A US man who spoke to various media outlets about having terminal cancer and raising money to travel for community service projects died shortly before Christmas in New Zealand – the day after an article by a journalist there accused him of actually being “an alleged serial conman”.

Authorities in the US and New Zealand recently confirmed Douglas Lee Ruch, 56, died in the capital of Auckland on 18 December, months after his so-called “Dying to Serve” tour. The hundreds of thousands of dollars he raised on GoFundMe earned headlines in the Washington Post, National Public Radio and the Guardian.

Ruch’s cause of death had not been determined as of Friday.

A 17 December article by David Farrier of webworm.co documented how Ruch had previously launched a series of other unrelated GoFundMe campaigns, including one effort which was purportedly meant to help him adopt a dog and others that “saw him using [the platform] as a kind of dating service, where his victims would pay” for his meals and gasoline.

Farrier also reported that he had “spoken to several people [who] have known Doug personally over the last decade. They are aware of Doug’s fundraising efforts, and all paint a portrait of an alleged serial conman who has been ‘running various scams for years.’ He allegedly owes money to former partners, along with child support payments.”

After some of those assertions had initially been made and first gained notice on Reddit, the Guardian contacted Ruch in early December about his response to the allegations which called to mind the infamous Scamanda cancer hoax. Ruch was also asked about his alleged terminal cancer diagnosis.

He replied with a series of text messages maintaining that he indeed had cancer, could die within a month to a year, and used the money raised on GoFundMe as promised. He added that would die with his “head held high” after he said he helped 35 non-profit organizations in 32 US states.

But he said “fuck no!” to sharing any diagnosis records, writing: “I don’t owe any of these haters anything and refuse to bow to the bullshit.”

The Guardian also asked GoFundMe to address the allegations about Ruch both on Reddit and in Farrier’s piece, which contained a photo of GoFundMe’s CEO, Tim Cadogan, smiling next to – and with an arm around – Ruch, reportedly at an event in Sydney, Australia, in mid-October.

GoFundMe responded before Ruch’s death by saying that his fundraisers remained within the platform’s terms of service. It didn’t respond to follow-up questions after Ruch’s death.

When the Guardian interviewed Ruch in April, he said he embarked on his Dying to Serve tour upon reflecting on things he could have “done differently or better” after a prostate cancer diagnosis in early 2021 progressed to a terminal stage.

The former solar industry professional said he had been to nine US states within the first few weeks of the tour. He recounted serving food to vulnerable people; sorting and packaging goods that had been donated to food pantries; and delivering meals to homebound individuals, echoing content on his tour’s website and reporting already published by other media outlets. Pictures he published online showed him at the locations listed as tour stops on his website.

Ruch – who told the Guardian then he had 18 months to live – had raised more than $230,000 on GoFundMe in connection with Dying to Serve by the time he deactivated the campaign from the platform amid some of the initial questions posed on Reddit about the veracity of his plight.

A separate GoFundMe campaign that got him to Australia, ostensibly to volunteer there, had raised more than $10,000 – before it was shut down, too.

Farrier wrote that he published his piece titled “Beware of Doug” after Ruch posted online about plans to visit New Zealand. He wrote that many who had been around Ruch never saw “any evidence of [his] cancer diagnosis” and took the US media collectively to task for failing to note the “many more” GoFundMe campaigns that preceded the ones purportedly supporting the Dying to Serve tour.

“Once a false narrative has been reported by a ‘legit’ news source,” Farrier’s article added, “it’s incredibly difficult to shut it down.”

Some of Ruch’s last correspondence with the Guardian mentioned strained family relations, mental health struggles and past “suicide attempts” unprompted and without elaborating.

“I’ve never claimed to be a perfect person,” he said in one message. “I have many regrets in life, but what I’ve done since [the start of the tour] isn’t one of them.”

Farrier said Ruch did not reply to comment requests for “Beware of Doug”. Similarly, Ruch did not answer the Guardian when the outlet asked him for comment on Farrier’s article at about 4.20pm central time on 17 December.

Ruch may have been dead by then, given the time difference to Auckland.

On 15 January, Ruch’s remains were cremated, that record said. His ashes were subsequently scattered in a public Auckland cemetery.

The US state department confirmed a United States citizen died in Auckland when asked for information about Ruch’s death but declined further comment, citing a “respect for the privacy of the family and loved ones during this difficult time”.

Repeated attempts to contact Ruch’s family in the US were unsuccessful except for one estranged relative. When offered the opportunity to comment on Ruch’s life or death, the relative said: “Everything you need to know … is public record.”