In a bizarre incident, a middle-aged woman in US’ Missouri stole her estranged daughter’s identity so she could enroll in college, secure student loans and date younger men.
The woman has been identified as Laura Oglesby. Now, after embezzling almost $25,000 (Rs 19 lakh), the woman is facing jail time.
In an elaborate plan, Oglesby fooled both the federal government and locals in the small town of Mountain View. She enrolled at Southwest Baptist University, and by using the Social Security card, Oglesby also secured a driver’s license in her daughter’s name.
Oglesby reportedly also started dating young men in their 20’s by convincing them that she was just 22 and even made Snapchat accounts using her daughter Lauren Hays’ identity.
“She had completely adopted a younger lifestyle: clothing, makeup and personality. She had completely assumed becoming a younger person in her early 20s,” Detective Stetson Schwien told.
Oglesby moved in with local couple Avery and Wendy Parker, a pair of apparently kind strangers in Mountain View who believed she was a young woman running away from an abusive relationship.
She applied for financial aid and received $9,400 in federal student loans, $5,920 in Pell Grants, and $1,863 in finance charges.
Oglesby even worked at the local Mountain View library where locals knew her as Lauren Hays.
However, she ran out of luck as the plot unravelled in 2018, after authorities in Arkansas contacted the police in Mountain View on reports of financial fraud committed by Oglesby using her daughter’s identity. Though Oglesby initially denied committing the crime, she later admitted it and was arrested.
After pleading guilty to one count of intentionally providing false information to the Social Security Administration, Oglesby now faces five years in prison.
In addition, she also has to pay $17,521 (Rs 13 lakh) in restitution to her daughter and the university in Missouri.