A Florida woman allegedly posed as the grieving father of a teenager who died in July’s deadly Camp Mystic flooding in Texas and tried to raise money, leading to her being criminally charged with online impersonation, according to authorities.
According to court records reviewed by multiple outlets, Maitlin Paige White, 28, of Crestview, Florida, is accused of posing as Matthew Childress and soliciting donations in the days after the death of his 18-year-old daughter, Chloe Childress, who was working as a counselor at Camp Mystic in Kerr county, Texas.
Investigators said White had set up a GoFundMe page on 8 July, just four days after Chloe’s death, using Childress’s name and a photo of his daughter without his knowledge or consent. The page asked the public to donate money to support the family in the aftermath of the flooding that killed 27 campers and counselors.
On 10 July, Childress alerted authorities after discovering the fundraising page. Upon investigation, detectives found another fundraising account set up on Spotfund under Childress’s name.
After requesting records from both companies, investigators said they obtained information linking the accounts to White, including her name, phone number, email address and bank account details. The records show both accounts were created on the same day, the Texas news outlet KTRK reported.
Upon being contacted by detectives, White told them she was a “single mother of two young children” and had been “looking for a quick way to make some money”. according to court records.
At the time of the investigation, Alan Rosen, a Houston-area constable, posted on Facebook on 11 July: “We have launched an investigation into a case in which an online scammer pretended to be the father of Houston’s Chloe Childress and set up a bogus GoFundMe page. Within minutes of … detectives contacting GoFundMe, the page was shut down and the scam was stopped.”
It was unclear whether Rosen was referring specifically to White’s case. However, Rosen’s office confirmed the charges against White recently, posting her photo on X and stating that she had been charged “for an online scam in which she pretended to raise money for the family of Chloe Childress of Houston”.
Meanwhile, in a statement on Texas news outlet KRIV, GoFundMe said it “has zero tolerance for the misuse of our platform and bad actors who seek to take advantage of the generosity of others. Our team acted quickly to remove the fundraiser back in July, refund donors, and ban the account from future fundraising on GoFundMe. Thanks to our Trust & Safety procedures, at no point did the organizer have access to the total $5 raised.”
