Did a 41-year old woman from Covington County in Alabama force feed her husband his own genitals for cheating on her? Nope, that did not happen, the story was false and came from a known fake news website.
A site set up to look like ABC News under the domain name abcnews-us.com (not the real abcnews.go.com) publised an article on April 5, 2018 titled "Covington County Woman Charged: Force Fed Cheating Husband His Own Genitals" (archived here) which opened:
A 41-year old woman from Covington County, Alabama, is in custody after authorities were called to a property on Rockhole Bridge Road, Carolina, last night to respond to a reported domestic disturbance. Upon arrival, the officers were greeted with a confronting scene, of a 49-year old man, and husband of the accused woman lying in a pool of blood with horrific groin lacerations.
"The male victim did not show any signs of consciousness and paramedics were called immediately," a source familiar with the matter told the media. After the paramedics arrived, the man was found to have had his penis and testicles 'cleanly severed'. The victim was treated at the scene before being rushed to a nearby hospital, where he is now listed in a serious but stable condition.
Investigators searched the property, but could find no sign of the man's genitals, or his wife, who a neighbor claimed had been heard shouting and screaming at her husband earlier in the night.
However, the image used to illulstrate the story is just a stock photo:
A woman is arrested for underage drinking.
Bekijk Stockfoto van Underage Drinking. Ga voor hoogwaardige foto's met een hoge resolutie naar Getty Images.
And the events in the story follow this exact template:
A [AGE]-year old [TOWN] woman is in custody after authorities were called to a property on [STREET] late last night to respond to a reported domestic disturbance. Upon arrival, the officers found a confronting scene. In the master bedroom, a [AGE]-year old man, and the husband of the accused woman, lay in a pool of blood with a gruesome wound to his groin.
"The male victim did not show any signs of consciousness and paramedics were called immediately," a source familiar with the matter told [WEBSITE]. After the paramedics arrived, the man was found to have had his penis and testicles 'cleanly severed' with a sharp instrument, believed to be a knife that was found on the bedside table. The wound was dressed and the victim was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he is now listed in a serious but stable condition.
That exact story appeared on several other fake news websites in the past, set in different towns. The odds that it is true this time are astronomically small.
Fake News: Woman Did NOT Make Cheating Husband Eat His Own Genitals | Lead Stories
It did not happen in Casselberry (Floriday), Pell City (Alabama) or Greenville (Mississippi), despite what several fake news websites are claiming. You might have encountered either of these three headlines: The articles behind the headlines all were variations on the same text, making it highly unlikely that the events were real: A [AGE]-year old [TOWN] woman is in custody after authorities were called to a property on [STREET] late last night to respond to a reported domestic disturbance.
We wrote about abcnews-us.com before, they've published several other hoaxes and fake news articles:
- Fake News: Florida Did NOT Pass Bill Legalizing Recreational Use of Marijuana
- Fake News: Pamela Anderson, Famous Playboy Model and Baywatch Star Did NOT Die Aged 50
- Fake News: Funeral Home Employee NOT Cremated By Mistake While Taking A Nap
The site had been down about four months ago but seems to be back in full force since a few weeks. It appears to be part of a larger network of sites that also went down some time ago but which hasn't come back online (and we don't expect it to since most of the domain names of the sites in it seem to have lapsed).
Don't be fooled!
