What did Karen Eames do? GoFundMe donors to be reimbursed after woman sentenced to prison over husband's theft from sheriff's office

Karen Eames, who survived after her husband shot her and his son, in an apparent murder-suicide, admitted last month that she had helped her husband steal a huge amount of money from the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office. On October 4, Wednesday, Onondaga County DA Bill Fitzpatrick revealed that all the donations of the Karen Eamed fundraiser page will be reimbursed.

More than 1500 people had donated over $100,000 in connection to the murder-suicide that Karen Eames survived. The tragic incident occurred in February 2022, when Karen's husband, former Deputy Isaac Eames used his service pistol and fired at his family along with the family dog, about eight times.

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Karen Eames' was sentenced to six months in prison a few months back

On February 7, 2022, authorities discovered the gruesome scene, where Karen Eames and her family were shot by her husband, in an apparent murder-suicide. The incident allegedly took place at their residence in Brewerton.

Upon arrival, police found out that Troy, 21, Isaac's son, was gasping for air after being shot. He was later declared dead after being taken to the hospital. The only person who survived then was Karen Eames, who was later sentenced to six months behind bars, in June 2023 for her part in the theft.

About four months after the incident, the decision of reimbursement of the funds collected by the GoFundMe fundraiser has been passed. It was launched shortly after the murder-suicide took place, by Karen's sister.

DA Bill Fitzpatrick said,

"As recipients will see, the purpose of that email is to identify individuals who would like to be reimbursed for their donations to the ‘Help support Karen, Andrew and Troy’ fund on GoFundMe.org and to gather the information needed to put that money in their hands."

While the verdict came out in June, Onondaga County Judge Theodore Limpert stated that Karen could have avoided the murder-suicide, by telling her husband to not steal the money ($500,000).

Limpert said,

"There is one person in this room that could have prevented this tragedy. You could have said to your husband, ‘Stop. Stop taking the money. Give it back. It’s not ours. It’s not right."

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Donors who had donated money for the GoFundMe fundraiser after the murder-suicide are asking for their money back

In the court, Karen was heard saying,

"I simply went along with something that I should not have. This was out of character for me."

Recently while talking about the GoFundMe, Fitzpatrick said that after the fundraiser was launched, several members of the community came ahead and helped the family deal with the tragic loss of the murder-suicide. It was, however, later discovered that Karen was also involved in the theft where she helped her husband steal so much of the public's money.

According to Fitzpatrick,

"Eventually, after an extensive investigation lasting several months, Karen Eames was arrested for her part in the theft and spending of more than five hundred thousand dollars of public money."

Fitzpatrick further stated that after the guilty verdict came out in June, several donors were asking for their donated money back. According to the DA, reimbursing each of the donors is a priority task at his office currently.