they pose a risk to others. They get outdoor time every day, visits, phone calls and access to legal advice and medical care just like everyone else.”

A woman who dates married men has enjoyed a £5,000 luxury trip to Costa Rica – and says she will be spoiled with lavish gifts from her birthday in November until Christmas.

Gweneth Lee, 54, who has been called Britain’s most prolific mistress, has spent decades finding wealthy women to support her extravagant lifestyle.

This year she’ll be spending the holidays with her family in California – splitting her time between there and London throughout the year – but has revealed the impressive gifts she’s receiving over the holidays, including fur coats, lingerie, candles and expensive dinners .

Most recently, she enjoyed a lavish vacation to Central America.

“I had two different lovers pay for this trip,” Gweneth said of her getaway to Costa Rica.

‘One got the flights so I could fly down in business class. And the second guy paid for the entire retreat himself, so it was a combination.”

She revealed that “lovers and the holidays are all about connecting.”

The mistress also explained that it’s mostly about nurturing an emotional bond.

“We go out to eat and do fun things like spa days for massages,” she added.

‘However, I meet most men during the day, when I see them in town on business trips, we have dinner together – but go back to our separate rooms at the end of the evening.’

Gweneth, who enjoys deeper relationships, also celebrates her birthday in November and says it’s an abundance of presents from then until the end of the year.

“I mainly buy candles and perfume, all that lovely stuff, but also expensive lingerie and Wolford stockings,” she revealed.

“One of them had recently paid thousands of dollars for part of my trip to Africa, and someone had given me a car as a gift before.

“I got a fur coat for Christmas, but I usually hang up my ‘Wishtender’ where I ask for clothes and jewelry.”

‘Many men are looking for convenience and comfort, so if they get this, it can be purchased and shipped directly to my home.

‘I’m in a beautiful new house and I really love art, so that’s also on my list.’

She is currently in relationships with five married men, one of whom is going through a divorce, but says boundaries have been set.

“I have to practice detachment because I can’t do anything to help these men by giving them an intimate connection,” Gweneth explained.

‘And I’m not ready to become a therapist yet.

“I don’t want to become a complication for them, and I love the emotional connection, but sometimes I have to take a step back.

‘Being a mistress is about having fun, but also about creating a safe haven for both of you, where you can enjoy a little escapism.

‘It’s easy. Wife = mother of children, mistress = confidante.

‘I can do whatever I want, whenever I want, without questions or restrictions – and above all: completely free.’

One of dozens of victims of the serial killer dubbed the ‘Green River Killer’ has been identified nearly four decades after her bones were found.

Gary Ridgway, now 73, is serving a life sentence after being convicted in 2003 of murdering 49 women in Washington and is serving 49 consecutive life sentences at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.

Ridgway, considered one of the country’s most prolific serial killers, has confessed to killing as many as 80 women, but there was only enough evidence at the time to convict 49 of them.

The remains of Lori Anne Razpotnik were found 38 years ago and labeled “Bones 17” until they were recently matched using a new DNA profile, according to the King County Sheriff’s Office.

Razpotnik ran away from her home in Lewis County in 1982 at the age of 15, never to be seen by her family again.

The revelation means that only one of Ridgway’s confirmed victims, who were killed between the early 1980s and the late 1990s, has yet to be identified.

Razpotnik’s remains were found three years after she went missing when a car went off the road near a cemetery in Auburn, Washington. The car stopped in an area where investigators found three sets of remainsincluding 16-year-old Kimi-Kai Pitsor.

The two unidentified victims were dubbed ‘Bones 16’ and ‘Bones 17’ after a task force charged with solving the murders took over the investigation, but it was not identified as Razpotnik until almost 40 years later.

‘Bones 17’ was confirmed as Razpotnik by a Virginia-based company called Parabon Nanolabs and matched using DNA comparison tests conducted at the University of North Texas, according to the Seattle Times.

‘Bones 16’ was identified in 2012 as then 20-year-old Sandra Major. She was last seen getting into a truck in North Seattle in 1982.

Ridgway pleaded guilty to the murders of both Razpotnik and Major in 2003, but claimed he could not remember details about their murders.

He primarily targeted young female prostitutes or runaways and then dumped their bodies in the Seattle area.

“I chose prostitutes because I thought I could kill as many as I wanted without getting caught,” he said.

Ridgway was dubbed the Green River Killer because the bodies of several of his victims were found in or near the river of the same name in the early 1980s.

Patty Eakes, one of the prosecutors assigned to the case, said the lack of emotion Ridgway showed when he finally admitted to killing the women still concerned her.

She remembers him confessing to the brutal crimes as if “he was walking.”

“A few things struck me,” she said Fox news of 2020 murders.

“He took his son and left him in the car while he went back and had sex with the bodies… It didn’t seem to register in his mind how messy that was.

“So depraved and basically no acknowledgment on his part that he, you know, took a child and left him in the car while he was on his way to kill a woman, or went back another time to have sex with another corpse .

“It scared me so much that it was shocking, even for someone like me, who unfortunately has had a lot of dealings with murders.”

Eakes said Ridgway came across as an average “middle-aged crazy man.”

“You had to remind yourself who he was and what he was capable of,” she said, adding that some victims may have felt comfortable getting into his truck because of his seemingly innocent personality.

‘I think he was looking for vulnerable women. He had a strange, underlying need to feel like he had a beautiful woman by his side. Often the women he picked up were attractive. He wanted to be one of those guys who says, “I’ve got a beautiful woman with me.” He didn’t necessarily feel like he had that in his personal life… Physical attractiveness was definitely part of that,” she said.

The first of his victims turned up in the Green River in 1982, earning the then-unknown assailant the name Green River Killer. By the end of 1984, the bodies of 42 women had been found.

Ridgway, a longtime painter for a trucking company and father of one child, had been a suspect since 1984.

The boyfriend of Marie Malvar, one of his victims, had reported seeing her get into a pickup truck identified as Ridgway’s. Ridgway then told police he did not know Malvar and a police investigator who knew him cleared him as a suspect.

Ridgway was eventually arrested in 2001 after detectives matched his DNA to semen found on three of the first victims.

In 2002, prosecutors had charged him with seven murders, but had all but given up hope of linking him to the dozens of other women.

He offered to help authorities find the remains of his other victims if prosecutors agreed not to pursue the death penalty.

Eakes was among those who worked with Ridgway for six months to identify the remaining murders.

“We still have missing women. There are women left who will probably never be found. He’s claiming more murders, and you just don’t know if they happened,” Eakes said.

The King County Sheriff’s Office said they continued to investigate Ridgway even after he was jailed.

Being sued by your Airbnb guests because they couldn’t stand to be around a disabled person sounds too cruel to be real.  

However, this is exactly what one woman, Carrie Jade Williams, an Englishwoman based in Ireland, claimed had happened to her last year. 

In a video that exploded on social media, Carrie, who said she had been diagnosed with the terminal illness Huntington’s Disease, said her Airbnb guests had demanded a refund and were attempting to sue her for 450,000 euros. 

Why? She said they’d told her that ‘being around her as a disabled person’ had caused them ‘trauma’.  

The story sparked outrage, with the hashtag #thisworldcanbeaccessible trending in minutes. People were desperate to help Carrie and find the heartless guests, and one of those people was VICE journalist Kat Denkinson.

However, what Kat found was a much darker truth – the story wasn’t real… and shockingly, neither was Carrie. 

In an investigation that first took her to Kenmare in Ireland, Kat discovered that Carrie Jade Williams was in fact a woman called Samantha Cookes, who had a history of compulsive lying alongside a tragic backstory of child loss.

Cookes disappeared from her home in Kenmare last year and hasn’t been heard of since.  

However, ‘Carrie Jade’ wasn’t Samantha’s only alias. As Kat set about uncovering more of her several fake identities, she also found years of cruel scams.

The journalist found that Samantha had adopted a pattern of infiltrating small communities and embedding herself in the lives of vulnerable families by posing as someone qualified to look after children – only to then attempt to scam them out of money. In some cases, Samantha even received suspended prison sentences for fraud.

Each time Samantha’s lies began to unravel and people grew suspicious of her, she would pack up, disappear and resurface elsewhere under a new name. 

Before she was disability activist Carrie Jade, Samantha was Rebecca Fitzgerald, the autism therapist. And before that she was domestic violence refuge owner Lucy Fitzwilliam, au pair Lucy Hart and a surrogate mother called Claudia. 

The baffling story was first revealed by VICE in December 2022 and has since been turned into a podcast called Carrie Jade Does Not Exist – hosted by Kat and comedian Sue Perkins. 

But what did Samantha do while under these false names? And who is she really? 

The terminal illness sufferer: Carrie Jade Williams

Carrie Jade Williams is an English woman in her 30s who claimed to have Huntington’s disease, a rare and terminal neurological condition.

She arrived in Cahersiveen, County Kerry, in 2019 rather out of the blue and soon befriended a woman whose daughter had died. 

She first made headlines when she won the Bodley Head Financial Times literary award in 2020 – a prestigious essay competition with a £1,000 prize. 

Her compelling and emotional essay called: ‘My brain is in a battle it will lose’ told the story of her diagnosis with Huntington’s and how she could no longer write or hold a pen. The essay was said to have been written using assistive technology.

After winning the prize and having the essay published in a national newspaper, Carrie garnered a huge platform and everyone wanted to interview the terminally ill chemical engineer-turned star writer. 

She began hosting virtual writing workshops during the pandemic and told those who had joined that she would help them get bursaries of up to £10,000 to kick-start their literary careers. Carrie claimed the money was coming from a literary app she was set to launch.

But as time went on, the app never launched and the group attendees never saw any money. Growing suspicious of Carrie, people began to question her and after months of stringing them along, Carrie said she was going to the US for life-saving surgery and soon ghosted the group completely. 

Yet she continued to build on her platform following the win, and made YouTube videos detailing her horror diagnosis. Her story captured the public’s heart.

But in 2022, high on her success as an online disability activist, Carrie told a lie that would eventually unravel her lies. She posted a TikTok calling out Airbnb for allegedly siding with guests who had complained about having to use her accessible doorbell.

‘I know able-ism exists, and I’ve experienced it,’ she said in a teary video.  

Carrie claimed the guests, who had stayed at her home, were so ‘traumatised by being around her as a disabled person’ they had complained to Airbnb – and that Airbnb had instructed her to refund them as a result.

The video went viral as people were horrified by the overt display of able-ism and Carrie soon posted a follow-up video – where she claimed the guests were now suing her for 450,000 euros for the trauma caused. They also allegedly slapped her with a list of 13 bizarre demands to cope with the trauma, including an emotional support animal and 25 adult colouring books a year for the remainder of their lives.

However on October 5, 2022, someone on Reddit posted links to articles about a convicted fraudster – who they claimed was Carrie. 

Carrie issued a statement saying this was in fact her sister who had struggled with mental health problems and that it was defamatory for anyone to link the pair. 

This led journalist Kat to investigate the story and over the course of two months, she uncovered the truth. Carrie Jade did not exist. 

The autism expert: Rebecca Fitzgerald 

In 2017, 29-year-old au pair and ‘autism therapist’ Rebecca Fitzgerald moved to Fermoy, a town near Cork, Ireland.

She lived and worked with a local family and formed relationships with parents in the community, advertising herself as a qualified autism therapist who could ‘teach non-speaking autistic kids to talk in just two months’. 

Parents in the local area described her as kind, empathetic and the ‘perfect person’ and she was soon invited into their homes to help their children. Rebecca began working at Fermoy’s kids community centre and school.

It is not possible to reverse non-speaking autism in two months, Rebecca had no qualifications and she was not a child therapist. 

Julie Lee, a mother in her 50s originally from Johannesburg and a taxi driver who often drove Rebecca from house to house, clocked that she was a fraud. 

Rebecca would have no money when arriving at the houses of these families, Julie said, and yet when she picked her up she would have hundreds of pounds. ‘That’s how I knew what she was doing.’

During the drives, Rebecca told Julie she was opening a clinic for children and families and tried to recruit Julie to work there, before asking for a copy of her passport and money. Having recruited other people in the area, one woman even quit her job as an au pair to work for Rebecca.

‘That’s when I realised it was a scam,’ Julie said. ‘An unqualified person doing that, then looking for passport copies, then money.’ 

People at the school started to ask questions about the qualifications of their child’s new therapist. The school headteacher contacted the Garda [police] but they never followed up. 

Julie also reported Rebecca, and the Garda told her they had a thick folder on Rebecca, and had been keeping track of her.

Officers were sent to Rebecca’s home and shortly after, she disappeared.

The speech therapist: Lucy Fitzwilliam

A year earlier, in 2016, bright and bushy tailed Lucy Fitzwilliam, 28, moved to County Geery, Ireland. 

She introduced herself to the locals as a speech and language therapist who also ran a domestic violence refuge and quickly became a beloved member of the community.

Lucy met Lynn, not her real name for anonymity, a single parent and domestic abuse survivor whose youngest daughter has Rett syndrome, a genetic neurological disorder that affects the way the brain develops. Lucy offered to be her carer.

Lynn declined the offer but Lucy was persistent and instead said she could do art therapy with Lynn’s oldest daughter Sofia, eight, who had witnessed her father’s abuse.

The family became close with Lucy, and after months of ‘therapy’ she offered them a trip to Lapland. This was apparently being organised by the church who were covering half the cost. 

Lucy said she needed a £500 deposit to secure the trip – which would be raising money for the domestic abuse refuge she claimed to run. The community rallied and Lynn’s mother made up 400-500 euros worth of food packages for the refuge.

As the Lapland trip drew nearer, Lynn said she had been trying to find a specialist nurse to care for her youngest daughter. It was at this point Lucy said she would take Sofia to Lapland alone and Lynn and her youngest could join them later once care was organised.

All Lucy needed was Sofia’s passport and birth certificate, Lynn said.

‘She had zoned in on my Sofia and I still to this day believe she looked for a signature from me so she could bring Sofia herself to Lapland.’ 

Suspicions in the community escalated when one of Lynn’s friends, a woman called Pauline whose son is autistic, said Lucy had also tried to convince her to hand over her son’s passport. 

Lucy was reported to the Garda for trying to scam families in the community out of money and passports, but she was let go without charge. She packed up and left County Geery that same night. 

The au pair: Lucy Hart

Two years before there was Lucy Fitzwilliam, there was a 26-year-old woman called Lucy Hart.

Bonnie, not her real name for anonymity, a woman in her 40s from Tullamore, had been looking an au pair to help look after her children.

She came across Lucy on an au pair website in 2014. Lucy said she was experienced in childcare and following a quick video call, Bonnie hired her.   

‘She was so convincing, and really lovely in the interview we had,’ said Bonnie. 

Bonnie and her children ‘loved’ Lucy and she quickly became part of the family – regaling them with her interesting stories about her previous au pair jobs and her own family. Lucy said she was adopted and that her mother Jane Hart lived in the United States. She said her mother was the ‘main supplier for sandpaper for B&Q’.

In a video for the ALS ice bucket challenge, Lucy nominated her mother ‘Jane’ and Bonnie’s children poured the water over her head. 

Lucy soon opened up to Bonnie about her love life, saying she was dating a man in the UK who had two children from a previous relationship. 

Bonnie also received an insight into Lucy’s tragic past, as she told her that her previous fiance Liam had had motor neuron disease and killed himself by hanging. 

Lucy said she had found him.

The pair’s friendship grew but things changed during Christmas in 2014 – when Lucy accused Bonnie’s children of stealing her money and engagement ring. Bonnie did not believe her children would do such a thing and the relationship began to break down. 

Bonnie went back over many of Lucy’s elaborate stories and found they did not add up, so one day challenged her au pair as she launched into yet another tale. Kind and smiley Lucy was quickly replaced with an angry woman who accused Bonnie of attacking her and stormed out of the room. 

Things remained tense until one day in January when Lucy said she was going on a writing retreat and disappeared. 

After a few weeks, Bonnie accepted Lucy was not coming back and went into the room she had been staying in. In the wardrobe she found piles of documents and one truly chilling letter that made her ‘blood run cold’.

Among shopping lists and legal documents was a statement about visitation rights for Lucy’s child – a child whose name matched the one she claimed was her boyfriend’s from another relationship. 

More chilling still, Bonnie came across a statement.

The statement read: ‘I stand shoulder to shoulder with the coroner and I did not murder my daughter. I pray she is at peace.’

Her real identity: Samantha Cookes

Behind all of the aliases is a real woman – Samantha Cookes. 

Born in 1988, Samantha grew up in Gloucestershire, before moving to Shropshire with her mother and her new husband after her parents divorced. 

Samantha had a reputation for being a liar, her friend from school said. Her lies included her mother having cancer and her being pregnant and miscarrying.

Aged 18, Samantha was dating a boy called Liam. She went as far as to set up a website to plan their ‘wedding’. There was no wedding. 

The pair split up some time later and aged 20, Samantha started a degree in Occupational Therapy at York University.

However, Samantha later discovered she was pregnant and left university in her first year, returning home to Shropshire. She gave birth to a daughter called Martha in 2008.

Tragically, just four months later, Martha died. 

A five-month inquest found Martha had died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) – a result which appeared to vindicate Samantha, who seemed to have taken the inquest as an accusation.

It was at this point Samantha made the statement later found by Bonnie in Tullamore six years later. 

‘I stand shoulder to shoulder with the coroner, and I did not murder my daughter,’ it read. ‘I pray she is at peace.’ 

Samantha did not return to university as she chose not to fill out criminal records check forms. 

Two years later in 2010, Samantha started a relationship with a man, whose identity is not being revealed to protect him and his family. The pair had a child. 

The same year, 23-year-old Samantha offered her services as a surrogate on Facebook. 

After making contact with a couple about being their surrogate, Samantha passed on the contact of a woman called Claudia, who had previously used her as a surrogate. Claudia gave the excited couple a glowing review of Samantha.

Having never met her face to face, the couple gave Samantha £1,200 out of their savings to cover the cost of the insemination kit, legal fees and other expenses. 

Sadly the baby never came, and as both Samantha and Claudia avoided the couple’s messages, they realised they had been duped. The police were contacted and a 23-year-old woman was arrested at her home in Shropshire.

The case came to trial in 2011 and Samantha pleaded guilty to fraud. She received a suspended sentence of 9 months’ imprisonment and a fine of £1890 to be paid to the couple.

But what the trial also revealed was that Samantha and Claudia were the same person. Claudia did not exist.

A year later, Samantha gave birth to a second child with the man she had been dating but due to mental health problems, the father was given sole custody. In 2013 she became pregnant with her third child with the same man. 

Determined not to lose custody of this unborn child, Samantha fled to Ireland in the winter of 2013. She gave birth in January 2014.

However, a neighbour reported her to Irish social services and the child was taken into care. After appearing at Irish family court, the father was again given custody and the baby was transported back to the UK. 

Samantha had permanently lost custody of her third child by August 2014. 

A month later she had changed her name to Lucy Hart and was working for Bonnie as an au pair. In January 2015, she left Bonnie’s home. 

In 2016, Samantha moved to County Geery and became Lucy Fitzwilliam and in 2017, Rebecca Fitzgerald arrived in Fermoy. 

When Samantha arrived in Cahersiveen, County Kerry, in 2019, she became someone else – Carrie Jade Williams.