A Florida woman is accused of posing as a grieving Camp Mystic mom. Investigators said she made fake fundraisers after the Central Texas floods to get “quick money.”
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — A Florida woman is accused of turning a family’s fresh grief over the Camp Mystic floods into her own personal payday, creating online fundraisers in the name of a counselor who had just died.
Prosecutors in Harris County have charged Maitlin Paige White, 28, with felony online impersonation after they say she pretended to be the mother of 18-year-old counselor Chloe Childress and launched donation campaigns just four days after the tragedy. The case is filed in the 182nd District Court in Harris County.
‘Quick way to make some money’
According to a criminal complaint, investigators say White set up crowdfunding pages on GoFundMe and a platform called Spotfund using the name of Chloe’s father, Matthew Childress, along with a photo of Chloe and a heartbreaking bio about her death in the Kerr County floods at Camp Mystic. The pages allegedly urged strangers to donate money to help the family cope with Chloe’s loss.
Childress told deputies he never created those pages, never authorized anyone else to do it and did not know White at all, according to the affidavit. When investigators reached White by phone, they say she admitted creating the campaigns and explained she was a single mother of two who was looking for “a quick way to make some money,” and that she linked the accounts to her own bank so the donations would go directly to her.
Digital trail and financial clues
Detectives say the digital trail behind the fake fundraisers pointed straight to White. Records from GoFundMe and Spotfund allegedly tied the campaigns to her name, phone number, email, and a bank account later identified as her Chime checking account.
The complaint states that phone and internet records linked an IP address used when one of the campaigns was created to White’s phone on July 8, 2025, and law enforcement databases showed the same number was associated with her financial and pawnshop activity in Florida. Those same identifiers — including her date of birth and driver license — matched what she confirmed to investigators in a recorded call, according to the document.
Why this is a Harris County case
Although White lives in Florida, Harris County prosecutors are handling the case because Childress resides in Harris County, and state law allows online impersonation cases to be prosecuted where the victim lives. The charge, filed under Texas’ online impersonation statute, accuses White of using Childress’s name without his consent “with the intent to harm, defraud, intimidate, and threaten” by creating the GoFundMe page.
The Harris County Precinct 1 Constable’s Office assisted in the investigation.
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office has already signaled it will push back against any no-cost or minimal bond if White is arrested or turns herself in, calling her alleged conduct “despicable.” The complaint indicates bond will be set at a later magistration hearing, and records show White was not in custody as of the date the charge was filed.
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