Bartlett woman lied about husband’s, daughter’s deaths

A Bartlett woman admitted in court Thursday she lied about the deaths of her daughter and husband in a bizarre scheme to receive a $25,000 insurance payout.

Bridgette Buckner, 50, faces probation or three to seven years in prison after pleading guilty in DuPage County court to insurance fraud and mail fraud.

Buckner began working in March 2008 for Hallmark Services Corp. and within months filed a benefit claim saying her young daughter died of an illness, prosecutors said.

Later that fall, after receiving a $10,000 payout, she filed a second claim for $15,000, saying her FBI agent husband, Jeffery, was shot in the line of duty and died awaiting surgery.

Assistant State’s Attorney Helen Kapas said Buckner’s employer, then based in Aurora, was suspicious about the second claim and called in a corporate security director who, coincidentally, was a retired FBI agent.

“The agent told her if there was an FBI agent that was killed in Chicago, he certainly would know about it,” Kapas said. “Buckner then admitted Jeffery was not an FBI agent and was not deceased to her knowledge.”

Kapas told Judge John Kinsella that Buckner, a former phone representative, went as far as to create a fake death certificate for her daughter.

Five months later, Buckner notified Hallmark of her husband’s supposed death, prosecutors said, just as she was due back to work from a disability leave, which was prompted when she claimed to have slipped on spilled water at the office.

Company officials grew suspicious and determined Buckner’s husband was not an FBI agent and had not died when they couldn’t verify an obituary, a burial plot or other details in documents Buckner allegedly forged.

Kapas said Buckner later told authorities she was still married but hadn’t seen her husband in a year. Authorities believe a twin child of hers did die of heart problems, but four years earlier in 2004.

“She said she didn’t know why she did it (submit false claims) — it was just stupid,” Kapas said.

Buckner, who had no prior criminal history, is scheduled for sentencing Aug. 23. Her attorney, Matthew Hachigian, said he would reserve comment until then.