The man took loan worth totaling $40,000 to pay for her cancer treatment. (Representational Image)
The man had known Michelle Zipp for only a few months, but he already knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.
So after learning that his 31-year-old fiancee had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, the smitten Pennsylvania man decided he would do whatever it took to keep the love of his life alive.
That included exhausting his bank account and taking out loans totaling $40,000 to pay for Zipp's cancer treatments.
But the man would eventually discover that there was a problem, Bedford County District Attorney Bill Higgins said: Michelle Zipp didn't really have cancer.
"It's a really sad situation," Higgins told The Washington Post. "He felt they were engaged to be married, but obviously her intentions were different."
"What we have here is a bad person who preyed upon the heart and kind intentions of a really good person who wanted to help," he added.
The relationship began in October after the two were introduced by a mutual friend. Higgins said he isn't sure exactly when Zipp's ruse began, but the prosecutor believes it was easier to maintain because the couple didn't see each other often.
"Most of the relationship was conducted through text messaging and email and phone calls," he said. "It doesn't appear they spent a lot of time together."
Higgins said Zipp persuaded the man - whose name has not been released by authorities - to take out loans to help her pay for the surgeries that she said she desperately needed. At one point, NBC affiliate WJAC reported, the man transferred more than $6,000 to Zipp at a local Walmart through money grams.
To keep the lie alive during the couple's four-month-long relationship, Higgins said Zipp manufactured characters over text.
"She even sent him text messages from a reported nurse who was treating her to give him updates on her health status," the prosecutor said. "She went to great lengths to perpetrate this lie."
Higgins said one of the deceitful texts from the nurse who didn't exist informed the victim that his girlfriend was in a medically induced coma. That same day, WJAC reported, Zipp was pulled over by a state trooper, proving that she was conscious enough to operate a vehicle.
"She even gave him the name of the hospital she was staying at and gave him a lot of details," Higgins said. "She told him that if she didn't get the money for these surgeries she would die."
"She exploited him with romance," he added.
Zipp is being represented by Bedford County public defender Lucas Kelleher.
"She was arrested under a bizarre set of circumstances, however, we have yet to receive the discovery materials -- the paper documentation for her case," Kelleher said. "These are only allegations at this point and she maintains her innocence."
Higgins said he didn't know what caused the woman's boyfriend to become suspicious about her alleged condition. By the time he did and reported Zipp to police, Higgins said, it didn't take investigators long to unravel her story.
"Police reached out to the hospital where Zipp claimed she was receiving treatment to determine if she was a patient and her story quickly unraveled from there."
Higgins said Zipp is charged with theft by deception, which amounts to creating a false impression to rob an unsuspecting victim. The charge is a first-degree felony that is punishable by a maximum of 20 years in prison, Higgins said.
Zipp was arrested last week and was released from jail after posting a $50,000 bail.
Higgins said his office sees more online scams targeting victims' bank accounts, but he's never encountered a case in which someone manufactured a relationship to steal money.
"People are getting more creative in how they try to trick others into giving them money," he said. "I've never had one exactly like this, where someone played up an illness that didn't exist."
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)