(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Tennessee Republican raised $24,000 for children's 'burial garden,' refuses to say where money went [1] ['Daily Kos Staff', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-03-15 The GoFundMe was created by Andy Ogles and his wife Monica, just days after their newborn child died. They raised tens of thousands of dollars to create a ”burial garden” that would “feature a life size statue of Jesus watching over the children, benches for families to sit while surrounded by flowers in the special garden for little ones who left us too soon.” NewsChannel5 has been doing much of the investigative reporting on Rep. Ogles and was tipped off anonymously about the garden. George Santos: I will steal money intended for sick pets. Andy Ogles: Hold my beer Donors didn’t want to give their names but they did want to know what happened to all of that money. In fact, The Tennessean did a report one year later that explored what happened to the promised garden. At the time, Andy Ogles told the newspaper, "What we found out over the past year as we have been going through this process is that burials are heavily regulated.” NewsChannel5 could not find anything in the way of government regulations that might have impeded the Ogleses if they wanted to do what they said they wanted to do. They also spoke with the manager at the cemetery where Ogles had promised the garden would be built, who said they had met with the Ogleses a couple of times but that the couple never came back to follow up. As for the money? NewsChannel 5 Investigates did speak with one donor, who said he asked Ogles directly what he did with the money. When he couldn't get a straight answer, he insisted on getting his money back and he got it. When the news crew caught up with Ogles on Wednesday, he wouldn’t answer and ducked into a waiting vehicle. The Republican Party, everyone. UPDATE: Rep. Ogles has released a statement saying that he shouldn’t have to answer this question. x UPDATE: We gave @AndyOgles a chance to tell us in advance what he did with the money. He refused. Now, he puts out a statement to @TheTNStar, portraying himself as a victim and saying people should believe him that he used the money to help other families. He offers no proof. pic.twitter.com/lICNDVhtzl — Phil Williams (@NC5PhilWilliams) March 15, 2023 RELATED STORY: New lies from Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles’ past come to light [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/15/2158458/-Tennessee-Republican-raised-24-000-for-children-s-burial-garden-refuses-to-say-where-money-went Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/