After raising $184,000 for teen who biked to college, woman says ‘questions have been raised’ about his story

The creator of a GoFundMe campaign for a young man who said he biked for six hours to register for classes at Gordon State College is raising questions about the teen’s story.

On Wednesday night, Casey Blaney, who made the GoFundMe page for 19-year-old Fred Barley, posted on the Facebook group Success For Fred that “multiple questions have been raised about Fred’s story.” She wrote that she’s asked for the campaign to be reviewed before funds are transferred to a trust for his education.

She did not elaborate on what questions exactly were raised.

GoFundMe has frozen the account of $184,000 and has started an inquiry into his claims, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Money will be refunded to donors if the questions cannot be answered, a GoFundMe spokesman told the AJC.

Neither Barley nor Blaney, of Barnesville, could be reached by the AJC for comment.

Barley was found sleeping in a tent outside Gordon State in early July. He told police officers who discovered him that he rode his little brother’s bicycle more than 50 miles from Conyers to register for college classes.

The officers put Barley up in a motel, and word quickly spread of the teen’s story on social media. Blaney started a GoFundMe page, but stopped accepting donations after collecting more than $180,000 from donors, the AJC reported.

Plans were for the money to go into an educational trust, but Barley and Blaney appeared on social media to disagree about who would oversee it.

This story was originally published July 28, 2016 at 12:27 PM with the headline "After raising $184,000 for teen who biked to college, woman says ‘questions have been raised’ about his story."