A woman’s search for her missing mother led to the discovery of a disturbing note, unravelling a vast multi-million-dollar scam . Kelly Gowe was alarmed after receiving a voicemail from a federal investigator suggesting her 57-year-old mother, Laura Kowal, “may have been involved in a fraud scam.” Concerned, Kelly immediately contacted her mum, who reassured her that all was well: “But something about that call, something in her mother’s voice didn’t quite sit right with Kelly,” says true crime podcaster Annie Elise. Sensing something amiss with Laura, Kelly drove to her mother’s house, only to find she had vanished. Frantically searching for any sign of her mother, Kelly stumbled upon a haunting note. It read: “Kelly, you have kept me going this long. I love you! You were right in your judgement of me. I’ve been living a double life this past year. It has left me broke, and broken.” It continued: “Yes, it involves Frank, the man I met though online dating. I tried to stop this many times, but I knew I would end up dead.” Laura’s note concluded with instructions on how to access her emails. Kelly was aware that “Frank” was a man her recently widowed mother had met on Match.com, and whom Laura had seemingly become deeply infatuated with, believing him to be a charming Swedish investment adviser. Kelly had never actually encountered “Frank Borg”; it transpired that the persona was a fiction created by a pair of devious Nigerian fraudsters, Anthony Ibekie and Samuel Aniukwu. During a her two-year relationship with “Frank,” they persistently told Laura that Frank was her soulmate, while defrauding her of around $1.5 million. Their deceit was part of a wider criminal plot responsible for at least $3.5 million in victim losses, though the true figure may be substantially higher. However, perhaps the most evil aspect of the scammer’s tactics involved enlisting their financially exhausted victims into their fraudulent schemes. They coerced Laura into establishing sham companies and bank accounts to assist in their laundering operations, leading to Kelly receiving an unexpected phone call that morning. Annie Elise, reflecting on the case, remarked, “This is sadly pretty common in a lot of situations like this,” pointing out how swindlers not only strip victims of their wealth but also manipulate them into joining the scam. She highlighted the prevalence of such scams, noting: “In 2023 alone there were more than 64,000 reports to law enforcement of different romantic scams in the United States. Altogether, she added: “scammers made more than $1 billion from their victims and sadly that might even be an underestimate because those are just the scams that got reported to the police. A lot of officials think there are a ton of other people out there who got ripped off and are just way too embarrassed to let anybody know.” Laura’s response went far beyond embarrassment. On August 9, 2020, Missouri State Police officer responded to a report of a body floating in the Mississippi River near hundreds of miles from Galena. Laura Kowal had been found. Kelly alleged that the fraudsters, who had forced her mum to mortgage her house so she could give them money, had been threatening her before her death. She rejected the police investigators’ conclusion that there had been no foul play involved in Laura’s death and she had simply taken her own life. But Laura remained unconvinced. Annie continued: “She also had her suspicions after she talked with the couple who first had spotted Laura’s body floating in the river because they told her something that hadn’t made it into any of the news reports. There apparently was a second body in the water.” This body of another, as yet unidentified bikini-clad woman, had been spotted by the eyewitnesses, but was never recovered. Nevertheless, Kelly remains convinced that there is more behind the romance scam story than official accounts suggest. The orchestrators of a major fraud were eventually called to account. In November 2024, Anthony Ibekie, a 59-year-old Nigerian national residing in Illinois, was found guilty on 14 counts that include wire fraud and forgery. It was reported that he “cried a little” when the verdict was delivered. Ibekie’s accomplice, Samuel Aniukwu received a lenient sentence of 10 years upon his decision to confess and assist the authorities with their enquiries. A third accused, Jennifer Gosha, believed to have been ensnared into the scheme, was convicted in December 2024. She received a sentence of three years’ probation, with an initial period of six months under house arrest.