Woman Accused of Faking Family Deaths for Insurance Money
By Anthonia Akitunde in News on Aug 9, 2009 8:30PM
Hallmark Services Corporation, the Naperville-based company Bridgette L. Buckner allegedly defrauded of thousands of dollars.
A grand jury indicted Bridgette L. Buckner this week on "insurance, mail and wire fraud charges," the report said. As of late Friday, Buckner was still free despite a $100,000 warrant out for her arrest.
Buckner, a phone representative at Naperville-based Hallmark Services Corporation, told her bosses her daughter had died of an illness months after she began her job, the report said. She claimed her daughter passed on April 19, 2008 and received $10,000 after submitting a benefit claim which included what prosecutors believe to have been a false death certificate and death claim form.
While out on disability leave five months later, Buckner contacted her employer the day before her return "to report her husband was killed on the job while working as an FBI agent," according to the report. On September 25, 2008, she filed a benefits claim for $15,000.
This claim drew suspicion and authorities launched an official investigation. They were unable to verify information contained in the benefit claims documentation. The FBI confirmed there was no one by Buckner's husband's name who worked for the agency.
Buckner and her husband are estranged; he claims he didn't know about the fraud attempts. Details around the daughter's death remains unclear according to the report, but Buckner did lose a child while giving birth to twins years ago.