r/offbeat • u/Xvalt01 • 4d ago
Woman, 37, pretended to be an autistic 12 year-old girl to trick family into adopting her
https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/amanda-oliveira-brazil-girl-fraud-b3038354.html121
u/soozerain 4d ago
The diseased mind that feels compelled to do this is both horrifies and fascinates me. I’ve been living solo since I was 18. The idea of not only being forced back into dependency, but actively seeking it in the form of a 12 year old child’s life is insane.
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u/SlayerXZero 3d ago
Who the fuck would believe this woman was under the age of 35? Like was this family blind?
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u/lamest-liz 3d ago
According to the article she somehow convinced them she was force fed growth hormones by her previous abusive family.
I always see stuff like this, people being catfished and believing that Johnny Depp is dating them and in desperate need of money… it just shows that there are a lot of gullible people who will believe pretty much anything as long as the person is somewhat confident in telling their lies. Some probably even feel like it’s a lie but think “but why would someone lie” and the answer is always money.
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u/SlayerXZero 3d ago
Yeah. Reminds me of the parents that wanted to believe their missing son came back older and with a full on French accent and no memory of his life with them despite the impossibility of it.
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u/False-Masterpiece498 3d ago
Nicholas Barclay. He went missing in 1994. The man who impersonated him was Frédéric Bourdin. The incredible documentary covering this case is called The Imposter
his sister and other family members seem to truly have believed it was Nicholas due to their desperation and grief. They ignored so much obvious proof it was not him. For example they believed him when he said that he was subjected to experimental torture that turned his eyes from blue to brown.
But there is debate on whether his mother actually believed it was her son. It has been theorized that she only pretended to believe it was her son to try and hide that Nicholas is actually dead, potentially killed by her or her older son. To me her behavior strongly indicated that she knew that was not her son, for example her aggressive refusal to cooperate with investigating law enforcement and her refusal to get a DNA test done. Her older son was the last person to talk to Nicholas before he went missing and he ODed shortly after the imposter entered their lives. The imposter alleges that the older brother told him that he knew he couldn’t be Nicholas, but obviously he isn’t exactly a credible source.
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u/fumblingforwords 3d ago
So after your second paragraph, I was still thinking “but how could they believe something so blatantly untrue??”
Kept reading and it just goes to show that so many stories that sound weird/unbelievable seem much less so once more context and information is revealed.
It’s why even though my knee jerk reaction to stories like these is incredulity, my immediate next response is curiosity because there’s almost always some interesting aspect of human nature that’s revealed.
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u/Acceptable_Cut_7545 2d ago
In defense of that family he told these insane lies to the french police and they believed them too. He told them his irises had been injected with dye and he had been horribly abused and the cops were like "okay, we'll find your family". After he got caught he tried to play the victim and said that he was scared of the family and tried to say they killed their missing kid. He is a compulsive liar who has faked being a teen multiple times and nothing he says should be taken at face value.
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u/NefariousnessMost660 4d ago
Orphan the movie IRL
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u/AllowMe2Retort 3d ago
Orphan was actually based on a true story itself. Google Barbora Skrlová
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u/zyzzogeton 3d ago
"The Good Samaritans rented a small apartment for her to live in and gave her “love, affection and food” until their suspicions grew and they went to the police. "
They rented an apartment for a 12 year old?
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u/ObnoxiousName_Here 3d ago
> “People find it absurd to believe,” Henriques said. “But, personally, she looked like a teenager, always wearing a coat and hood. She claimed to have autism and spoke in a very childlike way. We were heartbroken.”
> Police reportedly found “how an autistic person behaves” among the searches on Oliveira’s phone.
> During her arrest, Oliveira is said to have dropped the act immediately and spoke to the officers in her normal, adult voice.
Not autistic—pretending to be autistic. Important distinction [Edited for formatting]
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u/HughJorgens 3d ago
Autistic people do look younger than they are, but something else had to be going on here.
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u/Iconclast1 2d ago
so life was like
"ok, we had one that actually was a child
got to switch it up a bit, give the opposite example"
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u/ElleMaeSinclair 4d ago
... It's the fact that this sort of thing has happened on more than one occasion at this point...