A Florida woman who impersonated the father of a Camp Mystic flood victim to solicit donations through GoFundMe has been sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to online fraud, ABC 13 reported.
Maitlin White, 29, was charged after she launched the fundraising campaign following the catastrophic flooding in the Texas Hill Country in July 2025 that killed 27 campers and counselors at Camp Mystic.
RELATED: Check out more stories on Camp Mystic.
According to court documents, White admitted in a phone conversation with an investigator that she created the fundraising campaigns using the photo and name of Camp Mystic counselor Chloe Childress, who died in the flooding.
“It is inexcusable how she sought to prey on the emotions of our community and abused Chloe’s family,” Harris County Constable Alan Rosen said.
“The last thing they needed to do was have somebody that was profiting off of their daughter,” Rosen said, according to KPRC. “To take advantage of a situation where a family is already devastated, to take further advantage of them, it’s sad.”
Records obtained from GoFundMe revealed White’s name, phone number, email address and bank account number. The campaigns were created July 8, 2025, just days after the flooding.
White, who lived in Florida, was a single mother looking for a “quick way to make some money,” according to the complaint.
After the scam was discovered, 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.”
As Central Texas again experienced catastrophic flooding in the past month, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a warning about scams and fraudulent charities, urging those who want to help to ensure their donations go to legitimate organizations.
Camp Mystic declares bankruptcy
Nearly a year after last year’s flooding, Camp Mystic has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which allows businesses to reorganize and pay their debts over time. The camp’s owner, Dick Eastland, also died in the flooding.
The camp had planned to reopen a portion of its facilities this summer, but after legislative hearings in Texas about the camp’s response to the flooding, its leaders reversed course. They issued a letter announcing that “after thoughtful prayer and careful reflection” they would no longer seek a license from the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to operate the camp this summer.
Camp Mystic also faces multiple wrongful death lawsuits filed by families of flood victims who died at the camp along the Guadalupe River.
Earlier this month, on July 13, the camp filed notices to move the lawsuits against it from state court to federal court, KXAN reported.
The notice argues that the wrongful death lawsuits seek millions of dollars in damages and will have a “substantial effect” on the camp’s bankruptcy estate.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Kim Roberts and originally published by MinistryWatch.
