A lot of people are wondering about our silence regarding the Penn Mommy situation. We have been asked why we haven't offered our condolences. Well, the truth is we suspect this Penn Mommy thing to be a complete and utter scam. We've been silent for a long time about our suspicions but, now, it has gone too far.
We're posting what we know, not because we need to be believed but because, at this point, holding back this information would be wrong.
In August, someone visited our blog stating she was a neighbor of the Gosselins. There was no one from PA on the sitemeter and that information was posted. This person stated she was visiting "her mom out of state". The following morning she returned and wanted to explain herself. Due to the low traffic on this blog, we were able to isolate this person's IP address to Bakersfield, CA. She consequently showed up on other boards for a short time. She then disappeared.
Penn Mommy started her blog in September. People who frequent this blog were skeptical. They posted on her site and had many questions. Shortly after this, someone who had only posted here for a few days emailed a mod at this blog. She was asking questions and attempting to find out what was known. In her email, she asked if we thought it could be Etown Mom and "didn't you guys have her located in CA?" That information had never been given out, not even to the other moderator at that time. Our antennas immediately went up. This person has never posted since.
Subsequently, Penn Mommy's son who was a student in Los Angeles became sick and she needed to rush to California.
We were suspicious and continued to monitor the sitemeter. Posters with the screen names of Karen and Becky Haas appeared on our site in support of Penn Mommy. They posted in the middle of the night which made it easy to identify their IP address. When they posted, they were the only people on the site. Becky Haas stated she was friends with both the Gosselins and Penn Mommy and had a child die early of meningitis. Their IP address was the same and belonged to Bakersfield, CA.
Bakersfield is 115 miles and approximately a 2 hour drive from Los Angeles.
Although we were suspicious of this IP address for many weeks, we did not have it confirmed as Penn Mommy until she posted here herself on September 26th – Comment # 6. Again, she posted late in the evening and it was very easy to trace who was posting. William Haas also posted on this site on 09/28/08. The sitemeter showed the same IP address on for a short period of time when his comment was posted.
To date this IP address has posted under the names PennMommy, Becky Haas, Karen, Jhawksgirl1 and anonymous.
JHawsgirl1 also posted on our site on 9/28 claiming that she had a comment that did not go through. As stated above, her IP was the same as Penn Mommy. A google search of her screen name yielded some interesting results.
We received a tip from one of our bloggers who had found this website: CLICK HERE. Which belongs to none other than jhawksgirl1.
This person also is the owner of this website:http://possummomma.blogspot.com/ . Her writings are similar to the writer known as Penn Mommy.
She is also a member of TWoP.
Penn Mommy started this blog several days ago: http://willsjonah.blogspot.com/ There is a picture of her deceased son Jason on it.
Jhawksgirl/Possum Momma also has this picture of this young man on her public Picasa Web Album that appears to be recently added. http://picasaweb.google.com/bedellcl1975/LJSpecial#
JHawksgirl/Possum Momma has several blogs on a variety of topics and posts on a number of message boards. One blog in particular solicits gifts with a link to a "wish list" on Amazaon for gifts for her children who have been ill and hospitalized in the past.
These children are all minors.
On this particular blog, the poster states that her five-year old daughter had recently been stricken with appendicitis. The name and age of the daughter are identical to that mentioned in an email from "William" that mentions the girl as a second cousin who is also ill with appendicitis.
JHawskgirl1 from Bakersfield, CA does indeed exist as she and her family have been featured in print media.
On one of her profiles, she is linked to some discussion blogs about bloggers who fake illnesses and even death.
The following excerpt is from the above-mentioned blog and was feature on September 18th: XXX discovered xx's post.
"To say he was pissed was putting it mildly. (Note: When will fundamentalist christians understand that screaming about a contrary review only proves that they have no grasp of the scientific method or logical discourse?) XXX starts spamming the blogsophere, crying foul! He even stoops to the level of sock puppeting his own opinion piece articles in a newspaper. Then, when xx will not be bullied or badgered...he goes to wikipedia (allegedly) and starts falsely manipulating and editing xx's wiki entry. When he's caught, because of the fact that he doesn't understand what "IP" is, he freaks. Now, forget the fact that, by now, he's completely screwed with someone who did nothing more than review his paper. Forget the fact that he has called xx a pedophile and all matter of horrible claims. This week, XXX has his attorney send a "cease and desist" letter to xx. Oh yeah! Despite the fact that XXX is completely responsible for his internet credibility at this point...he sics his lawyer on xx."
On September 20th, the following appeared on PennMommy's blog:
"Second, my husband called to give me the news that we got a certified letter on Friday. The letter was from an attorney who was asking us to "cease and desist" keeping this blog. It states, in part, that the "blog, while factual, is causing my client(s) harm". It does not state what sort of "harm". It goes on to say that this is not a "legal request" but a "request of courtesy". It begs the question, then, why it uses the term "cease and desist"."
Is this all one big coincidence? You decide.
Please note any comment that identifies the above-mentioned blogger will not be published.
