It started with a friend request on Facebook in February. The handsome Army officer stationed abroad liked Alicia Bultez’s profile and wanted to be friends. She accepted.
Single for seven years, the 81-year-old Bultez was lonely. She craved companionship.
They messaged back and forth, shared their likes and dislikes, talked about their families, exchanged photos. A romance developed, and they planned to get married when he returned to the States in August.
Before he returned from overseas, he asked her to send $1,500. She rounded up the money and sent it. Then he asked for another $5,000. She withdrew the money from her small life savings and sent it.
But it didn’t stop there. He asked for $40,000. She told him she’d given all she could.
“I was in such denial and I was hurt and I was angry and I felt all these emotions,” she said as she teared up. “I just put it in the Lord’s hands because there’s nothing more I could do about it.”