Neeley's Favorite Story of 2025

Editor's Note:

As the year comes to a close, we've once again asked the DTN/Progressive Farmer reporting team to pick out the most significant, most fun, or otherwise their favorite, story of 2025. We hope you enjoy our writers' favorites, kicking off with today's story by DTN Environmental Editor Todd Neeley.

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LINCOLN, Neb. (DTN) -- Southern Kansas canola and wheat farmers Bob and Lori Schrock were among 67 people who perished when American Eagle flight 5342 from Wichita collided with a Blackhawk helicopter on the night of Jan. 29, 2025, in Washington, D.C.

Also aboard that plane were former Russian-born ice-skating coaches and world champions Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov and other Russian citizens.

About a month after I wrote a story about the tragedy, I received an email that at first made me suspicious of its authenticity.

Someone on the other end who wrote in near-perfect English claimed to be an attorney based in Moscow. Immediately, alarm bells sounded in my head: "I'm not being taken on this one," I thought.

In the end, it turned out that although we live on opposite ends of the world and are different in many ways, Gauthier Daniel Igorevich, a criminal lawyer with Trunov, Ayvar and Partners, and me are so much alike in one aspect: We share a disdain for people who try to profit from someone else's tragedy.

That's why I chose this story about how someone with no connection to the Schrocks went out of his way to bring down a fake GoFundMe campaign established in the family's name, as my favorite story of 2025: https://www.dtnpf.com/….

STORY BEHIND THE STORY

So, the story behind the story is that when Igorevich reached out, I spent a while trying to prove he existed and that what he was alleging was true.

I continued to pump him for information to gauge how serious he was about his story. He sent along copies of his email exchanges with GoFundMe officials and email exchanges he had with the campaign.

In a day's time, it went from being a story to alert the public, to a story about how Igorevich was successful in convincing GoFundMe to pull a campaign that had received $17,750 from donors.

The most beautiful aspect of the story was that Igorevich told me he couldn't stand back and watch it happen.

I like to think I played at least a small part in this story.

TRACKING DOWN THE FRAUD

According to Igorevich, the largest single donation allegedly made to the campaign was for $10,500, and another donation for about $5,000 was made.

Igorevich said he came across the GoFundMe while conducting research on a potential legal case on the crash. The campaign listed a "Sam Lorri Otim" of Kiowa, Kansas, as a contact.

But based on DTN's reporting, there was no one by that name who lives in Kiowa and the contact on the page did not respond to a message from DTN.

Igorevich said he reached out to the campaign's contact to offer legal services to the Schrock family. The GoFundMe page and an email response he received back, Igorevich said, raised red flags.

PUBLIC PHOTOS

Photos used on the GoFundMe page were publicly available, he told me, and the person responding to his inquiries never provided a name, referring only to themselves as a "family representative."

Igorevich was asked to transfer $15,000 to a Skrill account allegedly just to be considered by the family for working with his law firm.

"Once I realized that someone was exploiting these tragic events to profit, I couldn't just sit back. I had to report it. It's truly unbelievable," he said.

So, the person on the other end of emails sent to Igorevich not only claimed to represent the family but at one point told him the family had already spent $15,000 in trying to hire another law firm.

According to the Trunov, Ayvar and Partners' website, the firm specializes in helping the families of airplane crash victims among other issues.

Igorevich told the "family representative" his firm would reimburse the family for the $15,000.

He received this response: "So I have already informed the other family members and beneficiarys (beneficiaries) about this development and we jointly agree to give your firm all rights but for us to do that with no doubts," the GoFundMe contact responded to Igorevich, "we request you stand by your words and send that money to this Skrill email."

Igorevich told DTN he couldn't "simply stand by and ignore" the issue.

"As a criminal lawyer, my duty is to protect people and uphold their rights," he said.

"Seeing individuals take advantage of such a devastating tragedy for personal financial gain is not only a serious crime but also deeply inhumane. The fact that someone would exploit the suffering of others, especially in such a public and deceptive way, is beyond unacceptable."

What's more, GoFundMe responded very quickly and by day's end I wrote a story about how a guy from across the ocean cared enough about a farm family in Kansas, to aggressively pursue the fraudulent campaign and how he reached out to a farm publication in Nebraska for help.

It was a story with a happy ending during an otherwise deeply tragic time.

Todd Neeley can be reached at todd.neeley@dtn.com

Follow him on social platform X @DTNeeley

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