Esther Reed
 | The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guideline for biographies. (September 2009) |
Esther Reed | |
|---|---|
| Status | In prison |
| Other names | Brooke Henson Natalie Fisher Natalie Bowman Jennifer Myers |
| Conviction(s) | Fraud Identity theft |
| Criminal charge | Mail fraud Wire fraud Identity theft Social Security fraud |
| Penalty | 51 months |
Esther Elizabeth Reed (born March 8, 1978 in Townsend, Montana) is an American convicted of credit card fraud, agrravated identity theft, and wire fraud. She is most known for assuming the identity of missing person Brooke Henson to gain entry into Columbia University. She attended Harvard University and California State University, Fullerton under the identities Natalie Bowman and Natalie Fisher (the name of a former boyfriend's sister).[1][2]
Biography
Early life and education
Despite managing to gain entry to a number of prestigious universities, Esther Reed had dropped out of high school in Townsend, Montana. She is also a very skilled chess player and often claimed chess tournaments as her income to friends to cover up her financial scams.[1][3]
Missing person
In October 1999, she was reported missing by her family shortly after she was convicted of stealing her sisters checkbook, and was not discovered until July 2006. She was exposed in New York after a potential employer found her identity as Brooke Henson to be a missing person in South Carolina and reported her to New York City police, who also discovered shortly after that she was actually Esther Reed and was attending Columbia University as Brooke Henson.[3][4][2]
After agreeing to give DNA to prove she was indeed Brooke Henson, Esther Reed bailed and relocated to Chicago and again changed her identity to Jennifer Myers.[3]
She was at one point on the United States Secret Service's 10 most wanted fugitive list.[5]
Capture
Finally on July 2, 2008 in Tinley Park, Illinois she was captured after a local shooting at a Lane Bryant store caused police to run license plate checks on out-of-state plates. They found her car with Iowa license plates at a local Sleep Inn and arrested her.[2]
Conviction
Esther Reed was then sent to South Carolina where she was convicted of four felonies and sentenced to 51 months in prison. She is scheduled to be released from Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia in October of 2011.[1][2]
References
- ^ a b c "Ivy League identity thief sentenced to 4 years". CBC. February 11, 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-30.
- ^ a b c d "Catch Her If You Can". CBS News. May 9, 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-30.
- ^ a b c "Con Artist Pleads Guilty to Stealing Missing Woman's Identity to Get Into Ivy League School". Fox News. August 19, 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-30.
- ^ "'America's Most Wanted' Features Brooke Henson Case". WYFF 4. November 2, 2007. Retrieved 2009-09-30.
- ^ Sullivan, Jennifer (February 6, 2008). "Mountlake Terrace con artist suspect nabbed after nearly a decade on the run". Seattle Times. Retrieved 2009-09-30.