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Faking cancer for donations and sympathy
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With a college degree and a job as a chemist, Brian Dibble is trained to analyze things. But when it came to his own wife’s claim that she was dying of cancer, he insists he had no clue that she faked the ordeal for nearly 18 months.
Rob Stafford, Dateline correspondent: You’re saying that this was all a scam.
Brian Dibble, Jennifer's husband: Yes.
Stafford: Were you in on it?
Brian Dibble: No.
Stafford: Did you know about it?
Brian Dibble: No. I didn’t. I was not in on it.
Stafford: You had no idea that your wife was lying?
Brian Dibble: I had no idea.
Stafford: How didn’t you know? I mean, how did you miss it?
Brian Dibble: I was so disconnected from her. I was working long hours, worrying about my kids, worrying about keeping everything together that I didn’t have time or the inclination to question her through any of this.
They married back in 1997. Brian says he was deeply in love with Jennifer and embraced her two sons from a previous marriage before they had three more boys of their own. But by 2002, just five years later, Brian says the intimacy was gone and he was working two jobs in a desperate attempt to please his wife.
Brian Dibble: She wanted more of the American dream. She wanted to live in a bigger house, she wanted to drive a nicer car, have more clothes and what made her feel good were money and material things.
Stafford: And you’re getting more and more in debt?
Brian Dibble: Yes, definitely.
Buried in bills and marital problems, Brian says he suffered an emotional breakdown and eventually told his wife he wanted out. But he says Jennifer threatened to leave with the kids. And a few months later announced she was dying of cancer. So he decided to stay and try to keep his family together.
Stafford: Did you take her to chemotherapy?
Brian Dibble: No, she has always been a very private person—never wanted anybody in the family to go with her.
Stafford: Did you speak, specifically, with her doctors?
Brian Dibble: No, we were strictly forbidden to talk to anybody at that time…
Stafford: Who was forbidding you from doing it?
Brian Dibble: Her.
Stafford: I can’t imagine any husband being that disengaged from his dying wife’s treatment.
Brian Dibble: Yes. She just didn’t want me to be involved in anything medical—or anything to do with her personal life. We had become so disconnected that I didn’t get to be involved with her the way normal spouses would be.
Brian says he never saw his wife naked and without her bandages. And he never questioned why she looked so buff and tanned while supposedly undergoing debilitating treatments.
Brian Dibble: I didn’t know a lot about chemotherapy and the reactions and the side effects.
Stafford: But aren’t you a scientist by profession?
Brian Dibble: Yes.
Stafford: A chemist... you don’t have to be a chemist to realize that people with terminal cancer usually don’t look the way Jennifer looks.
Brian Dibble: Yeah. I know. Emotionally I wasn’t strong enough to sit there and think rationally about what was going on.
Brian admits his family benefited from an outpouring of love and money from relatives, friends and strangers. But he says he has no idea how much came in or where the money went because Jennifer handled all the books.
Stafford: What do you have to say to the families, to the strangers who opened their hearts and their wallets to help you out?
Brian Dibble: I am truly sorry that this has all happened. It really saddens my heart that my wife took advantage of people in this situation to gain money through false pretenses and it sickens me.
Stafford: If it sickens you that much, why have you stayed with her for more than a year since you found out this was a scam?
Brian Dibble: I always thought that what I needed to do was stick by my wife ‘cause I knew she was sick. Truly sick, not with cancer. But, emotionally sick and that she needed to have help.
And Brian thought if he could help Jennifer, he’d finally get what he yearned for—a loving relationship...
Brian Dibble: And I would have that life that I’ve always wanted. I would have that wife that I could love and she would love me. And we’d have a wonderful family together—I just knew I could do it.
But Brian says his wife chose not to have therapy fearing anything she disclosed to a therapist could be used against her in court if she’s ever charged with a crime. At the same time, Brian says his efforts to salvage their marriage failed. And as Dateline pursued the story and the federal investigation heated up, he filed for divorce.
Stafford: Are you trying to cut and run just as the heat is really turning up?
Brian Dibble: No, I’m not. The reason I left my wife was that she had totally changed. She was not coming home at night. She had changed her physical appearance, her demeanor and come to find out she also was seeing somebody else. I could not take it anymore.
Jennifer countersued for divorce and the pair wound up in a Fort Worth, Texas courtroom in January. That’s where we finally caught up with Jennifer, who had never returned our calls.
Rob Stafford phones Jennifer Dibble: Jennifer. Rob Stafford, Dateline NBC. I’d like to talk to you. Why did you lie about having cancer?
We tried again as she left court.
Stafford asks Jennifer Dibble: The big question is, why would you lie about the cancer?
Attorney: Excuse us. (slams door)
Although Jennifer wouldn’t talk, she sent her father, Mark Rubio, to speak on her behalf.
Stafford: Why did your daughter lie about being sick?
Mark Rubio, Jennifer Dibble’s father: Well, because she had five children to take care of. Her husband was having an affair and she thought that would be a good way to keep him around, perhaps.
Stafford: How could she make her kids think she was dying?
Rubio: I don’t know. It’s a strange thing and obviously she’s got some kind of—I don’t know.
Stafford: I things were so bad in the marriage, why didn’t Jennifer just file for divorce?
Rubio: Have you ever tried to file for divorce when you’ve got five kids to take care of? Who is going to pay for’ em? I don’t know why.
Stafford: And when you see your daughter sitting at a fundraiser? You think that’s okay?There’s a pic of her with big smile on her face and a big jar of cash.
Rubio: Absolutely not.
Jennifer’s dad says his daughter feels remorse and was “absolutely wrong” to lie about the cancer and take money from strangers. He says most of the donations came from relatives and that no one has sued her to get the money back. Jennifer has not been charged with a crime but the investigation continues. In court papers, she denies having an extramarital affair.
Brian Dibble told us he didn’t cheat either and points out that Jennifer never alleged adultery in her divorce petition. He says his wife feels no remorse for faking cancer.
Brian Dibble: She has gone on day by day thinking that she has skirted this without any repercussions, without any remorse, without anything where she’ll have to answer to anybody.
Stafford: How do you think she feels about what she’s done to Tamara and Marlo?
Brian Dibble: She doesn’t care. She feels that they betrayed her and she feels no remorse for those people at all.
Tamara and Marlo say they are the ones who feel betrayed by Jennifer. She’s never apologized or offered an explanation, leaving them to wonder why she would live such a lie? Why subject her loved ones—and especially her own small children—to this kind of pain?
Marlo Domagos, friend of Jennifer: You know for a year I had prayed for her to get well. How could she do this to everybody that loved her, everybody that supported her?
Stafford: How many times have you gone over every conversation that the two of you had during that period?
Domagos: Like too many times to even count. It makes you question trusting people again.
Tamara Burross, friend of Jennifer: How could she trade wonderful people in her life, wonderful friends, family that loved her? People that had such high opinions of her, for this lie? Whether it was sympathy, attention, money, why was it worth it? I would really like an answer to that but I doubt I’ll ever get it.
Stafford: Do you think she’s sorry for what happened?
Tamara Burross: I think she’s sorry she got caught.
Jennifer Dibble's children no longer live with her, but she does get to visit. Divorce and custody proceedings are still pending.
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