NORTH BEND, Wash. - Some people in North Bend who opened their hearts and wallets to a needy soldier now say they've been duped by an imposter soldier.

Residents say the man introduced himself as Lt. Don Daily, and said he served two tours in Iraq. He also said his local family left him with no money and no place to live.

North Bend residents say Daily wore fatigues, kept his hair cropped and had a sob story that had almost everybody fooled.

He stayed in a room at the North Bend motel, where he got to know the housekeeper. That woman, Jeanine Horsfall, says the story he told her broke her heart.

"He just got back from Iraq and he is going to head out soon again," she said. "And his girlfriend took all the money he sent and took off with the kids."

Horsfall felt so sorry for the soldier that she gave him what takes her two weeks to earn cleaning rooms.

"I felt so bad that I went to the bank, got $500 and said, 'here, this is for you, because you're a soldier,'" she said.

Daily also told his story at the Sure Shot Pub, where many who felt sorry for him bought him drinks and food.

"He ate like a king. Unfortunately he didn't deserve it," said Lee Stark, the manager of the North Bend motel. "It was a kick in the pants."

Stark asked the church to put Daily up in his motel. And a reporter from the local paper, the Snoqualmie Valley Record, even set out to write a human interest story about him.

"He answered with 'yes, sir' and 'no,sir.' That kind of thing," said the editor of the paper, Leif Nesheim.

The newspaper contacted the military to check out Daily's story.

"Fort Bragg, bottom line, said they hadn't heard of him and they had no clue who he was," Nesheim said.

Horsfall confronted Daily, who left the motel in the middle of the night. No one has seen him since.

But Melissa Morrison, one of the people who helped Daily, has received a series of text messages from him. Daily's messages state he's on his way back to Iraq and that he probably would not come back alive.

"Other soldiers have got killed by friendly fire after they have talked badly about the military to the press," the message read.

A day and a half later, Morrison received one last text from the same phone number. This time, the sender identified himself as a private with tragic news about Lt. Daily.

"He was shot and killed three hours ago by friendly fire," the message read.

Morrison waited a few hours after receiving the text message, then used a phone card and called Daily's phone number back. And the man who had supposedly been killed by friendly fire answered the phone.