This is a screencap of the final total raised in the GoFundMe campaign organized by Olney resident Denise Haley. Haley advised as to where the money is going, but stated that it ended up not being as much as what is shown here.
RICHLAND CO. – The woman who organized a crowdfunding page in memory of Sabrina Stauffenberg has addressed questions about what will be done with the huge amount of money amassed.
Denise Haley of Olney, who put together the GoFundMe page for the 8-year-old girl who was murdered in Olney the day before Thanksgiving, told Disclosure that the funds are going to be used for two purposes: To start a scholarship in Sabrina’s name, and to help Sabrina’s grandmother, Susan Vaughn.
Haley spoke with Disclosure in mid-January after questions arose about the sheer amount of money raised on the GFM page in the weeks following Sabrina’s murder, allegedly at the hand of former Johnson County resident, Glenn R. Ramey.
Ramey remains jailed in Olney, awaiting the outcome of a psychological evaluation, which likely won’t be concluded by the time he’s next in court, January 27. He is not only charged with Sabrina’s murder, but stands charged with a brutal rape as well.
People opened their wallets and their hearts
In the wake of the horrific crime, and considering that the majority of her family is developmentally disabled, people opened their wallets along with their hearts and gave in abundance at the GFM page, where the initial declared intent was to cover Sabrina’s funeral expenses.
However, after it came to light that Kistler-Patterson Funeral home in Olney had donated the expenses of the funeral services and burial, the amount of money raised – a staggering $20,192 – leveled off.
Haley said that at that point, when people found out that the funeral expenses had been donated, they also began asking for their money back.
Haley said that she wasn’t even aware that GoFundMe operated in that way – that folks could demand their donated funds back – but that they did (GFM uses credit card charges for donations, and if a person wants their money back, they just contact GFM, and a credit will be made to the donator’s card; it’s that simple).
Then, Haley said, “After GoFundMe took their cut and several others getting refunds…we went over our goal,” which, she said, was over $11,000.
This means that GFM deducted their cut of roughly $1600, and then roughly $7,000 was returned to donators.
And about the TV…?
However, Disclosure had fielded questions in recent days about just how much money was going to be going toward Susan Vaughn…and in what form. According to a reliable source, a large-screen TV (65 inch diagonal flat screen) had recently been purchased either by Vaughn or for her, from Walmart in Olney.
Disclosure asked Haley if any of the GFM funds had gone toward that purchase.
Haley’s answer was “No.”
After stating that some funds had been used “helping the grandma” (Susan Vaughn), Haley clarified that “None of (the money) is going directly to her, but instead is being paid out as needed. It’s also helping out Margie,” she said, referencing Marie Vaughn, Sabrina’s aunt who had taken over custody of the child a couple of years back after it became clear that Susan Vaughn, the legal guardian, couldn’t physically keep up with the girl.
Haley did note that most of the money will be going into an interest-bearing account at an area bank, to be used as a scholarship for “someone with a disability that wants to go to college.”
Haley added that she and the family (she is not a relative, it might be pointed out) would like to thank everyone for all they have done for the Stauffenberg-Vaughn family.
What happened to Hannah?
Most of the initial furor over Sabrina’s murder has dimmed to a low roar, owing to the fact that there have been few developments in the weeks following Ramey’s first appearance in Richland County Circuit Court.
However, Disclosure has been tracking people and situations that lead up to Ramey landing in Richland County in the first place. One of those people was his mother, Hannah Ramey-Palmer-Gilliland, 72.
Hannah became relatively famous in a backwoods, southern Illinois kind of way when an episode of a ridiculous reality TV show, “Hoarders,” selected her to be filmed at her Johnson County trailer in deep southern Illinois, 140 miles away from Olney.
After the episode, which aired in early 2011, Ramey’s mother became known as “Hannah from Vienna,” given that her mobile home in rural Johnson County was as close to Vienna, Illinois, as it was to any other incorporated municipality.
Disclosure’s correspondent traveled to the location in Johnson County to interview Hannah on a handful of occasions in the weeks following Sabrina’s murder, taking the older woman a strawberry milkshake from McDonald’s in subsequent visits as, on the initial interview, Hannah had indicated those were “her favorite.”
But in early January, Disclosure’s correspondent received word from Glenn Ramey’s ex-mother-in-law, Deena Witt, that Hannah had gotten ill, was taken to a hospital in Indiana, and had passed away.
Disclosure’s correspondent was unable to get down to Johnson County prior to press time to check out the report, so Disclosure contacted a public official in Johnson to see if this actually were the case.
Interestingly, the public official said that word had gotten around the county that Hannah had indeed passed, but no one seemed to know much about it, so the report couldn’t be 100 percent substantiated prior to going to press.
The understanding from Witt was that there was no local obituary because Hannah’s body may have been kept in Indiana and interred there.
Disclosure is still looking into the matter.
As already pointed out, Ramey is next in court Friday, January 27.
All non-juvenile court hearings are open to the public, and the public is encouraged to attend.
This is a screencap of the final total raised in the GoFundMe campaign organized by Olney resident Denise Haley. Haley advised as to where the money is going, but stated that it ended up not being as much as what is shown here.