Results tagged “brookehenson”

Before there was hipster grifter Kari Ferrell, there was Esther Elizabeth Reed, the grifter. Reed faked her way into attending Harvard, Cal State and most recently Columbia University, by using a dead woman's identity. She claimed to be a chess champion (a boyfriend's father became suspicious when she didn't know what an opening gambit was) and was suspected of being a spy (she kept dating West Point cadets!). But when Reed, under the name "Brooke Henson," applied for a job as a housekeeper in Manhattan, her employer did a background check and she went on the lam (she left everything except her combs and toothbrush—things that would have her DNA). 48 Hours Mystery interviewed Reed, who said, "I planned on being Brooke Henson for the rest of my life... I'm going to create an identity. I didn’t think I could get into any trouble for that." She was eventually found a year and a half in Chicago; when the cops found her, she recalled, "It was overwhelming. There was absolute panic and I said, 'I'm Esther Reed.'" Reed, who had $100,000 in fraudulent loans and credit card debt, claims she would have paid it all back.

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.