Dupage Prosecutor Foils Flimsy Fake Death Claims

There are some things people just shouldn’t do for money.  Telling someone that close relatives have died when you know they are still alive and well is indeed one of those things.  And Bridgette Buckner is learning this the hard way.

According to the Daily Herald, the Barlett woman was in court on June 30^th and admitted that she lied about the deaths of her daughter and husband. She was trying to orchestrate a scheme in order to receive a $25,000 insurance payout.

After pleading guilty in the DuPage County Court to insurance fraud and mail fraud, Buckner faces either probation or 3 to 7 years in prison.

Prosecutors noted that Buckner’s sordid tale began after she started working for Hallmark Services Corp in March of 2008. Within months she had filed a benefit claim stating that her young daughter had died of an illness.  But it didn’t end there.

The DuPage County Assistant State’s Attorney, Helen Kapas Erdman, noted that “her fellow employees sent her flowers and later that summer she took time off, claiming the death left her heartbroken.”

As noted in the Chicago Tribune:

Buckner filed for a death benefit from the company on April 30, 2008, claiming her daughter died earlier that month, and she was given $10,000 after producing what turned out to be a false Cook County death certificate. The $10,000 check was issued by Fort Dearborn Life Insurance Company.

Later, on September 25, 2008, she filed another claim, this time for a $15,000 death benefit claim for her husband, who she said was an FBI agent killed in the line of duty.  Looks like she pulled out all the stops at this point, but apparently she didn’t count on what followed.

Buckner’s employer grew suspicious about the second claim and called in a corporate security director. This security director happened to be an actual retired FBI agent with enough connections to check out her story.  She told the investigator that her husband was shot in the lungs in the line of duty and that he died waiting for surgery at Loyola University Medical Center on September 17^th.  The security director disagreed, and Buckner’s story fell apart.

Kapas stated that Buckner later told the authorities that she was still married, but that she hadn’t seen her husband in a year. Apparently her estranged husband was not an FBI agent.  And the good news for him is that he was never shot, and is alive and well.  It is believed that she had a twin child who did die of heart problems, but that was four years earlier in 2004.

After admitting submitting the false death claims, she told investigators she was “just stupid. I don’t know why I did it.”

Buckner, who had a clear criminal history up until this point, is scheduled for sentencing on August 23^rd. Her attorney, Matthew Hachigian, said he would wait until then to comment.