A groom-to-be with a case of cold feet came up with perhaps the shittiest way yet to wriggle out of his upcoming wedding.
Thankfully Tucker Blandford’s ruse of faking his own death (seriously!) was quickly rumbled when his heart-broken intended called his parents to offer her condolences.
Alex Lanchester was left devastated after receiving a phone call apparently informing of her American fiance’s tragic suicide.
Alex Lanchester and Tucker Blandford had been set to tie the knot
The caller identified himself as Blandford’s grief-stricken father and passed on the news the 23-year-old had been killed in a car crash.
Lanchester, from Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, digested the news for a few days then rang Blandford’s parents to offer her condolences.
Lanchester, who met Blandford while she was studying abroad at Connecticut University, spoke to his bemused mother, who assured her that her son was alive and well and said he had led her believe the pair had broken up when she left America.
She said: "He has shattered my trust and I’m not sure I’ll ever be in a relationship again. All I ever did was love him. I’m so sick of being messed around and I’m glad to be rid of him.
"Looking back, maybe I was naïve. But I really loved him and never thought he would go to such extreme measures to dump me.
"I’ve cried until I felt numb but now I'm just really angry. I’ll be spending our would-be wedding day making new memories without him. He’s a liar and a coward.
"He had put on a different voice on the phone and pretended to be his grieving father, what sort of sick person does that to her fiancé of two years. It’s sickening."
The pair spent a year together in the United States, before Lanchester began making preparations to return to the UK. The love-struck Blandford reacted by proposing.
Lanchester recalled: "Tucker was such a gentleman and was always buying me dinner and beautiful vintage jewellery. I’d never been in love like that before.
"Every Sunday he would take me out for pancakes, it was so sweet. And to celebrate the day we got together, on the 10th of each month we would go out for a posh dinner.
"The worst thing was the idea that one day I would have to leave him and go back to England. The thought of that was breaking my heart."
Having accepted his proposal, Lanchester began to organise her dream wedding and even set a date for the big day.
She bought a dress and picked out every last detail for their nuptials.
The generous student even agreed to pay for flights for Blandford to fly to the UK to help with the wedding organisation and enjoy a holiday together.
She said: "I went all out even though I had hardly any money. In the weeks running up to his visit I was mad with excitement.
"A few days later when Tucker called me and said he’d booked the venue and we would be getting married on the campus where we met, I was ecstatic. I couldn't think of a more romantic place to tie the knot."
But one week before Blandford was due to land in the UK, Lanchester received a chilling phone call.
She said: "I picked up my phone and there was a man saying he was Tucker’s dad. He told me Tucker had been deeply depressed and wanted to die, so had thrown himself in front of a car.
"The man explained that they had been trying to send Tucker off to a psychiatric unit for help. But it was too late. I couldn't breathe. It was absolutely devastating."
Blandford has since admitted his deception claiming he simply wasn't brave enough to end things.
He said: “I'm a terrible, awful person. I know I shouldn't have told her I was dead, but I didn't know what else to do.
"Alex is an amazing girl but I got scared and wanted to get out of the relationship. It was moving extremely fast and with us being in different countries, it was really hard.
“At the time I just felt like I couldn't tell the truth and thought if I could just postpone everything it would be better."