If you’re taking blood pressure medication, you may want to up the dosage before reading this account of what’s happening to Val McClatchey, who took the only known photograph of the crash of United Airlines Flight 93—and is now being tormented by the worst species of moonbat: Conspiracy theorists blog that Flight 93 photo is fake. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)

But Mrs. McClatchey’s fame has recently taken a sour turn. The real estate agent has recently become a target of bloggers calling themselves “9-11 researchers,” who are seeking to prove that the U.S. government was complicit in the attacks that brought down the Twin Towers, pierced the Pentagon and crashed United Airlines Flight 93. “The End of Serenity” has turned out to be their smoking gun.

The smoke plume doesn’t line up right, they say. It is too large in the frame. The smoke is characteristic of an ordnance blast, not a jet fuel fire, further evidence that the government shot down Flight 93. They analyze wind direction, debris patterns and camera trajectories, all in the service of the theory that the crash was faked.

They have visited Mrs. McClatchey’s office and called her at home, posting satellite maps of her property and accusing her of digitally altering her photo to insert a fake smoke plume. The bloggers have picked apart her story, highlighting inconsistencies in different news accounts and questioning her motives. Others have described her as “surly,” “hostile,” “irate” and “defensive.” People have called her at home, accusing her of being anti-American and of “holding the photo hostage.”

On a simple Google search, Mrs. McClatchey’s name now pops up in the same sentence as “total fraud.”

“Val McClatchey has made it unmistakably clear to us that she intends to milk her 9-11 claim to fame for all it’s worth, truth be damned,” writes Lisa Guliani, of WingTV (World Independent News Group), who traveled to Stoystown to interview Mrs. McClatchey.

“If the smoke plume was photo-shopped on there, then that could mean either that the photo was simply a fraud by Val, or it was a fraud by her and the FBI and/or other government agents since she did mention that the FBI did inspect the memory card from her camera,” writes a blogger identified as Killtown.