We trusted her — and she used that trust to rob us blind.
In 2019, we, an elderly couple, opened our lives to a woman who presented herself as a friend. That woman was Telise Marie Armke, 56, of New Braunfels, Texas. She didn’t force her way in — she wormed her way in, patiently gaining our confidence, listening, sympathizing, and pretending to care.
Then the lies began.
Telise Marie Armke told us she was entitled to funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) because her home was supposedly located in a flood zone. She claimed the money was guaranteed — it just hadn’t been released yet. All she needed, she said, was temporary help to cover property taxes, liens on her home, insurance premiums, filing fees, attorney fees, and other so-called contract costs.
She promised us everything would be repaid as soon as FEMA released the funds.
We believed her.
Again and again, she pestered and pressured us, coming back with new excuses, new fees, and new urgent reasons why more money was needed. Each time, she assured us this was the last payment. Each time, it was a lie.
In total, we gave her more than $1.25 million — money we had spent a lifetime earning.
There was no FEMA funding. There was no repayment plan. There was only theft.
While we were trusting her, Telise Marie Armke was spending our money at gas station casinos in and around New Braunfels, burning through what she had stolen for her own gratification.
Federal authorities eventually intervened. On March 24, 2023, Armke was arrested and charged with four counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She later pleaded guilty on July 17, admitting to the scheme.
U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia sentenced Telise Marie Armke to 30 months in federal prison and ordered her to pay $1,251,206 in restitution to us — her victims, whose names remain protected in court records.
The U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas said it plainly:
“Telise Armke is a predator, plain and simple.”
The FBI confirmed what we already knew — that she exploited a relationship of trust, disguising outright theft as a disaster-related loan and abusing our kindness and good faith for her personal gain.
This was not a misunderstanding.
This was not a loan gone wrong.
This was a calculated scam, carried out by Telise Marie Armke, against elderly victims who trusted her — and paid the price.