Sandy Hook Charity Donations Of $70,000 Missing

More than $70,000 that was raised through marathon running for a charity formed after the shooting massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School has gone missing, one of its co-founders said Friday.

Only $30,000 out of the $103,000 taken in by the 26.4.26 Foundation was used for the organization's purpose, Ryan Graney, of Nashville, Tenn., said. Nonprofit NYA, a youth sports center in Newtown, received the money from co-founder Robbie Bruce last January, the Associated Press reported.

Bruce was in charge of the organization's finances but has cut off contact with her, Graney said.

According to the AP, "Bruce didn't return repeated telephone messages from The Associated Press, including one left with his sister. Public records list Bruce's address as an apartment in a gated complex on the southern outskirts of Nashville. No one answered the door there Friday afternoon."

The idea behind the 26.4.26 Foundation fundraising effort was for runners to participate in marathons, raising money for each of the 26 miles they ran and dedicating each mile to one of the 26 victims of the school shooting - 20 children and six educators, the AP reported.

With more than 1,000 participants, the group held its first marathon in Nashville a week after the shooting. More than 1,400 runners raised about $22,000 for the foundation in another one held in New Hampshire last April, organizers said. The donations for the charity were also received from runners in other events, Graney said.

She noticed something was off last spring upon discovering suspicious charges to the foundation's PayPal account, Graney said.

"I saw there was $1,200 billed for paddle boards," she said. "I went on (Bruce's) Instagram page, and he had posted a picture of a paddle board in the back of his truck."

Bruce promised to meet her and go over the organization's finances when Graney confronted him, but he never showed up and then cut off contact with her in September, the AP reported.

Complaints with the FBI and the Tennessee attorney general's office were filed by Graney, which said they don't comment on ongoing investigations.

There was no justification for not giving the vast majority of the proceeds to the people of Newtown since the foundation, registered as a nonprofit corporation in Tennessee, had virtually no overhead or other expenses, Graney said.

"I am in tears, sick about this," Graney said by telephone Friday.

The attorney general's office in Connecticut responsible for keeping track of charities that sprang up after the shooting, said it had no knowledge of the foundation, according to the AP.

The NYA's executive director, Dorrie Carolan, said her organization "graciously accepted a check in the amount of $30,000, which cleared shortly after it was received."

"When I ran, I thought the money was going to those victims and their families," said Leigh Melia, who ran 3 miles of the New Hampshire race as part of a relay team.

Graney said her hope is publicizing the problem will bring attention and help get the money to where it belongs, the AP reported.

"If I knew what was going on, I would have stopped it sooner," she said. "I feel terrible. I couldn't sit by and let this happen."