I think you guys are giving her too much credit. Agree she's talented but even when you screw up and get overwhelmed in a business you don't go into stealing money, inventing diseases, and producing footprints of a dead infant.
Those are the actions of a very sick individual.
I think she was likely always a liar and thief and tried a straight business for a second but got sick of it. She likely enjoyed the attention given to her via her blog and played off it. She probably observed like you said that people were so willing to forgive disasters so long as the person is 'honest' and decided rather than spend her time and money making products she could just pocket the money. I see it on this website all the time: forgiving extremely delayed shipping, sending the wrong items, not responding to customer emails. So she created her sob story and kept the money. No offense to anyone but look how long she got away with it, look how many people forgives and sympathized with her...look how many people would have willingly done business again.
The thing is she knows she makes good money off this con game. She maybe spends $100 creating ANY product (just generalizing) and by the time she has support and a following she can earn upwards of a $1000 tax free without doing anything. She disappears, changes her screen name, starts all over and can prey on the same people. Whether it's 3, 4, or 5 online businesses she hasn't really gotten caught till now and has likely stolen thousands upon thousands. I doubt shed ever really stop unless she was on the news, in court, or in jail.
Some folks just come on this Earth to hurt others with no real intention of doing good, sad as it is to hear.