We Sent Our Son Money for School for Years—Then Discovered He Wasn’t Enrolled at All

But the uneasiness inside me wouldn’t go away. Whenever I suggested a video call, Jason immediately had an excuse—poor connection, too tired, or “I look terrible right now.”

By the start of what should have been his senior year, we had sent him close to $60,000—money that had taken decades to save. And we hadn’t seen him in two years. When I mentioned visiting, he quickly shut the idea down: “The campus is a wreck because of construction, Mom. Maybe after midterms.”

Midterms passed. So did the excuses.

The Shattering Reality
One afternoon, while Robert was working, I made a decision I had been avoiding. I called the university registrar, pretending I needed to verify Jason’s enrollment for a scholarship. I read them the ID number from one of the PDFs Jason had sent.

The silence on the other end felt like it stretched forever.

“I’m sorry, ma’am,” the woman finally said. “We don’t have a student with that name or ID in our system. No one by that name has ever attended this university.”

My hands shook as I hung up. When Robert answered my call, all I could say was, “He’s not there. He’s never been there.”

Robert thought I misheard, until he called himself. The next morning, we drove four hours to the campus. At the registrar’s office, the truth was confirmed: Jason had forged everything.

We left with heavy hearts and a single question haunting us both.

“Where is he?” Robert whispered.

Searching for the Son We Thought We Knew
We drove to the address Jason had given us—a student apartment complex—but the manager said he’d never lived there. She hesitated when she saw Jason’s photo. “I’ve seen him around town before,” she said. “Usually with a friend.”Continue reading…