Hundreds of people reached out saying they wanted to help her.
But as her plight became more widely known, some on social media accused Sumlin of making up the entire story.
She said she is telling the truth.
“A lot of people got a lot of negative things to say, but where was people when I was in the dark when me and my kids was walking back to appointments when I was in school?” she said.
Sumlin showed WHBQ pay stubs from her seasonal job from November and December of last year verifying she did work.
The woman was also accused of lying about working for Taco Bell. Others said she was fired from the fast-food restaurant.
She said she worked there for 12 years and left because of a high-risk pregnancy.
WHBQ reached out to the fast-food chain. They told us they could not comment about whether or not she worked there. However, Sumlin showed WHBQ a W2 form from Taco Bell from 2016.
She is also accused of being dishonest about her high-risk pregnancy. She showed us documentation from when she says her child was in Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital. Sumlin is also accused of lying about how much her electricity bill was. She told us it was $1,000.
Some even called it a scam saying her lights never got turned off. Anonymous donors gave Memphis Light Gas and Water just enough money for her to get it turned back on. We put in a public records request to MLGW about the accusations. It could take seven to 10 business days to get a response.
Shelby County Commissioner Tammi Sawyer called MLGW because she wanted to help cover part of the electricity bill. She said MLGW confirmed the bill was more than $1,300, and Sumlin’s lights had been turned off.
This story just keeps unfolding. The GoFundMe account said it was created a day ago by Jessica Sumlin. It’s much different from what she told us Monday.
The story on the page said she moved in with her mother around Christmas because her house contained mold.
It said, in part, “I had a newborn, and someone broke in and stole all my children’s things.” She said that was information she put on a GoFundMe page about a year ago, claiming she didn’t know how to update it.
“I didn’t have a PayPal and cash app. I went online and tried to do one. They was telling me that I needed a credit card to even receive the money, so a lot of people was like, ‘It’s not letting us send you the money.’ So I figured I have an old GoFundMe page because people must have started looking me up because I had seen I had it started at $200 in donations,” she explained.
People are also accusing Sumlin about her rent. According to the documentation we reviewed, it showed she has been behind for months. She owes more than $1,900.
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