PORT CHARLOTTE — A North Port woman falsely claimed her four sons all were killed in action while serving their country overseas, in order to bilk members of a local church out of gifts of cash and housewares to “help her through these tragic times,” according to Charlotte County Sheriff Bill Prummell.

The woman, Shirley Ann Duncan, 49, of the 2100 block of Briant Street, apparently went so far as to doctor up a copy of a letter actually sent by an adjutant general in the Secretary of War’s office to notify a mother of a son lost during World War II. Duncan made the letter look like it was written to her about one of her sons, according to a sheriff’s report.