Esther Elizabeth Reed.

[Starless]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/art...ed_in_id_scam/

......
She's a very sharp individual, no question," said Clark Brazier, an investigator with the Travelers Rest, S.C., police department. "She was in and around the Boston area, and if anyone has any information that might be able to help us, let us know, because clearly there may be other victims up and around that area."
Investigators, who are hoping for a break when Reed's case is featured tonight on Fox Television's "America's Most Wanted" program, allege that Reed stole the identity of several women, including Brooke Henson, who was 21 when she vanished from her South Carolina home on July 4, 1999.
Police suspect Henson was killed, but the missing woman's family was given false hope in June 2006 when a Columbia graduate student who claimed to be Henson applied for a summer job as a housekeeper in Manhattan, according to Brazier.
The prospective employer, who discovered that Henson was a missing person during an Internet search, alerted police that she had been found.
The woman, who was in fact Reed, insisted she was Henson, then fled when police asked her to provide a DNA sample.
Investigators don't believe Reed had anything to do with Henson's disappearance, but they want to question her before ruling her out as a suspect, Brazier said.
A Harvard University spokesman confirmed that a woman using Henson's name attended the Harvard Extension School in the spring of 2004, but he didn't know how many courses she took or whether she completed them.
In May 2004, Reed, using Henson's identity, scored well enough on standardized tests to get accepted into Columbia University's School of General Studies, the college for nontraditional students, starting that fall.
In 2005 she had a duplicate copy of Henson's birth certificate mailed to her at a UPS Store mailbox in Northampton, according to the indictment.
"She was very good at her admissions stories," Brazier said.
Reed explained gaps in her records to college officials by asserting she was home schooled and therefore didn't have any high school transcripts; that her mother had died of cancer; and that her father had been abusive, causing her to sever all ties with him, Brazier said.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_w...n_chicago.html

Columbia con artist nabbed in Chicago
BY DAVE GOLDINER
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Monday, February 4th 2008, 3:13 AM


Esther Elizabeth Reed
A notorious con woman who stole a missing woman's identity to attend Columbia University was nabbed outside Chicago - by cops looking for a vicious killer in the same town, authorities told the Daily News.

Esther Elizabeth Reed, 29, who attended the Ivy League college under the name of missing Brooke Henson, was captured in Tinley Park, Ill., on Saturday by an alert officer searching for a suspect in a mass killing at a local mall.

"You have me," she told cops. "I am who you think I am."

Reed is accused of stealing up to $100,000 in student loans from Columbia, and may have ripped off other prestigious colleges while enrolled with bogus IDs.

The crafty coed fled last year after lawmen tracked her down to her room on the Morningside Heights campus.

"Her claim to fame is she's a liar," Tinley Park Sgt. T.J. Grady said. "The officer knew he had the right person."

Officer Kevin Horbaczewski spotted a car used by Reed in a hotel parking lot during a sweep after the carnage at a Lane Bryant store that left five dead.

Horbaczewski went to her room and claimed to be investigating a noise complaint from the room next-door, Grady said. Reed flashed a phony Iowa driver's license, but eventually admitted she was the crafty swindler with a half-dozen aliases.

Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley said Reed would be held on a warrant for fraud and identity theft until she appears before a federal magistrate as early as Sunday.

Reed, a high school dropout from Montana, disappeared without a trace in 1999, around the same time as a South Carolina woman named Brooke Henson.

Reed, who has claimed at least six names over the years, used Henson's ID to take college admission tests and won entrance to Columbia, though cops do not believe she was involved in Henson's disappearance

"There's a little relief," Henson's aunt Lisa Henson told CNN. "But [Henson] is still missing. I'd like to have some answers. I would love to see [Reed] and look her in the eye and say, 'You're a horrible person.' "

dgoldiner@nydailynews.com

http://gothamist.com/2008/02/04/grifter_found.php

February 4, 2008
Columbia's Academic Grifter Found in Chicago
Last year, the federal authorities had been looking for Esther Elizabeth Reed, a woman who faked her way into attending Harvard, Cal State and most recently Columbia University, by using a dead woman's identity. Reed was on the lam, but this past weekend's murders at a mall outside Chicago led the police to Reed, who had been living in the very same town the killings occurred.

In 2006, while in NYC, Reed had applied for a housekeeper's job, but when the potential employer checked her birthday and SS#, the woman found that the information was for Henson, who was dead. Reed, who had taken courses in criminology and psychology after faking entrance exams, immediately fled her Morningside Heights apartment (taking her brushes and combs so they couldn't find her DNA) and remained under the radar for all of 2007.

Apparently the police were acting on a tip when they found her at a motel. Reed was also careful not to create a paper trail by paying in cash but a Chicago hotel clerk had kept a copy of her latest fake ID, and investigators found her at the Sleepy Inn in Tinley Park, a Chicago suburb. According to the Daily News, when a police officer, who had been looking for the Tinley Park mall shooter, found Reed, she said, "You have me. I am who you think I am."

Reed will be in federal court to face fraud and identity theft charges. The father of a man Reed dated told the Post last year that he was suspicious of the young woman, "She claims she was playing in chess tournaments, and I was prepared to play her, but she wouldn't play me [and] wouldn't respond when I mentioned some opening gambits. When she didn't know anything about the opening gambit, that raised a red flag with me."

http://estherreed.net/

[Starless]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,406323,00.html

http://www.montanasnewsstation.com/G....asp?S=8865943

Townsend woman admits to ID theft

Aug 19, 2008 01:33 P



A Townsend woman has pleaded guilty to stealing the identity of a missing South Carolina woman to attend an Ivy League school.
Esther Elizabeth Reed, 30, admitted Tuesday in a South Carolina federal court to stealing the woman's identity to obtain an Ohio identity card to gain acceptance into Columbia University.
She now faces up 47 years in prison, and may be ordered to pay back $1 million in fines for identity theft, mail fraud, wire fraud and loan fraud charges.
Reed was indicted last year for using Brooke Henson's identity to get into Columbia University.
Reed juggled six false identities to attend California State University at Fullerton and Columbia, according to prosecutors. In 2004, she used Henson's name to get student loans.
Reed's attorney requested a change of venue in the case in June, wanting to move it out of South Carolina.
Reed, who spent nearly nine years on the run, was finally captured in February.
Investigators do not believe Reed was involved in Henson's 1999 disappearance.
Reed's sentencing date has not been set.


(from July 9, 2008)
A federal judge has denied a motion to dismiss charges against the Townsend woman accused of stealing identities.
Esther Reed is accused of stealing a missing South Carolina woman's identity to get into Columbia University.
Reed faces federal charges for allegedly using Brooke Henson's personal information to get an Ohio ID and get accepted to the Ivy League school.
The judge also denied a motion to change to location of the trial to Columbia or Atlanta.
Reed's attorney argued that her client could not get a fair trial in Greenville, North Carolina, due to local media coverage.
The prosecution says that in addition to Henson's, Reed took on around six false identities.


(from the archives)
An attorney for a Townsend woman accused of stealing the identity of a missing woman in order to attend an Ivy League school says she wants the trial moved.
Attorney Ann Fitz said Tuesday she doesn't think Esther Elizabeth Reed can get a fair trial in South Carolina. Fitz says she will make the motion to move the trial during a hearing Wednesday in Greenville.
Reed, was indicted last year on charges of using a missing South Carolina woman's identity to get an Ohio identification card and gain acceptance into Columbia University.
Prosecutors later accused Reed of stealing other identities.



(From June 12, 2008)
A defense lawyer has asked a judge to dismiss two fraud counts against a Townsend woman who's accused of stealing a missing woman's identity to get into an Ivy League school.
The federal public defender says prosecutors do not have enough evidence to prove that Esther Reed is guilty of fraudulent use of someone else's Social Security number.
The lawyer also says New York's federal court should hear the case, not a court in South Carolina, on whether Reed used another person's identity to apply for student loans to attend Columbia University.



(from the archives)
New identity theft charges have been brought against a Townsend woman who's accused of stealing identities and tricking some of the nation's top colleges into admitting her.
Esther Elizabeth Reed already faces identity theft charges on allegations she used a missing South Carolina woman's identity to get accepted to Columbia University.
Prosecutors say they have now tacked on additional charges for stealing other identities.
Officials say Reed will remain in federal custody and will likely have a pretrial conference next month.

(from the archives)
A woman from Montana who was arrested in February after eluding authorities for nine years is now facing additional federal charges.
Esther Reed is originally from Townsend and prosecutors say she'll be facing additional identity theft and fraud charges for stealing the identities of six people.
The identity theft started in March of 2001 and she managed to juggle the identities to attend Cal State-Fullerton and Columbia University.
While using a false name she had a relationship with a cadet at West Point, convincing the cadet's mother to write a recommendation for her to go to Columbia University.
The indictment says she also created fake store receipts on her computer and returned items for cash refunds.

(from the archives)
A former Townsend woman who's accused of stealing several people's identities appeared in a South Carolina courtroom on Monday.
Esther Reed was arrested outside of Chicago last month, some nine years after the search for her first started.
Prosecutors say they believe that Reed stole the identity of a missing woman in order to get loans and admission to an Ivy League school.
She has been charged with identity theft, mail fraud, wire fraud and obtaining false identification records.
Reed did not enter a plea at her initial appearance on Monday and her next hearing is expected to take place next month.

(from February 3, 2008)
Esther Reed has been arrested in a hotel outside of Chicago. The former Townsend resident had been the target of a nationwide search since 1999.
Reed was indicted by a federal grand jury in Greenville, South Carolina for mail fraud, wire fraud, false identification documents and aggravated identity theft.
Reed became famous for stealing at least five different identities and eventually gaining acceptance into Harvard and Columbia Universities. She even took on the name of Brooke Henson a women that went missing in 1999.
Reed is currently being held by Secret Service agents in Chicago.

In an exclusive, Montana's News Station has learned that Esther Reed, the Townsend, Montana high school drop-out, who has been the target of a nationwide manhunt, was arrested on Sunday.
CBS News and 48 Hours Investigator Steve Rambam says that Reed, who has been on the run since 1999, was arrested at a Hotel in Tinley Park, Illinois, just outside of Chicago.
Reed became famous for stealing at least five different identities and eventually gaining acceptance into Harvard and Columbia universities.
We've been told that when she was confronted by police officers, Reed claimed her name was Jennifer Meyers and even produced a Iowa drivers license to prove it.
But officers recognized Reed and arrested her on the spot. Reed has been turned over to Secret Service agents and is being held in Chicago.