A US Army sergeant from New York met, wooed and proposed to a Korean woman and she felt as though all her dreams had come true.
They married in a flower laden ceremony with Army Master Sergeant Scott Fuller, 43, wearing a traditional South Korean tunic.
Instead of living happily ever after, Rachel Lee now has a nullified marriage, and a US$50,000 (AU$71,000) in credit card debt and a broken heart according to news.com, while her “husband” lives with his wife and family back in New York.
“It has been very, very tough for me,” she told The Post in a phone call from South Korea.
“Quite honestly, I do feel suicidal,” she said through a translator.
It was Lee’s second marriage, and she believed it was her husband’s first. It was only when he asked her to reformat his phone so he could sell it that Lee saw “happy anniversary” emails he had recently sent to his wife in America.
Lee called the authorities and filed a forgery complaint, and Fuller was convicted in a Korean court and sentenced to eight months prison, her lawyer said. Before he could be incarcerated the US Army reassigned the Sergeant to the Fort Drum Army base in upstate New York.
The US has declined in charging Fuller even though his paper trial includes forged documents attesting he was single, and a judgement of divorce saying he and his wife Marianne had divorced. These documents were submitted to a Korean court of law.
Fuller could not be contacted for comment and Fort Drum officials declined to comment.
