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This episode of Swindled may contain graphic descriptions or audio recordings of disturbing events which may not be suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. Behind the many symbols on this campus, there is an idea. It's the idea that Princeton stands for in American education. The idea that a university is a place where men of learning believe in young men of ambition and are given the opportunity to start them on their way.
James Arthur Hogue had always been light on his feet. Back in high school, in 1977, he ran the fastest two-mile race in Kansas to become the state champion. That accomplishment landed him a spot on the University of Wyoming's varsity track team as a freshman, but he dropped out a year later after recording disappointing finishes at consecutive meets. Everyone was bigger, stronger, and faster than James all of a sudden. Sometimes you don't realize how slow everything moves in Kansas until you leave.
In 1980, James Hogue enrolled at the University of Texas in Austin, but failed to make the cross-country team there. Instead of running track, James was running out of money. His financial woes forced him to drop his classes a semester before graduating. He'd also been arrested for the first time while in Austin. James had stolen a bicycle frame and received three years probation.
In 1984, James Hogue left Texas without a degree and without any remaining collegiate eligibility to compete athletically, unless he qualified for the Olympics in '88, which was highly unlikely. James' track career was over. Father time leaves us all in the dust eventually, but James Hogue was the exception. At least he wanted to be. James still wanted to run. He felt he had some gas left in the tank.
So a month before his 26th birthday, James Hoag enrolled at Palo Alto High School in California. He stole the identity of a deceased infant that he had read about in the newspaper to pass himself off as a 16-year-old self-taught endurance running orphan from Nevada. Jay Huntsman, the story goes, just wanted to complete his education and eventually attend Stanford. Within weeks, James Hoag, as Jay Huntsman, was competing in high school track meets.
On October 7th, 1985, he ran a sub-four minute mile to win the high school division of the Stanford Invitational. But Jay Huntsman never reported to the officials table to claim his prize. An odd move that sparked interest in the local sports writer named Jason Cole. Cole requested the public records of the new kid in town and discovered that Jay Huntsman had never grown up to become a track and field phenom. Jay Huntsman had died from pneumonia when he was only two days old.
This was a case of identity theft, the reporter discovered. James Hogue was confronted with the evidence. What happened when you were found out? They expelled me from the school. How long of a time period had you attended Palo Alto High School? Five or six weeks, I think. What happened after you were suspended from the high school? I stayed in Palo Alto until...
In 1987, James Hogue was arrested for forging a check to pay for an eye exam and contact lenses. The charges were dropped, but Hogue decided to start over anyway. He fled California for Colorado, where he began working at a sports camp with world-class athletes.
James told everybody there that he had a doctorate from Stanford, but it was mostly remembered for the weird mixture of mustard and Perrier that he drank during the races and the cigarette he would enjoy immediately after. After a brief stay in Colorado, James returned to California before moving to Utah, where he set up residence in a rented storage unit. He was trying to keep a low profile because he knew the police were looking for him.
James had stolen $20,000 worth of bike frames, parts, and tools from a bike shop in San Marcos, California. He transported them across state lines to sell. In March of 1988, the police found James Hoag's storage unit. It was full of the stolen bike equipment, athletic trophies, and a sleeping bag. There were also copies of admission applications to Harvard, Yale, and Princeton in the name of Alexi Santana. The Utah police, unaware of Hoag's past, thought nothing of it.
James Hogue spent the next nine months in jail. But it wasn't all bad news. While in jail, James Hogue, as Alexi Santana, was accepted into Princeton University on a full-ride scholarship. Santana's application was unique and had caught the attention of the prestigious university's admissions office.
Alexi Santana was an 18-year-old, self-taught orphaned cowboy from Utah. This simply sent in a list of books he had read, impressive SAT scores, and a charming essay about working as a ranch hand, tending cattle, and sleeping under the stars next to a horse. Santana was also an accomplished cross-country track star, apparently. He had looked great on the brochures. The only problem was that the man playing Alexi Santana would not be out of jail in time to attend.
Realizing this before he was sentenced, Hoag wrote to Princeton to request a one-year deferred admission. He told them that he needed to go to Switzerland to spend time with his dying mother. Deferment approved.
A year later, during the spring semester of 1989, a new student arrived at Princeton University. James Hogue, 31 years old and immediately violating his parole by leaving Utah, became Alexi Indris Santana. He legally changed his name, crafted a birth certificate, and grew his hair out. A man on a mission. Not to be educated, no. To run track, and to impress a woman, hopefully.
though most of the ones on campus were more than 10 years his junior. He was awed, Alexi Santana's former roommate at Princeton told the Seattle Times. He said, "I'm not here to learn anything. I already know a lot. I already know more than a lot of professors here. I'm just here to find a wife." He said it like a joke, the roommate recalled, but quote, "He said it like a joke. He meant." There's no evidence to suggest that Alexi Santana ever found a wife, considering he never married.
But someone did eventually find James Hogue. Two years later, at a track meet in New Haven, Connecticut, February 1991, a Yale student named Renee Pacheco recognized the Princeton runner's face. She had run track at Palo Alto High School when Jay Huntsman was discovered to be a fraud. Renee alerted their old track coach, who alerted reporter Jason Cole, who exposed James Hogue for a second time. The past always catches up.
What is your full name and age? James Arthur Hogue, 31. What is your present address and telephone number? 36 Holder Hall, Princeton University, 2587370. What is the extent of your education? Four years of college. What is your occupation and place of employment? Student. At Princeton University?
On February 26, 1991, the Princeton police arrested James Hogue during his geology class on a fugitive warrant from Utah. While in custody, Hogue admitted to everything but shed little light on his motivation. He told authorities that he just wanted a fresh start and an education without the burdens of his past. "What was the purpose of you doing that?" "Changing my name?" "Yes." "I wanted to have a different name."
What about the hair? Fascinating. But he did.
James Hogue was charged with forgery, falsifying records, and theft for accepting more than $22,000 in scholarship funds from Princeton University. He pleaded guilty to the theft charge in October 1992 and was sentenced to nine months in jail. Hogue was released after serving just four and a half months but was rearrested immediately upon returning to Somerville, Massachusetts, where he had been living prior to his sentencing.
James had stolen more than $50,000 in gems, mineral specimens, microscopes, and other equipment from the Harvard Mineralogical Museum in Cambridge where he had been working. Hogue served another 17 months in prison for two counts of grand larceny, one count of receiving stolen property, and a probation violation. Upon his release, James moved to Colorado, where he was arrested again, this time for stealing food and Rogaine from an Aspen grocery store.
If that wasn't a telltale sign of a delusional man desperately clinging to his youth, what James Hoag did next definitely qualifies. Fresh out of jail in 1996 at 36 years old, Hoag returned to Princeton using the alias "Jim McArthur." He never officially enrolled, but James did attend parties and ate in the cafeteria until he was eventually recognized by a graduate student. Hoag was arrested by campus police and charged with defiant trespass.
he spent another year behind bars in 1997 james hogue was arrested again for bicycle theft but he mostly vanished from the public eye except in 1999 a former classmate and filmmaker named jesse moss tracked hogue down in aspen colorado and interviewed him for a documentary titled con man
In the film, James Hogue explains the hopelessness of his affliction. If I were a drug addict or whatever, there would have been a million psychiatrists or whatever. Or if I were an alcoholic, there would have been endless, tedious AA meetings or whatever. But what? But what? But there's not, you know, because...
This is a different form of addiction, I guess, you know, whatever. This is not a recognized... It's not recognized as being deserving of whatever, you know, they think drug addictions are deserving of, you know, having a remedy for. What is it? The way I behave, you know.
Having a different moral standard or different moral action than what's recognized as the correct one. Clearly, the American prison system had failed to rehabilitate James Hogue. In 2005, he went on the run after the police raided his mountain home in Telluride, Colorado and found more than $100,000 worth of stolen property. Hogue had accumulated more than 7,000 items during that year he spent working as a handyman.
He was eventually apprehended a year later in Tucson, Arizona. He was sitting in a Barnes & Noble cafe, surfing the internet. Before he was sentenced for pleading guilty to one count of felony theft, James Hogue told the court, quote, "It's hard to explain why I do this. It's not something I can explain myself. It's some sort of collection, compulsion." In anticipation of receiving a lengthy sentence, Hogue said, "I don't anticipate having my life anymore."
and it was reported that James had instructed his associates to tell his new fiancee that he had died in a car crash or was in a coma. On March 12, 2007, James Hogue was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was granted parole in a little more than four years. In 2016, he was arrested again. In addition to making up an elaborate fake life, a man illegally living in Aspen is now being called a thief.
James Hogue had been discovered living in an illegally constructed, camouflaged shack on Aspen Mountain. Construction workers in the area had been complaining about missing tools. When the police knocked on the door of Hogue's shack, he responded through the door that he'd be there in just a minute. And then he escaped through a back window and disappeared into the woods. When the cops entered Hogue's home, they found it packed to the brim with stolen goods. Everything from construction materials to designer clothing. It looked like he had been living there for years.
The authorities returned the following morning to attempt once again to evict Hoag and unpack the cabin, only to find that it had already been emptied and abandoned. "Everything was gone," Detective Jeff Fain told the Aspen Times. "He literally even swept up before he left." James Hoag was eventually tracked down and arrested on November 3, 2016. Somebody spotted him using a computer in the basement of the Pitkin County Library and called the cops.
When questioned, James lied and said his name was David B. from Ontario. But in the parking lot, David B.'s 2005 Nissan Xterra was stuffed with all of the contents of James Hoag's shack. There were 18 duffel bags of clothing, bike gear, computers, tolls, and $17,000 in cash. There were also ledgers indicating that Hoag had sold about $70,000 worth of stolen goods on eBay, a felony offense.
James Hogue has already been arrested for illegally living in this shack you're looking at. Now, police say they found a lot of stolen items in his car, including ski gear, tools and postal supplies. 57-year-old James Hogue pleaded guilty to felony theft and felony possession of burglary tools, as well as a misdemeanor charge for obstructing an officer for giving them a fake name.
On March 20th, 2017, Hoag was sentenced to six years in prison, despite a plea agreement that called for a three-year sentence. "You are a very consistent thief, Mr. Hoag," the judge told him. "But you're a very bad thief because you get caught a lot. I don't understand what's going on with this pattern of behavior. You are a bright and intelligent person, but you can't treat other people this way."
and the only conclusion I can reach from this record, which is so long, is that as long as Mr. Hoag is at liberty in the community, he'll be continuing to take things from other people and continue to commit crimes. James Hoag was paroled on February 25th, 2019, after serving less than two years. His latest run-in with the law occurred on January 13th, 2021. Hoag was issued a citation for trespassing and tampering in an apartment building in Aspen.
Police discovered that a power cord running from Hoag's BMW SUV was attached to the back of the building. He was plugged into an outlet there and appeared to be living out of his vehicle, Sergeant Mike Tracy told the Aspen Times. For the police, it was a chance discovery. They were only at the building taking a report from a woman whose apartment had just been burglarized. Was there any hope for James Hoag? A brilliant mind hampered by compulsion.
Or is he simply a misfit, forced to survive on the edges of society to avoid being cast away? Is there any hope for Esther Reed and her unlimited potential? Or will it simply go to waste thanks to a hiccup in the brain? An intelligent imposter steals the identity of a missing woman to con her way into an Ivy League university on this episode of Swindled.
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And I really believe that to be the case. I believe that there were multiple people at that party that night. I believe that at least one or more people know what happened to her more than just her walking with us. We just need help from the community. We desperately need it and I'm begging for it. I'm really asking the community to step forward.
In the early morning hours of July 4th, 1999, Kathy and Martin Henson returned home from an Allman Brothers concert to find their 20-year-old daughter Brooke sobbing on the front porch. She had told them she had been fighting with Sean, her boyfriend, all night at the party. Brooke said she wanted to break up with Sean and move away from her hometown, but she was afraid of his reaction.
Ricky Sean Shirley, as law enforcement had come to know him, had built quite the reputation for himself in Traveler's Rest, South Carolina. He was 30 years old and had more neck tattoos and lynching charges than steady jobs. The kind of guy Brooke Henson's father warned her about. The type of small-town badass that gets a thrill from peeling out in a parking lot.
Screeching tires and a revving engine interrupt the bird's chirping on an otherwise pleasant day. A curtain of smoke nearly conceals the entire lifted pickup truck. Only the back glass sticker of an energy drink logo is visible as our hero speeds away. Wow, says a kid on a bike watching from afar. Sean Shirley is so cool. End scene.
Sean Shirley was dreaming in Brooke's bed that night when she told her parents that she was walking to the Willis store two blocks away to buy cigarettes. It was 2.30 a.m. Sean woke up to find a note from Brooke that read, quote, Gone walking. Follow me if you care. He didn't. The vehicle retrieved Sean Shirley from the Henson home at 9 a.m. the following morning. Brooke had not returned. In fact, she never returned. Brooke Lee Henson was never seen or heard from again.
There were rumors that she ended up at a different party that night, Lakeside and River Falls, but no one could confirm it. Other people remembered a funny smelling barbecue taking place a few days later, but canine and water searches uncovered nothing. No remains were ever found. Henson's mom says Brooke and her boyfriend, Sean Shirley, got into a quote, verbal dispute in the victim's bedroom when the victim left the residence walking an unknown direction.
The only person of interest in Brooke Henson's disappearance was Ricky "Sean" Shirley, who was taken into police custody that same weekend for abusing two minors. Detectives claimed that Shirley was not very cooperative when questioned about Brooke and immediately requested a lawyer. Everybody in town had a theory about what happened, but there was never enough evidence for investigators to make an arrest. My working theory is that she was murdered and her body was disposed of.
As the years passed, the Henson family fell apart. Brooke's father, Martin, became ill and reclusive. He told himself every day that Brooke would return, but she never did. Brooke's mother, Kathy, suffered from debilitating anxiety. She quit her job and her marriage because she could not balance the burden. Brooke's extended family and friends led the charge in trying to bring the missing girl home.
They distributed flyers with Brooke's face on it, created a website with facts about Brooke that might help locate her, and even enlisted a psychic who claimed to have seen Brooke's body in a vision dumped at the bottom of a well. So far, no luck. Every Independence Day after was a painful reminder of the tragedy as the family continued to search for answers. They gathered every year on Brooke's birthday to remember her, and to honor her, and to pray for a break in the case. Hope was fleeting.
Until July 2006, more than six years after Brooke Henson's disappearance, authorities in South Carolina received a call from a couple in New York City. They were in the process of hiring a housekeeper. During their screening phase, which consisted of a simple web search of the applicant's name, the couple said they were shocked to find that one of their prospective employees had been missing from South Carolina since 1999. That missing woman was now a student at Columbia University looking for a part-time job.
Brooke Henson was her name. Travelers Rest police investigator John Campbell, who had taken over the Henson case five years earlier, was skeptical. Brooke Henson was a party girl, a high school dropout, and most likely dead. There's no way she could get accepted to an Ivy League university. They called us and said, your girl's in New York. She's alive. But the authorities in New York confirmed it.
They interrogated Brooke at her Manhattan apartment where she told them she was a victim of domestic abuse and had no desire to be reunited with her family. She just wanted to be left alone. NYPD suggested closing her file, but the investigators in South Carolina demanded more proof. They wanted the police in New York to ask Brooke a list of questions prepared by her aunt, questions for which only the true Brooke Henson could provide the answers.
Questions about family members and past pets and the names of long deceased uncles. To her family's elation, Brooke answered almost all of them correctly. This is Brooke's aunt, Lisa Henson. "I was just like jumping for joy. I mean it was incredible." But then Brooke's family was shown a photograph. The woman in New York did not look like their beloved missing child. The Brooke they remembered was taller, thinner, prettier. The woman in the photo was nothing to write home about.
so john campbell requested the new york detectives obtain a dna sample new york brook henson promised to comply but rescheduled at the last minute later that week when the moment of truth arrived brook henson never showed days later the police forced entry to her apartment and found an abandoned every item that would have contained dna had been removed she did leave behind a birth certificate credit card statements and phone bills all in brook henson's name
There were also invoices from eHarmony and Match.com, which appeared to be religiously paid. Most importantly, police found a video rental card from Boston, Massachusetts. An interesting article because it bore a different name. Natalie Bowman. John Campbell discovered that there were two Natalie Bowmans in the Boston area in recent years that matched the resurfaced Brooke Henson's description. Both of them had attended classes at Harvard, but only one of them graduated. The other had simply vanished.
The only information John Campbell discovered about the missing Natalie Bowman was that she had been flagged as a victim of domestic abuse in Harvard's file, just like Brooke Henson at Columbia. Campbell assumed it was the same person. He also determined that the mysterious Natalie Bowman was a member of Harvard's debate team in 2002.
From there, the investigation turned up some former boyfriends whom she had met at debate tournaments and dating websites. There were dozens of them. Many of them were cadets at West Point, the military academy in New York. They all remembered Natalie Bowman, or Brooke Henson, whoever this woman was pretending to be at the time. She definitely had a type. At first, law enforcement wondered if the imposter had something to do with the real Brooke Henson's disappearance, but that theory was soon ruled out. Then they worried the imposter could be a foreign spy.
The fake Brooke Henson's bank account had been wired large sums of money from overseas, and one of the cadets reported she had asked to see plans from his military science class. But in reality, the men were not targets of espionage. They were just marks in a uniform, manipulated by a woman much smarter than they. A tale as old as time. Brooke Henson's most recent ex-boyfriend told the New York Post that he had met her online. He said she was cute, but quote, "...I thought she had crazy eyes."
But this man, obviously more interested in Brooke's personality, was able to ignore such physical imperfections and began dating her on and off for about a year and a half. He said during that time Brooke was flaky and erratic and often blamed her behavior on a crippling social anxiety disorder.
Brooke attached medical records to the email that detailed her diagnosis and treatment. Her ex-boyfriend told the Post that she would always do things like that to try and pull him back when he started to drift away.
Just weeks before she disappeared, he received another email from Brooke complaining about her course load as an explanation as to why she had been too busy to see him. Quote, "These last six months have been a fucking ridiculous amount of work, and I am not willing to throw it all away so I can kiss you and fuck you right this minute, although that's really what I'd like to do." Instead, Brooke Henson kissed New York goodbye, leaving nothing behind but questions.
But most of those questions were answered when Detective Campbell contacted the parents of another young man she had dated from Detroit. They'd found her driver's license in their home one time, the parents claimed. It was issued in Washington State. Her name was Esther Reed. Support for Swindled comes from SimpliSafe.
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Carol, for about a year and a half now, police have been trying to figure out if there's a connection between Brooke Henson and Esther Reed. Henson has been missing since July of 1999. Investigators say Reed is a high school dropout who used Henson's identity to get into Columbia University. Esther Elizabeth Reed was born on March 8, 1978, in Townsend, Montana. She was the youngest of her mother's nine children.
Most of Esther's siblings were adults by the time she was born, which made for a difficult time fitting in. Esther often felt ignored. Life outside of the home wasn't much better. Jim Theriault was Esther Reed's drama teacher at Townsend High School. He remembered Esther as a highly intelligent but unmotivated student. Her dysfunctional life at home interfered with everything. She had few friends and received poor grades.
Esther was never happy with who she was, Jim Terrio told the New York Post. She had a weight problem, and she hated herself. But what strikes me most about her was her innate brilliance, he told CNN. I mean, this is a really smart girl we're talking about. Esther was the kind of kid who would have been invisible if you didn't take pains to notice her presence. Esther Reed did not talk much, but she was a gifted speaker.
Convinced by Jim Theriault to join the high school speech team, Esther began to excel. She won first place at a state competition. Her name still resides on a plaque in the school's hallway, even though she dropped out of that school before graduating. Esther fell in with the wrong crowd, got into some trouble. She was placed on probation for shoplifting. It had been a downward spiral ever since.
but starting over runs in the family. In 1995, Esther's mother Florence divorced Esther's father Ernie, her fourth husband, and relocated to Lynwood, Washington near Seattle. Esther eventually joined her mother in Washington to re-enroll in high school. Esther dropped out a second time that same year.
She was bored again and aimless, which was compounded by her mother's death from colon cancer in 1998. Esther was essentially orphaned. Her only support system disappeared. Esther Reed was forced to learn how to get by on her own, by any means necessary. The next matter is State of Washington versus Esther Reed. In October 1999, Esther Reed was back in court. She pleaded guilty in King County to possessing stolen property.
Esther had stolen a co-worker's purse. A simple misdemeanor. She was released on probation. Then, Esther stole a purse from her sister Edna, with whom she was living. She forged checks in Edna's name and even pocketed the money her niece had received from the tooth fairy. Edna pressed charges, and Esther was arrested for a second time. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 35 days in jail. From jail, Esther Reed wrote to her sister Edna to explain her behavior.
Ever since I was a young kid, I have had urges of stealing, she shared. Most of the time I can overcome them, but as I got older, the things I took got bigger, and the schemes I pulled to get them got worse. When I was 14, I learned how to lock myself in a little box, and I had no idea how to unlock it. When I steal, I am able to shut off all feeling. It bothers me, but not like it should.
Esther's father told the New York Post that his daughter called him when she was free, and she said, He said,
No one else in the family had heard from Esther either. In 1999, she disappeared. Everyone just assumed she had been murdered. The body of the victim of the Green River Strangler had been found in Peasley Canyon. Even the local police believed it was Esther Reed. Truthfully, Esther had never felt more alive. She was crisscrossing the country in her car and sleeping in cheap motels. She transformed her body by jogging and she received a breast enhancement surgery in Florida.
She paid for it by forging JCPenney receipts to return items for cash. Esther Reed was a brand new person, and her name was Natalie Fisher, an identity that belonged to an ex-boyfriend's sister that lived abroad. Esther had registered a driver's license in Natalie's name, which she used to enroll in a summer debate tournament in Arizona. There, Esther had impressed the debate coach at Cal State Fullerton so much that she was invited to join the team. So she did, but under a different name.
Natalie Fisher became Natalie Bowman. Esther told the school that she was a victim of domestic abuse and wanted to conceal her identity. The truth was that the real Natalie Fisher had become aware of Esther's scheme and froze her credit. A call from a collection agency regarding an unknown phone bill tipped her off. As Natalie Bowman, the lie persisted. Esther paid for tuition and board with her merchandise return scam and credit card fraud.
She told all of her classmates that her lifestyle and education were funded by the prizes she earned from winning international chess tournaments. But if challenged, Natalie Bowman would never accept a match. By the spring of 2003, it was time to start over again. Esther Reed dreamed of bigger and better things. She applied to the Harvard Extension School and was accepted based on her letters of recommendation and excellent GPA.
While at the Harvard Extension School, where she studied psychology and criminology in preparation for law school, Natalie Bowman scored through the roof on the SAT and applied for even better schools. She was accepted by Columbia University in New York City. Again, she had abused the protections offered to victims of domestic abuse and picked a new name. This time, she was Brooke Henson.
She was able to get some true identification using fake identification. And she was able to take the SAT, the GED, and our victim's name, and she used those to apply to Columbia. While attending Columbia, Esther Reed borrowed more than $100,000 in student loans using her fake identity. She used the money to pay for her classes and an apartment near Central Park, where she lived for the next two years.
While living as Brooke Henson, Esther did not run up debt with the intention to bail. She was paying her bills on time and even applied for jobs to try and make an honest living.
Of course, doing so turned out to be the fatal mistake in Esther's plan. Thanks to investigator John Campbell in South Carolina, Esther's attempt at employment had exposed her. She would be forced to start all over again. Police say she lives her life by stealing other people's identities, a scam that's led her to Harvard and beyond. She was just indicted by a South Carolina grand jury, and now she's a wanted fugitive.
Esther Reed snuck into her apartment while the cops were at the front door. She grabbed a few personal items and her two Shih Tzus and caught a cab to New Jersey. Soon the whole country would know her name. After a federal grand jury in South Carolina charged her with felony identity theft and student loan fraud in early 2007, the New York Post ran their piece about the scandalous Esther Reed. Her story was also covered extensively by CNN, CBS, and America's Most Wanted.
She was one of the United States Secret Service's 10 most wanted fugitives. Everybody was looking for Esther Reed, but she was nowhere to be found. Do you think she's using another ID right now? Most probably. Most definitely. A private investigator hired by CBS began tracking her movements. Esther Reed traveled from Vermont to Connecticut to California. She was hiding in plain sight.
members of the public reported seeing her on dates at restaurants in the bay area they recognized her face from tv i looked at the woman and it registered to me like immediately when i saw her like how do i know her and then i was like whoa after i definitely knew that it was esther reed i said to johanna
The woman over there, take a good look at her, and I'll tell you why later. I definitely think that that was her, and I think that she's here in San Francisco. But all signs pointed to Chicago. Esther's old cell phone records unveiled significant leads in the Windy City, but most of them led to nowhere. Federal investigators weren't exactly sure where Esther Reed was hiding, but they knew she would be caught eventually.
They just didn't realize at the time that all it would take is a bit of chance and a whole lot of tragedy. 911 emergency. Are you Brian? We're at Tenley Park. Stay on the line. Stay on the line. Let me get you to Tenley Park. Don't hang up. Here we go.
Around 10:45 a.m. on Saturday, February 2nd, 2008, an armed robber posing as a delivery man walked into a Lane Bryant clothing store in Tinley Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Witnesses described the robber as a medium-toned black man, about 6'2", with a husky build and broad shoulders. He was wearing a waist-length jacket and black pants. A charcoal gray skull cap covered cornrows that were accented with light green beads on the ends.
The man pulled out a gun and herded four customers and two employees to the store's back room. He bound their hands and feet with duct tape and told them to lie face down on the floor. Rhoda McFarland, the store manager on duty, managed to dial 911 on her cell phone. She whispered the location of the robbery to the operator and begged them to hurry, but the robber overheard Rhoda's pleas for help and disconnected the call.
"Oh, you want to be a hero, huh?" you can hear the man say in the background of the call. When Tinley Park Police arrived at the scene, they found Jennifer Bishop, Carrie Cuso, Sarah Szafranski, Connie Woolfolk, and Rhoda McFarland deceased.
All five women had been shot in the head at near point-blank range. A sixth, unnamed woman survived the attack. She moved her head at the last second, causing the bullet to graze her neck. As you know, this afternoon, or late morning, we had a shooting incident in which there were five female victims in the store. The five deceased victims have been taken to the Will County Coroner's office at this time.
The victims range in age from age 22 to 37. All are residents of the suburban Chicago area. One resident is, one deceased is from South Bend, Indiana. The shopping center went under lockdown as the police searched for the killer in the immediate area, including a motel across the street. Every license plate in the parking lot was scanned. They found a green Subaru Legacy flagged in the system. It belonged to someone named Jennifer Myers.
Probably not the Lane Bryant killer, but worth taking a look. Officer Kevin Horbachevsky knocked on the door of room 317. He said he was investigating a noise complaint. A polite woman answered the door and handed over her identification when asked. It was an Iowa driver's license belonging to Jennifer Myers, also flagged in the system by the Secret Service, because Jennifer Myers was Esther Reed.
Investigators had discovered Reed's new alias by tracing one of her email accounts. When Esther purchased that car, she put herself back on the radar. I knew it was going to happen at some point. I mean, the amount of attention and the work that was going into it, I knew it wouldn't be long that she could hide this way. Let's just take you down to the station and we'll figure it all out, Officer Horbachevsky told the woman. Esther Reed's heart sank. She knew she had been caught. You have me, Esther told the cops. I am who you think I am.
Esther Reed was arrested and charged with multiple counts of identity fraud and student loan fraud. She had fictitious marriage certificates, a birth certificate in her real name, and a Washington State driver's license in her possession at the motel room where she was caught. Esther's sister is just relieved she's alive and wants her back. I would hug her. And I guess, I mean, you just hug people you love. You hug the people you love.
because you never know when they will be gunned down midday in a clothing store in a suburban strip mall. The Lane Bryant killer was never found. A $100,000 reward was established for any information leading to an arrest. Thirteen years later, the case remains unresolved. In August 2008, in South Carolina, Esther Reed pleaded guilty to mail-and-wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and student loan fraud.
"I was desperate to escape an environment I felt I could not survive," Esther told the court at her sentencing hearing. "The strict yet neglectful upbringing, the divorce of her parents, the death of her mother, combined with the social phobia, it was all too much for Esther Reed," according to documents her defense team submitted. Esther Reed, 30 years old at the time, was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison. She was also ordered to pay $125,000 in restitution to her victims.
Esther served her time at Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia, aka Camp Cupcake, the facility famous for housing Martha Stewart when she was arrested for securities fraud. Esther Reed was paroled on October 27, 2011. "'I don't know. I don't know if I'll stick with Esther Reed or if I'll change my name legally to something else that might be more comfortable, and then I intend to go on and do something great. No BS,' she told CBS News with a smile."
The Henson family certainly wasn't smiling. They were relieved that Esther had been caught and served time, but the whole ordeal was like adding salt to wounds that had never healed. "I don't think she ever considered anybody that this would affect," Lisa Henson told CBS. "She was all about Esther. I'd like to have some answers," she told CNN. "I would love to see Esther read and look her in the eye and say, 'You're a horrible person.'"
More than 20 years later, Brooke Henson's disappearance has not been solved. Ricky Sean Shirley remains the main person of interest. He was found dead at his mother's house shortly after 5 a.m. on October 1, 2019.
There was no immediate indication of foul play involved. Is there any chance your niece is still alive, do you think? We don't believe so. I think you always have a little bit of hope. Hope, even after being victimized again. Swindled is written, researched, produced, and hosted by me, a concerned citizen, with original music by Trevor Howard, a.k.a. The Former, a.k.a. David B.,
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My name is Senator Tom Hamburger, Germany. Hi, my name is Emily from beautiful San Diego, California. My name is MBA from the okay state of New Jersey. And I am a concerned citizen and a valued listener. Thanks, and you're doing God's work even though I don't really believe in him. Bye.
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