BLOOMINGTON — A former Ball State University student who was sentenced earlier this year to probation for faking cancer and collecting money through fund-raisers has been arrested for allegedly deceiving her employers with a similar scheme.
Brookelyn Walters, 26, faces a preliminary charge of theft after convincing the owners of a gymnastics business that she had leukemia, police said.
Mike and Erin Booher, owners of Bloomington’s Rising Star Gymnastics, said they felt so moved by her story that Walters stayed in their home for a month so they could care for her.
“Our trust just sort of kept us going with her, and our pity, too,” Erin Booher said.
While she was a student at Ball State, Walters shaved her head and pretended to be deaf for three years, leading university officials to provide an interpreter for her to attend classes, authorities said. A sorority and fraternity also gave Walters $1,000 that was raised at a benefit.
A Delaware Circuit Court judge sentenced her in March to four years probation after she pleaded guilty but mentally ill to felony charges.
Evan Hardin, philanthropy and community service chair for Ball State’s Interfraternity Council, said Tuesday that since the incident, the council has placed greater emphasis on conducting background checks using a grant through Student Organizations and Activities. The council will help provide free background checks in the next three weeks for individuals and organizations interested in philanthropic or community service, Hardin said.
“Why do it if you’re not going to take it seriously? In this day and age, it has to be done,” he said. “If background checks aren’t done, what other precautions are there?”
Senior Lori Pullan, a member of the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, said Walters’ scam on Delta Chi fraternity and Kappa Delta sorority had long-ranging effects on members in the group, most of whom graduated last year.
“She took advantage of their generosity, and I wasn’t actually part of the fellowship when it all happened, but I saw the aftermath of it after it happened, and it really devastated a lot of people,” Pullan said.
Rather than remaining on probation or going to prison, Walters should be admitted for psychiatric care and should stay away from the general public, Pullan said.
“I hope that she can get the help she needs,” she said. “I wish it didn’t have to be court-ordered. I wish she could do that on her own.”
Walters moved to Bloomington earlier this year and had been working at Rising Star since February, using a fake name, police said. In April, Walters told the owners that she had been diagnosed with leukemia.
The Boohers organized a fund-raiser earlier this month at which they held a cartwheel-a-thon and raised about $4,000, police said.
The hoax ended Sunday after Walters was taken to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis where she said she needed emergency brain surgery. Erin Booher and a friend said they asked to speak to a counselor.
When a doctor arrived, the pair told him about Walters’ story and noticed the doctor was smirking. The doctor told Booher and her friend that Walters said she was in remission from cancer and that she had received treatment in France.
The Boohers did an Internet research and found Walters’ former conviction in Muncie.
“I have never been so agonized in my entire life,” Erin Booher said.
The Boohers and police say Walters’ story was convincing.
All her hair was gone one day, including her eyelashes and eyebrows, Erin Booher said. The hair began to grow again, and Walters told the Boohers’ 5-year-old daughter it was because of her prayers, police said.
“She faked the whole thing, but it was very, very elaborate,” Monroe County Detective Barb Beland said.
Erin Booher said she became suspicious when Walters said her heart had stopped at the hospital.
“She said that she flat lined and had a code blue at 1:20 in the afternoon, and she was back at her apartment by 5 in the evening,” Booher said.
At one time, Walters had her arm wrapped up with an intravenous port sticking out. At times, she injected herself with a clear liquid that also had a handwritten label.
“They felt really sorry for her,” Beland said.
No phone number for Walters was listed in Bloomington to obtain comment.
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