AURORA — The parents already suffered an unthinkable loss when a crash killed their 3-year-old son at an ice-cream store. Now Aurora police say someone else tried to cash in on the family’s pain.
Marten Kudlis was killed Sept. 4 when a pickup hit by another vehicle crashed into a Baskin-Robbins.
Aurora police say Matthew William Keysacker reached out to the Kudlis family after the crash, wanting to raise money for the family.
According to an arrest affidavit, Keysacker proposed holding a poker tournament to raise money. Keysacker runs the suitedacespoker website. The site says its goal is to bring free poker to local venues. Police say the 30-year-old used the site to promote the fundraiser.
“In order to further his scheme, what he did was he used his website, posted pictures of Marten actually on that site, to build interest in the poker tournament and draw people to the event,” said Detective Bob Friel, spokesman for Aurora police.
In early December, Keysacker partnered with Fuddruckers restaurant in Aurora.
“We thought it’d be a great way to get involved, and it sounded like a great cause,” owner Mark Detwiler told 9News.
The restaurant donated much of its proceeds from the day of the fundraising poker tournament.
But in January, police learned the Kudlises never received any of the $3,455 raised during the event.
According to the arrest affidavit, “Mr. Kudlis stated he had spoken to the event coordinator, Keysacker, and was told that Keysacker’s wife’s credit card had been stolen and that they were having financial difficulty and did not have the funds to give to Mr. Kudlis.”
“This has little to do with the money,” Friel said. “It is very much about the principle of the matter, and that is that a family that’s already experienced tragedy is being taken advantage of and we felt that this is something that needed to be looked into and somebody needed to be held accountable for this.”
Keysacker was arrested Monday and booked into the Arapahoe County Detention Center.
He’s facing two felony charges: theft by deception and computer crime.
He was freed Tuesday after posting $6,000 bond.
