NEPHI — As Tami Fausett looked over the flowers and lights that mark the area where her 7-year-old daughter was laid to rest, she knows in a couple of days she will have to take them away.

It's almost time for the monthly cleanup at Vine Bluff Cemetery, which means, for a little while at least, there will be nothing to mark where her "Little Addie" is buried.

It's been nearly a year since the death of Addie Fausett, the Fountain Green girl who captured the hearts of people around the world in 2014 with her “lifetime of Christmas cards” campagin.

But Addie still doesn't have a headstone.

That's because a man the family thought was a friend, a man they believed was helping raise money for medical and funeral expenses, took tens of thousands of dollars from them, police said.

James Fowlke Richards, 46, of Pleasant Grove, was charged in October with three counts of communications fraud, a second-degree felony; and forgery, a third-degree felony. As of Friday, the case was ongoing and he had not been convicted.

Richards is accused of defrauding one or several charity organizations of more than $20,000, claiming he was being reimbursed for Addie's medical bills when in actuality he only paid a small portion of her bills and pocketed the rest of the money, according to charging documents.

Fausett said Richards also set up a GoFundMe account to allegedly raise money for funeral expenses and a headstone for Addie. The account had more than $10,000 in it at one point, she said.

But Fausett never saw any of that money, she said, and she has no idea what happened to it.

Fausett claims the headstone is not what's important and that she is going public with her story now because she doesn't want Richards to scam anyone else.

"I would love a headstone," she said, "but it’s just money, and it’s not going to fix anything. I just don’t want him to be able to do this to someone else. That’s my main thing. I can at least stop one person from using someone and taking the money.”

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In the quiet town of Fountain Green, the local post office is the heart of the community. And getting the mail from Box 162 is something that little Addie Fausett literally lives for.

Despite her claims that the headstone isn't important, Fausett still goes to the cemetery almost every day to talk to Addie. And while she could try to buy a headstone now, Fausett wants to get one that her daughter deserves — not just one she can afford.

"(It's) almost been a year, and it feels like forever and yesterday all at the same time,” she said through tears Friday.

Addie stopped growing at age 3. Despite numerous visits to several doctors, it was years before she was diagnosed with cerebral atrophy.

In late 2014, doctors told the family that Addie likely would not survive another year. With the prospect of it being her last Christmas, her grandparents came up with the idea of her receiving a lifetime of Christmas cards.

The result was more than 300,000 Christmas cards, letters and gifts being sent to her from around the world as the campaign caught fire.

In trying to find help for Addie and get another opinion on her condition, Tami Fausett met Richards, who was recommended by the Pleasant Grove Police Department. Richards worked with Wings of Hope and the Honorary Colonels organization of Pleasant Grove.

Pleasant Grove Police Capt. Mike Roberts said the Honorary Colonels were fooled, too.

“It’s unfortunate,” Roberts said. “They got taken advantage of.”

The police department became suspicious, he said, when “things didn’t add up” in regards to money donated to Addie.

In 2015, Richards accompanied Addie and her family to Boston, where she was to receive medical treatment.

Richards had become "someone who we thought was a good friend, who we trusted and claimed to love Addie and wanted to help," Fausett said, "(but) apparently didn’t.

"He took what was donated for her headstone and for her funeral and medical bills, and I don’t know what happened to it. I thought he was a nice guy, a good person. We really liked him as a person, as a friend. He made us think he really cared for our family. But if he can make fake statements and lie and take money that he said was for my sick child, he’s not a good person," she said.

When Richards returned from Boston, he "told other members of the charity that he had paid for the child's medical bills (there) and that he was continuing to pay for ongoing bills associated with this medical treatment," according to charging documents.

Richards collected nearly $30,000 from the charity for alleged reimbursement of Addie's medical expenses.

"In reality, (Richards) only paid for one medical bill in May 2015 in the amount of $717.20. (He) also paid for meals and various other expenses for the family during the Boston trip. Those expenditures total less than $10,000, leaving almost $20,000 of the reimbursement money (Richards) received unaccounted for," charges state.

Richards told the charity he used some of the money "inappropriately," according to charging documents.

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Addie Fausett is a little girl facing a terminal brain disease, whose family asked for Christmas cards. But what the Fountain Green family received was beyond their wildest expectations.

But when members of the charity asked for receipts to prove the money was going toward expenses, Richards "provided fraudulent documents" in an attempt to justify his reimbursement requests, charges state.

The scheme may not have fully been uncovered if not for Fausett, who started reviewing many of the hospital bills and statements, comparing them with Roberts' invoices.

By that point, Fausett already knew what she would find.

"I was hoping it wasn’t (true), but I knew it was,” she said.

"Why would he use my sick child who had a rough life, and my family?" Fausett asked. "It hurts."

Richards was scheduled to be in court Thursday, but his preliminary hearing was waived for a fifth time. The Utah County Attorney's Office said Friday the continuance was due to new information recently provided that attorneys needed time to review, but declined to go into further detail.

The investigation into how much money Richards allegedly took and where they came from — Wings of Hope, Honorary Colonels or GoFundMe — is ongoing, according to the Utah County Attorney's Office.

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