On December 7, the body of 43-year-old Portia Adams was discovered in East St Louis, IL just 48 hours after she went missing. That is still an open case.
Her father Clent McCorkle says he is working through grief over the loss of his daughter with prayer and the love of friends. But as he worked through that unimaginable loss, someone asked him if he’d seen the GoFundMe campaign for Portia’s funeral expenses.
“I wasn’t aware of that,” he told KMOV. Besides, Mr McCorkle had already paid his daughter’s funeral costs in full.
Washington Park police chief Tony Tomlinson says his office is investigating, and seeking maximum charges against the individual responsible for the fake GoFundMe campaign. “It’s definitely fraud, it’s definitely punishable by state law, and we would probably even look into if there are federal laws that have been violated.” he said.
His department is working on getting a subpoena for GoFundMe’s records, and continues to investigate Portia’s murder.
As for the person who created the campaign? Portia’s dad says “that’s a person who doesn’t have God in their life.”
We were unable to find the aforementioned campaign, and it’s unclear how much was raised. We’ll keep you updated.
Video via KMOV: