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She also created multiple online fundraising accounts for other fake causes, they said, seeking more than $11,000 total.
In reality, the woman from Little Egg Harbor signed away her parental rights and gave the son up for adoption to a couple in Pemberton Township, according to Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina and Pemberton Police Chief David King.
Holly Garcia of Lake Champlain Drive was charged with computer criminal activity and attempted theft by deception, Coffina and King said.
Garcia was taken into custody on Sept. 24 and released last week after an initial appearance in Superior Court in Mount Holly, they said on Thursday.
An investigation began in June after a couple from Pemberton Township who recently adopted Garcia’s 4-year-old son contacted police to say that his photo was being used in a GoFundMe campaign seeking $5,000 for funeral expenses for a child who had reportedly died from cancer, the prosecutor said.
Authorities also determined that Garcia had created multiple fictitious GoFundMe campaigns seeking money for the following:
- An urn for her dead son’s ashes.
- Assistance for her 4-year-old son who is going blind in one eye -- and whose father had died.
- Assistance for her unborn child,
- A stroller for her 2-month old son, who was born premature,
- and assistance raising rent money for an apartment, because she claimed she was four months pregnant and homeless.
The total amount requested by Garcia through all of the campaigns was $11,350, authorities said.
All of her GoFundMe campaigns were ended by the company after being notified by law enforcement that they were not legitimate, Coffina and King said.
Garcia did not receive any contributions before the accounts were taken off the internet, they said,
The lead investigator is Pemberton Township Detective Joshua Danka.
Garcia will be prosecuted by Assistant Prosecutor Joseph Remy.
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