They raised cash for relative whose baby was killed. Now they’re charged with stealing it
Two Tacoma women who set up a GoFundMe for a relative whose infant was killed last year have been charged with allegedly stealing much of the money.
Taryn Louise Major, 45, and Leslie Frances Teehee, 74, were charged with first-degree theft on March 4. They have been summoned to Pierce County Superior Court on March 18 for a first appearance, court records show.
Major is the aunt of Daijsa Fehlen, the slain child’s mother. Teehee is Fehlen’s grandmother.
The GoFundMe was established after 4-month-old Cody Kennedy died Feb. 22, 2023, allegedly at the hands of his father, who has been charged with second-degree murder and awaits trial. It raised close to $9,000 to help Fehlen and her other children, but charging documents allege Major and Teehee spent much of the money on themselves.
“I didn’t have a car because my car was actually stolen in December of ‘22 before my son’s passing, so the money was supposed to help us, keep us on our feet until I got my car back from the shop,” Fehlen told The News Tribune on March 8.
Efforts to reach Major and Teehee for comment were unsuccessful. As of Thursday, no attorneys had filed notice in court to represent them.
Fehlen said Cody was on life support when Teehee and Major asked her if she wanted them to set up a GoFundMe for her. GoFundMe is a platform that allows people to raise money for various life events, including celebrations or accidents and deaths.
Several donations were made to the GoFundMe for Fehlen, which Teehee and Major titled, “Heart of my Heart,” and had a photo of Cody on top. The GoFundMe raised about $8,951.
Five days after Cody died, Teehee and Major allegedly started funneling thousands of dollars from the fundraiser into their personal accounts.
“The defendants then withdrew $5,900 for personal use in 23 separate transactions between February 27, 2023, and May 11, 2023,” charging documents show. “When confronted by Ms. Fehlen, the defendants initially denied taking the funds. They subsequently admitted to taking the funds and agreed to repay them. However, they only made one payment of $1,500.”
GoFundMe allows people who create a fundraiser to designate someone as the beneficiary so they can transfer the money to their bank account. Fehlen told The News Tribune her father asked Teehee and Major to make her a beneficiary, but they did not.
Fehlen said she discovered the funds were purposefully being kept from her in May.
She said that Teehee and Major made excuses so that Fehlen could not get the password for the GoFundMe. When Fehlen asked for the first payment, she said, they sent her a deposit and told her GoFundMe only allows one transfer a month.
According to GoFundMe’s website, transfers are sent automatically on a daily basis. People can change the transfers to weekly or monthly at their own discretion. Each transfer includes all processed and available donations.
When Fehlen asked for the rest of the money, she said, Teehee and Major said their bank account was hacked shortly after they deposited the money.
“So I kept asking them over and over to show me proof and to give me the GoFundMe log-in. They wouldn’t, and I told them I was gonna call the cops,” Fehlen said.
Fehlen said she reported Major and Teehee to the police in June 2023, and the case was pushed forward earlier this month.
“I think it was 100% intentional for them to spend the money on themselves. My dad tried to help them to deposit it into my bank account instead of theirs. They said they were helping me the whole time to set it up, but they lied to him,” she said.
The GoFundMe has since been taken down.
Fehlen said Major’s husband started paying her back in installments, “but because it was in payments and I was already so behind, it just set me and my children so far behind for almost a year.”
Fehlen said she believes Teehee and Major sent her only $2,300 of the almost $9,000 raised from the GoFundMe.
Fehlen said she feels hurt and betrayed that they allegedly spent the money five days after her son died. She said she works 50 hours per week so she and her two children can survive.
“And they thought there was going to be no repercussions for them and they could just get away with it,” Fehlen said.
