A man who was told he was dying of cancer has been eluding police and the courtroom in New Zealand to avoid going to prison. His reasoning? Since he's dying, he's got nothing to lose and he doesn't want to spend his final days in prison. To be honest, I don't blame him. I might do the same thing if I was staring death in the face.

But now officials are beginning to question the legitimacy of his cancer claims. A known methamphetamine addict, 34-year-old Tifiga Atanoa was arrested with a large tumor on his neck, but that has since seemingly disappeared. What's more, upon re-arrest, he didn't admit to any illness. Is he ill or a liar looking for an excuse to run from the law? He's in police custody now and will face trial later this month.

Should my cancer come back, should my prognosis be poor, should my life approach an abrupt stop, my one wish would be for enough time to leave something meaningful for my children. It would be something written or something on video, something that would allow me to somehow guide my little boys through their years, something that would offer them a lasting impression of me.

This is just what Melanie Worthington, a Michigan mom, did for her five-year-old son after receiving her diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer.

Worthington made video tapes for her little boy, Theo. Her mother helped her, and they taped mother and son making cookies and playing together at a cabin. They tried to capture anything to remind Theo time of spent with his mom.

And then a few weeks after his 39-year-old mom died, Theo's tapes were stolen by someone who walked through an unlocked door at the Worthington home. Also stolen were two camcorders, a portable DVD player, and other assorted tapes.

Virtually all of Theo's video memories are gone. There are no duplicates of the tapes, and police have no suspects in the case.

"It was like someone had come out and taken her away from us a second time," Worthington's sister said.

Melanie, who died Thanksgiving weekend, was living with Theo, her parents, and her sister in a ranch home on a dirt road. Her parents, both on disability and without a lot of financial resources, have pulled together a $200 reward for the return of the tapes.

"Maybe this is one way we can get them back," said Worthington's mom. "I guess I'm hoping for some kind of miracle."

During the 9/11 World Trade Center terrorist attacks, Yehuda Kaploun spent two days at Ground Zero saving lives. He watched as his friend, fireman Mychal Judge, died in a building collapse. Yehuda acted as a liaison officer between the police, fire departments and the Orthodox Jewish community in the aftermath of the disaster that killed thousands of people that day. After two days, when Yehuda finally went home, he took off his shirt, and without washing it, put it into a sealed bag. Recently, he had the shirt tested by the RJ Lee Group laboratories. The results? The shirt contained 93,000 times higher than normal limits of asbestos -- in addition to being saturated with the toxic chemicals zinc, mercury, antimony, barium, chromium, cobalt, copper, lead and molybdenum. Yehuda's clothing is called the deadliest shirt in the world. Experts are now calling Ground Zero the most toxic place ever, and speculate it will not be known for years the amount of cancer that will result from the exposure for so many of the people who were there that day, and worked there in the days that followed.

But one thing is clear, the devastation, suffering and loss of life of that day continues. Yehuda shared in the interview, "I saw thousands of people covered in the dust. We were told there was no danger. Obviously, this isn't the case. It goes to show how wrong these people were who we trusted. I hope the government will do the right thing for all those who were at Ground Zero for any length of time." The heart broke then, the heart breaks now. Related posts we have done are: 9/11 first responders suffering with cancer sue city and WTC Ground Zero FDNY paramedic dies of lung cancer.