MILTON- A Burlington woman - who was showered with gifts, money and affection while allegedly faking terminal cancer - found herself alone and friendless when she appeared in court for her bail hearing on fraud charges.
Ashley Kirilow, 23, who turned herself in to Halton police last Friday, was told she’d have to spend at least two more days in jail because nobody had shown up to bail her out of custody.
But even if somebody comes forward by Wednesday, when her bail hearing resumes, she’ll still have to convince Justice of the Peace Prior Bonas that she’ll show for her trial and commit no further offences, if he grants her bail.
She faces three counts of fraud under $5,000 relating to allegations she hoodwinked persons and charitable organizations who had rallied to her side when she claimed to be dying from breast, ovarian cancer and other forms of cancer.
In a media interview Sunday, Mike Kirilow said his estranged daughter had called him from jail and asked him to come to court to bail her out.
But he refused to help her, saying she’d “cried wolf” and publicly disparaged her family once too often.
There were only two people in the courtroom yesterday who admitted knowing the alleged con artist. But Jackie Musial, 21, and Meredith Dejonge, 25, told reporters they they longer consider her a friend and were there more as curious observers than supporters. They were among hundreds of young people in the Burlington-Oakville area who had been moved by Kirilow’s harrowing ordeal and had offered there love and support after befriending her last year.
During this period, it’s alleged she shaved her head, plucked her eye brows and starved herself into an emaciated state to convince people she was undergoing cancer treatment. She also told her benefactors she had no support from her own family and that her natural mother was a crack addict.
She still appeared pale, fragile and meek as she stood in the prisoners’ box today with her tattooed hands cuffed in front of her. Clad in a sleeveless shift dress, she had a full head of wavy brown hair cascading down to her neck. Her head was slightly bowed and her voice barely audible when she replied to a few routine questions from the Justice of the Peace.
At the request of the duty counsel, who represented her during a 10-minute appearance in bail court, Bonas adjourned the case until 9.30 a.m., Aug. 10.
In the meantime, Bonas has ordered Kirilow to have no contact with her father, Mike Kirilow, or a number of the people who had helped her was she was supposed to be dying from cancer.
They include members of charitable organizations who raised money to send her to Disney World in Florida in 2009 as a kind of dying last wish.
Musial, 21, told reporters she was stunned to see Kirilow for the first time with a full head of hair and wearing a dress. In the past, she had always been swaddled in scarves, bandages and blankets.
“Seeing her was pretty weird...the last time I saw her she was completely bald...,” Musial told a media throng in front of the court house. “She looks like a healthy human being. She doesn’t look like a sickly person with cancer anymore.”
She last saw Kirilow at New Year’s Eve party on Dec.31, 2009. Kirilow - who was getting into a cab - told her she was going home early because she’d just learned her cancer was no longer in remission and she didn’t want to stay and spoil the party.
Until a week ago, before Kirilow was charged, she still believed her former friend was dying of cancer.
“She put on a show. We didn't’ have a clue. The thought never crossed my mind (that it was a ruse),” Musial said.
Investigative journalist Paul Legall spent 35 years working on daily newspapers in Alberta and Ontario, 32 of them with the Hamilton Spectator. Part of a three-reporter team that covered the trial of the Paul Bernardo school girl murders, Legall’s popular column, Crime File resurrected infamous historical cases such as the Torso Murder Trial in Hamilton. Ont.
Paul can be reached at: legallpaul@yahoo.ca
