Grandma Found Dead after Meeting with 28 Year-Old Nigerian who proposed on Online Dating Site

 

A widowed Australian grandmother travelled to South Africa to marry the young man she had fallen in love with over the internet.

 Three months later she was dead.

The body of West Australian woman Jette Jacobs, 67, was found in February, just two days after she met up with a 28-year-old man calling himself Jesse Orowo Omokoh.

An exchange between Jette and Jesse on Facebook.

He had courted her on an online dating website

 

Before her death, the pair maintained a long distance relationship spanning three years and seeing the widow part with $200,000.

When Ms Jacobs left for South African to meet with "Jesse" on November 22, 2012, it wasnt the first time she had travelled to see him, but this time they were to be married. 

She wanted to settle in Nigeria, although her children had begged her to stay in WA.

Ms Jacobs' body was discovered in her rented villa by South African police on February 9.

Mr Omokoh, who claimed to be the last person to see her alive, vanished after speaking to police.

According to his Facebook profile the 28-year-old is a student who has worked as a "distributor for an engineering company".

"If you can't inspire a woman with the love of you then fill her to the brim with the love of herself and all that runs over will be yours," he posted on January 15 - one month before he met up with Ms Jacobs.

"Happy a man that marry the girl he loves and happier a man that loves the girl he married," he wrote in October.

In a chilling exchange with Ms Jacobs in March, Mr Omokoh posted "like all, love some and trust none...", to which Ms Jacobs commented, "why do you say that Jesse."

"Cos of some fake friends," he responded.

She had changed her own Facebook profile status to "in a relationship" by March.

The following month Mr Omokoh wrote "ALL RELATIONSHIPS GO THROUGH HELL, BUT REAL RELATIONSHIPS GET THROUGH IT..." to which Ms Jacobs posted: "Yes but love will survive in the long run." 

One of Ms Jacobs' six children, who did not want to be identified, told 6PR radio in Perth on Monday her mother had been to South Africa four times, initially to meet another man.

"She wasn't naive when it came to other countries, we lived in Malaysia for many years," she said.

When the woman's brother received a phone call from a South African guest house with tragic news, the siblings were in disbelief.

"I thought it was a hoax and I wouldn't believe that my mother had actually passed so I rang the consulate," one daughter said.

"A couple of hours later they called me back and gave me their apologies."

A joint operation between WA Police and Consumer Protection, Operation Sunbird, had sent Ms Jacobs a letter warning that she may be the victim of fraud, but it was too late.

By the time the letter arrived in Ms Jacobs' mailbox she had already left for her ill-fated trip.

When her children met with detectives in South Africa, they discovered her money, jewellery, laptop and credit cards were all missing.

Then there was an empty pill bottle found near her body.

"Anybody who knew my mother would know that there is no way that she would do that," her daughter said.

"This has gone on for four years and after four years there is a very strong element of trust that has been built."

One of Ms Jacobs' sons warned others not to head overseas to meet people they've met online.  "It could be a one-way ticket," he said.

"The consequences of this internet scam has taken her life.

"We weren't strong enough to stop her."

Major fraud squad detective Dom Blackshaw said WA Police were now involved in the investigation and treating the death as "suspicious".

"These relationship frauds are being perpetrated by ruthless overseas criminals who are members of organised crime syndicates," he said.

"To travel to Africa to visit someone you have met on the internet is extremely dangerous and could, as in the case of Ms Jacobs, cost your life."