Identity Thief Coincidentally Nabbed in Tinley Park

By Margaret Lyons in News on Feb 6, 2008 10:17PM

An unrelated mystery has been solved as police investigate the Tinley Park murders. A con woman, evading police for years, was apprehended this weekend because police tracked down the owners of the cars parked near the Lane Bryant, where the fugitive Esther Reed had left her car, which was registered under an assumed identity.

Reed, aka Brooke Henson among other names, disappeared from Washington State in 1999, and over the next eight years went through at least six stolen identities. She managed to get into California State University at Fullerton, Harvard and Columbia University, where she was a graduate student in criminology and psychology. In 2006, she was living in New York as Hensen when prospective employer googled the name --and discovered that she was a girl missing from South Carolina. The NYPD contacted Henson's family and said they'd found Brooke alive. But it was Esther, who then disappeared, again.

Reed is accused of stealing more than $100K in student aid, mail fraud, wire fraud, identity theft, and false identity documentation. She was charged in Chicago and is facing charges in South Carolina. [Seattle Times, Radar, ABC News, CNN, AP, and Something Awful, via Whet]