Suburban woman is sued after elaborate online hoax

A photo of Batavia resident Janna St. James used on a blog identified in a suit as hers. Pendants surrounding her are similar to those she sells. (Janna St. James blog)

By Steve Schmadeke, Tribune reporter
8:26 p.m. CDT, April 25, 2011

When the Colorado volunteer firefighter she loved died unexpectedly of liver cancer in 2006, Paula Bonhomme tenderly re-examined his gifts to her: a rubber duck with a firefighter hat, a lock of his hair, a flattened quarter he'd stuck on the train tracks as a kid.

Most sentimental of all was the chain-sawed slab of wood Jesse Jubilee James had carved their initials into after helping extinguish a forest fire. His carving knife, he'd noted in black marker on the back, had first been "heated in (the) fire's ash."

The couple's own passion was sparked in flirty exchanges on the message board for HBO's "Deadwood" series in 2005. Soon they were trading emails, letters, postcards, photos and talking almost every day on the phone. [...]

Full article at chicagotribune.com

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