A Brandon woman is being investigated for fraud stemming from a 2013 accident where she claimed her unborn child was killed.
"My husband and I were so upset when we found out she supposedly lost this baby," Lyn Goodpaster said. Her daughter was involved in the accident where the other driver filed the injury claim.
Goodpaster says both drivers exchanged information and drove away from the scene.
"We looked at my daughter's car when she got home and there was no mark, not even a scratch," Goodpaster said.
Still, an insurance claim was filed where the other driver claimed the accident caused her unborn child to die. The Goodpaster family believed the story for months, but, since Lyn and her husband dealt with the insurance, they kept the death of the unborn baby a secret from their daughter.
"We can't tell her that this woman lost this baby," Goodpaster recalled. "We just can't do that to her."
ABC Action News uncovered a search warrant for medical records of the woman filing the claim. It shows a fraud investigation into the injuries from the crash.
We are not releasing the woman's name because of an active criminal investigation and charges have not been filed.
But, the warrant describes an elaborate scam where the woman used documents from a previous pregnancy, changed the dates and forged other forms. Those documents included sonogram pictures, FMLA forms, even a hand written statement from a doctor saying she miscarried because of the accident. The total settlement from the crash was nearly $50,000.
"I only known for her to be pregnant once, and that was with my granddaughter who had a birthday yesterday," the woman's father-in-law told us.
That child was born in 2012, a year before the crash. According to the search warrant, many of the documents from that pregnancy were altered and used in the insurance claim scam.
The warrant also describes a separate fraud investigation in 2014, which led insurance investigators to look at the claim from 2013.
"Vindication, Vindication. I don't know what she's done to get caught, but, good!" Goodpastor said.
According to the warrant, the woman being investigated for the insurance fraud worked in the insurance industry and has training in insurance fraud.
