$100K cash bond for mom accused of faking son's cancer to net funds

October 3, 2010

om-accused-of-faking-sons-cancer-to-net-funds

Posted: 12:29 p.m. Oct. 1, 2010

By Megha Satyanarayana

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

The Macomb County mother who faked her son's leukemia to fleece $7,500 from her

church and local businesses was arraigned this morning and is being held on a

$100,000 cash bond.

Carol Lynn Schnuphase, 47, who gave Judge Marco A. Santia of 39th District Court

in Roseville an address in Eastpointe, is being charged with three felony

counts, two of false pretenses and one child abuse charge. She could face up to

14 years in jail if convicted on all three. Court proceedings start on Oct. 13.

Schnuphase was supposed to turn herself today, but after receiving a tip that

she might be fleeing town, she was arrested in Clinton Township, allegedly

trying to visit her son who is in foster care. Hair dye, clothes and medication

were in her car.

Her aunt, Lorraine Kelsch, her cousin, Pat Kelsch, and the family of her third

husband, Daryl Carmack, who died in February 2009, were present in court.

" We're all filled with anger, " said Lorraine Kelsch. " She needs to go to jail.

There's been too many wrong things. "

In December 2009, Schnuphase allegedly began telling people that her son

, 12, had leukemia. She shaved his head and eyebrows and drugged his

food to make him seem lethargic. Her church held fund-raisers for her during the

spring, which her family attended, and she asked local businesses for help.

After family members called police in June, said Macomb County Prosecutor

, her son went into foster care, and she told friends and family that

died and she wasn't having a funeral. But according to a former

friend, Carl Crull, Schnuphase had told him earlier that the child had died from

hospital error.

" We have a 12-year-old child going through opiate withdrawal, " said of the

child after he was removed from his mother and the opiates used to lace his

food. A drug charge is also pending, he said.

The money was supposedly for basic living expenses, he said, " nothing out of the

ordinary. "

Carmack's family attended the arraignment because they believe his death was

suspicious, and thought she was lying about . The boy's biological

father died when he was 2.

" We heard and we knew he wasn't sick, " said Kassandra Lyman, Carmack's niece, of

.

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