Hello all, Just wanted to pass along a bad experience that the CRR (Cumberland River Region) list has had. I'll admit that I also fell for this scam. I also passed the info about Tim Colyer along to some of my friends. I hope they did not send money like I did. If they did, they will be getting it back as Margy is returning all of it. Friends, I'm sorry for getting you involved in this mess. I am passing this info along as it has been discovered that Tim has done this same thing before on other lists. We need to pray for Tim has he definately has a problem! Thanks, Diana -----Original Message----- From: Margy Miles <miles@usmo.com> To: CUMBERLAND-RIVER@rootsweb.com <CUMBERLAND-RIVER@rootsweb.com> Date: Wednesday, May 26, 1999 4:07 PM Subject: CRR: URGENT Please Read Folks.... I am not quite sure what to say here. This is very hard for me. I am extremely disappointed and heartsick at what I have learned today. It seems that we have all been fooled. Myself most of all along with a good and honest man, John Parsons. I am referring to the fund drive for Tim Colyer. I have spent the day doing what I should have done before I ever involved all of you, and that is trying to verify that Tim was for real. Tim Colyer is a real person but he is apparently NOT the person he made himself out to be. I have learned things today that leave me no doubt that I have been lied to and fooled. I am a very trusting person and I have been fooled. I am totally flabbergasted and in shock over this whole thing. Please forgive me. You have sent your good wishes, your prayers and your hard-earned money and I thank you and I love you all for it. Each and every person's money is being returned as soon as it arrives at my address starting today. I received one check yesterday and 7 today. I know there will be more in the next several days. They will all be returned. I am sad that there are people in the world that will take advantage of good people this way but evidently there are. I am sad that, because of this, some very good and deserving people will probably NOT get help they need in the future, because something like this will make us afraid to trust. I will never again ask you to help someone in this way without investigating the situation in every manner possible. At this point I do not know how much of what we have been told was truth and how much was not but I do know that Tim is not in the hospital and has not had a kidney transplant. Is he a Purple Heart Marine wounded twice in action? I don't know. I don't know what to believe at this point. I know that Tim will read this message and I am asking him publicly to come forward and offer an explanation and an apology to all of you. God bless you all. Thank you for the trust you put in me. I only hope this will not destroy that. I am truly sorry. Sincerely, Margy ==== CUMBERLAND-RIVER Mailing List ==== CRR Web Site;<http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Valley/6808/> -----Original Message----- From: Margy Miles <miles@usmo.com> To: CUMBERLAND-RIVER@rootsweb.com <CUMBERLAND-RIVER@rootsweb.com> Date: Thursday, May 27, 1999 10:03 AM Subject: Friends... >Everyone... >Like I said last night, I can't think of any words that would adequately >say what I want to say to all of you. I have received literally dozens and >dozens of wonderful messages from all of you and I thank you for each and >every one of them...and yes they have made a difference. > >I hope you won't tire just yet of this subject for I do feel it is an >important one and one that we must deal with if we are going to use the >Internet the way we do. I would just like to give you a little more >information about this situation if I may. I have no secrets from you -- >none. I want you to know everything I know. It is just that it would take >lots of long messages to tell you all of what has been going on. > >Tim first wrote to me a few months ago because he had found the CRR >website. I learned that we have mutual ancestors and shared anything I with >him that I thought would help him, as did many others o nthsi list. We >became what I would have called "good friends". He sent a Christmas card to >me and my family and enclosed pictures of his children. He has sent me more >cards and more pictures since then. I now know that he did that with others >on the list too. He told me he was disabled and sick with lupus. There were >nights when he would email that he was sitting up alone and scared because >he was bleeding from his kidneys and he didn't want his wife to know how >scared he was. He gained my trust and he definitely gained my sympathy. He >told me that all he wanted to do was put together some small family tree to >leave to his little girls. > >This whole thing did not happen overnight. The deceit has been going on for >weeks and even months. Then he began the thing about being on the waiting >list for a kidney and being afraid he would not live long enough to get it. >At first he was #62 on the list, then he was #21...then all of a sudden his >cousin whom he hadn't seen in more than 20 years was a perfect match and >going to give him a kidney. Then next thing I know I was getting mail from >"Teresa" that he had had the transplant. "Teresa" wrote me many many times. >She was so proud of her husband. She could not praise him enough. Also >"Sheila" (Teresa's sister) did the same. "Sheila" said he was a "true hero" >and that he was "the best person I have ever known". "Sheila" told me all >about his being shot twice in battle and how he didn't want anyone to know >and that he doesn't talk about it to anyone. She said he put his 2 Purple >Hearts away for his children and that even most of the family didn't even >know that he had them. > >"Teresa" and "Sheila" and "Dan", I now know, were all Tim. Well now he is >pretending to be yet another person. He is writing to me now as his >mother-in-law. He doesn't know that my husband grew up about 6 blocks from >his mother-in-law and knows the whole family. He doesn't know that a person >on this list talked to his mother-in-law on the phone yesterday. She is an >elderly widow who lives in Whitley Co., a sweet sincere lady from what I >understand. I truly doubt that she has ever gone near a computer. > >He claims (speaking as his mother-in-law) that the reason Tim didn't tell >us which hospital he was in was because the last time he went into the >hospital his 2 sisters broke into his house and stole everything he owned >and that one of those sisters is a member of the CRR list. Oddly >enough....when he signs the messages with his mother's-in law name...he >spells it wrong everytime. > >He is caught in a web of lies now. He has said so much that everything he >says now is a contradiction of something he has previously said. > >Bobbie of the list went to visit Teresa last week at the store where she >works in Middlesboro, Ky. Teresa (the real Teresa) told Bobbie (just in >passing conversation) that she had not been on the computer in over 3 >months because Tim stays on it all the time "writing his book." I still >have a mailbox full of messages from "Teresa" that I have received in the >last several days. Further, "Teresa" has been sending me pages of Tim's >writings on his family tree asking me to proof-read them and make >suggestions on how Tim can improve them. Hindsight is 20-20 and I can add >2 and 2. Tim has never mentioned a book to me. I can see now that he >thought he was cleverly getting me to help him write his book. John Parson >worked very hard to put together a whole big book on the Colyer family and >mailed it to Tim 2 days ago, before we found out all this. There may even >come a time when you will see Tim's book for sale....the book he wrote out >of deceit and trickery. > >Many of you are worried that this all could be a mistake. That is just what >I worried about all day yesterday until I found undeniable evidence. I just >could not comprehend that someone could do such a thing and it took a lot >of convincing for me before I came to the realization that indeed it was >all a lie. I did indeed call every single V.A. Hospital in Ky and Tn and >because "Sheila" told me she lived in Cincinnati, I even called there too. >Then I called the Ky V.A. Hospitals a second time and they did a thorough >search for me and even told me that the V.A. Hospitals don't do transplants. > >In the messages I have been receiving from "Tim's mother-in-law" he is now >claiming that he had the surgery in Cincinnati. Some of you live in >Cincinnati. If you would like to make a call to the V.A. Hospital there and >confirm that he is not there, that would be welcome. > >As far as legal action, he may have covered himself because he did not come >right out and ask us to send him money. He managed to get us to volunteer >to do that. But those of you who have said that others should be warned are >correct. We should probably warn others in on-line genealogy because I am >sure that he will still be using the Internet. He apparently also has a new >email address which he says is the mother's-in-law and says that she can be >reached there after 9 am Monday. That address is: <jsdel@jellico.com> just >so you know that this is the same person. His other address in case you >don't have it is: <mcbjc@eastky.net>. I am not giving you these so you can >write to him but so you will recognize him. > >I will tell you anything I know. You would be very shocked and dismayed to >read some of the things that Tim has written to me while pretending to be >other people. I will keep you posted on anything and will answer any of >your questions as best I can. > >If all of you who sent money would like me to I will post a list of them as >they come in to me so that you all know which ones I receive and that they >are being returned to you unopened. > >Again, thank you all so much for your heartfelt words and support. >Margy > > >==== CUMBERLAND-RIVER Mailing List ==== >You can go "Down Home" today! >Visit our CRR Website;<http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Valley/6808/> > >