<p>Don't forget the plutonium. The plutonium is the key.</p>
<p>^lol</p>
<p>If she is a spy, why was she not apprehended under the Patriot Act? My liberties are being compromised to catch those deemed dangerous to our national security. Do spies not fall under that category? </p>
<p>McCarthy would be outraged.</p>
<p>Clearly, this proves that the Harvard and Columbia admissions committees has been compromised. KGB in our Ivies? Yikes!</p>
<p>(The article said she won a lot of speech prizes back home... but if she stole an identity, she clearly couldn't use those. I wonder what kind of ECs she listed? Maybe she just lied very carefully and wasn't caught. Hmmm.)</p>
<p>Where did she get recs from? There are some serious fallacies here...</p>
<p><em>If</em> this story is true:</p>
<p>then it is another example of truth being indeed stranger than fiction. The spy angle is a little too much for me, but I would expect the feds to check it out, esp. since officer candidates are involved - plus this is post-9/11.</p>
<p>identity theft is not that difficult to accomplish. The woman is probably quite bright, certainly smart enough to pull it off and run circles around a lot of folks, but most likely has some genuine mental problems (e.g., pathological liar) that will lead to her capture.</p>
<p>could be wrong here, but there is a long-standing "gypsy" community in part of South Carolina that makes a living by running scams on the road. The town that Brooke Henson is from seems to be in this area. Maybe that is the reason that law enforcement agencies are more than just a bit interested?</p>
<p>betcha if America's Most Wanted did a feature on her they'd have her in custody in a week or so.</p>
<p>fascinating...</p>
<p>wowity wow.</p>
<p>What's so cool about someone committing an "identity theft" on someone?</p>
<p>This person is responsible for false hope for the Henson family (and then another terrible crushing realization when thy realized that their daughter was not actually alive), this person has taken financial aid and a spot at Harvard that would have gone to a well-deserving individual who has now been denied admission, and this person has obviously walked-away from her real family once again and is undoubtedly pulling scams on others to finance her current lifestyle.</p>
<p>Seems like Reed is nothing but a con artist to me. I hope she is caught and charged for her fraud and crimes committed.</p>
<p>"lol the ivies will let soviet spies in before they let perfect score asians in. Go figure."</p>
<p>LOL. Maybe Harvard thought soviet spies were the perfect way to make their campus that much more diverse...</p>
<p>She attended California State before transfering into Harvard. It makes perfect sense.</p>
<p>Personally, I think she found the identity somehow, and did the best thing she could do to fix her life.</p>
<p>how awesome would it have been if she had gotten away with it?</p>
<p>i mean, she would have to assume that identity for the rest of her life, but she had already cut off all ties with her former life before hand. there wasn't any need to keep her old one. she would have a completely clean slate and could recreate herself.</p>
<p>i would do it if i needed to. she didn't kill anyone, just seized opportunity when it presented itself.</p>
<p>uhhh. I guess it would make a good movie (?)</p>
<p>Ok, did about an hour or so of on-line research on Ms. Reed. My opinion is that she was a bright and sensitive child who had the misfortune of living through a childhood that was anything but nurturing. And then she made a couple of bad, <em>bad</em> decisions and is now living out her fantasy life in a deceptive and inexcusable fashion.</p>
<p>I have no respect for "cons". Society is built on trust, and when that is gone you have very, very little left. What's even crazier is that she has some innate abilities and might have been able to study at elite schools and pursue a good career in an honest fashion. I wouldn't say that she is any sort of criminal genius - and that's a good thing. Quite clever and persistent, but too many psychoses. The best criminals don't get caught, partly because they don't make up crazy stories like winning money as a professional chess player in Europe.</p>
<p>This reminds me of a story from several years ago about a fellow who was originally from south Texas or Mexico but passed himself off as a member of the Rothschild family. He joined a fraternity at UC-Berkeley, bought cars on credit, etc. until people got suspicious and he was investigated and arrested.</p>
<p>Yeah, it could be an interesting made-for-TV movie...</p>
<p>There was a Law and Order SVU episode, I saw just this week that has a theme of Identity theft.
In the show, a woman had assumed the identity of a University professor from Australia, after having killed the professor.
She induced a male lover to commit a murder here in NYC to eliminate a rival for a position at "Hudson University" ( The Law and Order college ) while at the same time conducting an affair with the female department chair to assure that she was appointed to the faculty.
The O'Henry twist was that the person who's identity she assumed was an embezzeler and was wanted by the Australian Authorities.</p>
<p>What a scum this Reed woman is--devious, lying, no morals, you name it -- put her in jail.
For that poor family to hear their missing daughter is alive and well, then find it's all a hoax?? How incredibly cruel.</p>
<p>I think the initial report from CNN stated that she attended both Harvard and Columbia at the same time which make no sense considering these schools are in two different states.</p>
<p>The Crimson reported that she may or may not have taken a "few classes" (not a full undergrad load, and with another student's ID) at Harvard... but she most likely did go to Columbia for grad school.</p>
<p>She "may or may not" --what does that mean, that they're still investigating?</p>
<p>
[Quote]
The O'Henry twist was that the person who's identity ...
[/Quote]
</p>
<p>I love the way you put it. Thanks! (I am a fan of O'Henry.)</p>
<p>Seems like admissions officers really "know" their applicants based on pieces of paper.</p>
<p>
[quote]
She "may or may not" --what does that mean, that they're still investigating?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>See the following:
<a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=516600%5B/url%5D">http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=516600</a></p>
<p>An excerpt:
[quote]
Detectives found an ID card in Reed’s former apartment, which had the name of Natalie M. Bowman ’99, according to the Associated Press. The real Bowman was a former chemistry concentrator from Kirkland House who now attends Columbia Medical School. </p>
<p>According to the Post, Reed used this identity to attend both Harvard and California State University at Fullerton. </p>
<p>The real Bowman, however, is less sure that Reed actually attended Harvard. </p>
<p>“I don’t know if [Reed] ever attended Harvard or if it was just a confusion because I took an extension school class [after graduating],” said Bowman. </p>
<p>She said that she first learned about the identity theft this fall from Columbia University officials, who contacted her after the ID card was found. </p>
<p>Bowman said that she then checked her credit reports, which showed no sign of suspicious activity, and ordered a transcript from Harvard, which did not list any classes that she had not taken. </p>
<p>Bowman said that she has never met Reed, and does not know any information about the suspected identity thief. </p>
<p>“It could just be more a weird coincidence than anything,” she said.
[/quote]
</p>