A cancer faker accused of duping family and friends out of $100,000 who was recently added to the FBI’s Most Wanted list contacted her ex-husband from Australia, The Post has learned.
Vanessa O’Rourke, 37, has been hiding from authorities for years, but unexpectedly called Michael Gulinello, 42, of Massachusetts asking for his help around 2020.
“She somehow got a hold of me. She called and asked me if I could send her proof we got divorced because her mom can’t do it,” Gulinello told The Post, noting he’d changed his number since he and O’Rourke parted in 2010.
“I said no — she was already wanted.”
Gulinello was also less than inclined to help after his “pathological liar” ex left him deeply in debt and misled him throughout their marriage.
O’Rourke, of Harleysville, Pennsylvania, told Gulinello she needed the paperwork to return to the US, he said. However, if the fugitive were to return she would face the 15 counts of wire fraud she has been indicted on.
Authorities say O’Rourke has used aliases including Vanessa Gulinello and Cecilia Vincent Gaeta Lazaro, as well as changing her appearance to evade capture.
She is alleged to have faked glioblastoma, a terminal brain cancer, to con friends, family and supporters between 2015 and 2016 and has been hiding from authorities since her 2018 indictment over her “nauseating” scheme, in which she allegedly used the donations to fund luxury vacations in Australia.
Gulinello said the extent of the allegations against his ex have stunned him but, in hindsight, there were red flags during their relationship.
Recalling one incident before they wed, he explained: “We were supposed to get married at some hall and had to put a $2,500 deposit down. Then she said she found out we couldn’t get married there and told me they said they could only give $1,200 back.
“The deposit was actually fully refundable. About a month later her mom got a car. I feel like that money was given to her mom.”
Gulinello said his new bride’s demands quickly escalated and before he knew it, he was co-signing her student loans to attend Eastern Nazarene College.
“I literally took out student loans to help out her college,” he said. “I thought I was being a good husband.”
Years later the debt still haunts him.
“I had to go to court numerous times about the student loans because she never paid a penny back,” he said. “Even when we got divorced the court said my debt is her debt. It’s more than $100,000!”
Gulinello, who survives on Social Security disability payments due to cystic fibrosis and severe stomach problems, said O’Rourke cared for him while he battled life-threatening health complications.
“I have a lot of health issues, stomach issues. I had two major stomach surgeries. I was really sick for a two-to-three year span,” he said.
“She was really there for me. At that time I thought I was on my way out. Cystic fibrosis is a progressive lung disease.”
Looking back, Gulinello now wonders whether O’Rourke may have decided to marry him because he was so ill and she could have potentially benefited financially if he died.
“I have thought maybe she thought I wasn’t going to make it,” he said. “That she’d get some money, use me to co-sign [life insurance] and then I’d be dead.”
He said O’Rourke eventually began claiming she had a tumor on her pituitary gland.
“She started to say she had a tumor on her gland,” he said. “I didn’t not believe her, but her not having proof made me feel [suspicious]. That’s when we had irreconcilable differences.
“I have paperwork for everything with cystic fibrosis so I know how that all works — it wasn’t adding up that she had nothing [from the hospital] to show for it.”
According to Gulinello, O’Rourke became fixated on traveling to Australia during their marriage, years before she actually went, and started talking about needing to go there for life-saving medical tests despite not appearing to be sick.
“There was a student from Australia at her university and I thought she was cheating on me with him because of how fixated she was on it,” he recalled.
“She was really smart and had a good personality, but over the years lots of lies came out.
Prosecutors say she raised money through GoFundMe campaigns and local fundraisers by claiming she needed lifesaving experimental treatment down under.
When prosecutors unsealed O’Rourke’s indictment in 2020, she was thought to have fled to Queensland, Australia, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
“The allegations in this case are nauseating. O’Rourke is charged with preying upon the kindness and generosity of good people who wished to help those in need. As alleged, there was no need here – only lies, greed and callous manipulation,” US Attorney William McSwain said in a statement at the time.
According to the FBI, O’Rourke told supporters traditional treatment options had failed and traveling to Australia for an experimental procedure was her best chance at survival, first going there in April 2016.
However, they say she did not receive any treatment while she was there but came back and started fundraising again, eventually amassing over $100,000 from people’s goodwill.
Though he described her as manipulative and narcissistic, Gulinello said he never imagined she would one day become a federal fugitive.
“She never did anything scandalous I can think of other than lying to me. She’d never did anything where I thought she’d become a criminal,” he said.
US authorities have urged anyone with information about O’Rourke’s whereabouts to contact the FBI or the nearest American embassy or consulate.
