I will share a story with you guys, before I close this thread, which is basically a discussion of Pleco's thread and really not appropriate for Misc.
I've seen online scams and trolls. I've had online chat friends who turned out to be lying about age, lying about marital status. Said people were decent, well-liked, fun and kept their stories straight. Both pinged the B.S. detector (as in this case) and I confronted one directly, who admitted to his lie and the other I was able to prove it later in time.
I've also had a well-liked moderator on another board fake her death (courtesy of word from her sister.) With the help of a poster, I figured out her real name and spoke to her school counselor and her father. Not. Dead. She was known to some though, for weird stories (I was almost raped. I was run off the road by someone following me.)
So I tend to be skeptical. I believed this at the very first read, until I began to think. Then the b.s. started to pile up concluding with the ludicrous baby thing today.
Plec, I don't NEED a picture (which could be obtained anywhere on the 'net and is not "proof".) If this is legit, give me the name of the mall where this happened (as I'm too lazy to check out your closest city and yes I know where it is, I'm a genealogical researcher who knows her stuff) and the name of the funeral home. I will call them myself, as I did with the other faked death.
Death certificates aren't issues for a few weeks, if memory serves, when it comes to current deaths. Given that someone died unexpected, a coroner's investigation might take place, I don't know as I've not looked into modern death issues.
However, this stinks to high heaven. I've let it go for a few days until today's bullshit. It was just one story too much.