Outline
Message circulating via social networking websites and email asks recipients to offer prayers for the Mike LeBleu family who lost four of their daughters in a house fire in May 2010.
Brief Analysis
The tragic event described in the message is true. A fire at the LeBleu family home in Ragley, Louisiana resulted in the deaths of the family’s four young daughters. Many versions of the prayer request message misspell the family’s surname.
Examples
PLEASE LIFT UP THE MIKE LABLUE FAMILY….HE LOST 4 DAUGHTERS,AGES 2-11 IN A HOUSE FIRE LAST NIGHT. HIS 3 YEAR OLD SON AND WIFE WERE ABLE TO ESCAPE… SHE’S CURRENTLY IN ICU WITH BURNS…. I DON’T KNOW THIS FAMILY, BUT I DO KNOW THAT ONLY …GOD CAN…HEAL THEIR LIVES NOW.
PLEASE REPOST THIS START A FB PRAYER CHAIN
Detailed Analysis
A number of messages requesting prayers for the LeBleu family who lost four daughters in a devastating house fire are currently circulating via Facebook and other social networking websites as well as via email.
Sadly, the tragic event described in the messages is true. The LeBleu family of Ragley in the American state of Louisiana lost four young daughters when a fire ravaged their home on 12th May 2010.
A May 13 article about the tragedy on local news outlet KPLC notes:
RAGLEY, LA (KPLC) – Four little girls– sisters– are all dead after fire sweeps through a home in rural Beauregard Parish. It happened late last night. The coroner’s preliminary findings indicate they all died from inhaling lethal levels of carbon monoxide.
It’s at 920 Felice Cutoff Road in Ragley where Amy and Michael LeBleu lived with their five children. But a fire which erupted sometime around 10:30 at night has claimed the lives of four of those children. Dead are twin girls 11 year old Kamryn and Keiley LeBleu; eight year old Kassandra LeBleu and one year old Adrianna LeBleu. Their mother managed to escape with her three year old son Michael and tried unsuccessfully to rescue the others.
It’s a loss that has devastated the community– those who knew the family and those who did not like neighbor Pat Keller lives just down the road. “When I first arrived the firemen were setting up. They hadn’t put water on the fire yet. There was a tremendous amount of black smoke and it was just coming over the peak of the roof.”
The loss of four young lives has devastated the community that now concerns itself with helping the survivors. Says Keller, “I just hope that these people that have been involved in this tragedy can find peace”
The community has since rallied around the family, running fund-raising events to help support the LeBleu’s financially.
There are now a number of versions of the prayer request message circulating, many of which misspell the family’s surname as”LaBlue”, “LaBleu”, “LeBlue” and several other derivations, rather than the correct “LeBleu”.
Importance Notice
After considerable thought and with an ache in my heart, I have decided that the time has come to close down the Hoax-Slayer website.These days, the site does not generate enough revenue to cover expenses, and I do not have the financial resources to sustain it going forward.
Moreover, I now work long hours in a full-time and physically taxing job, so maintaining and managing the website and publishing new material has become difficult for me.
And finally, after 18 years of writing about scams and hoaxes, I feel that it is time for me to take my fingers off the keyboard and focus on other projects and pastimes.
When I first started Hoax-Slayer, I never dreamed that I would still be working on the project all these years later or that it would become such an important part of my life. It's been a fantastic and engaging experience and one that I will always treasure.
I hope that my work over the years has helped to make the Internet a little safer and thwarted the activities of at least a few scammers and malicious pranksters.
A Big Thank You
I would also like to thank all of those wonderful people who have supported the project by sharing information from the site, contributing examples of scams and hoaxes, offering suggestions, donating funds, or helping behind the scenes.I would especially like to thank David White for his tireless contribution to the Hoax-Slayer Facebook Page over many years. David's support has been invaluable, and I can not thank him enough.
Closing Date
Hoax-Slayer will still be around for a few weeks while I wind things down. The site will go offline on May 31, 2021. While I will not be publishing any new posts, you can still access existing material on the site until the date of closure.Thank you, one and all!
Brett Christensen,
Hoax-Slayer
