Laura Oglesby had been dating men who believed she was two decades younger than she actually was
A 48-year-old woman spent two years living as her estranged 22-year-old daughter, using the stolen identity to enroll in university, take out student loans, and get a driver’s license.
Laura Oglesby, who has pleaded guilty to charges of fraud, applied for a social security card in 2016 in the name of her daughter, Lauren Ashleigh Hays, who was 22 years old at the time.
Oglesby worked at a city library in Moutain View, Missouri, and dated men who thought she was more than two decades younger than she actually was, the
New York Times reported.
“Everybody believed it,” Mountain View Police Chief Jamie Perkins told
The Times, adding
: “She even had boyfriends that believed that she was that age – 22 years old.”
Oglesby on Monday admitted to one count of intentionally providing false information to the Social Security Administration after embezzling more than $25,000 (£18,900). She is now said to be facing up to five years jail.
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Under a plea agreement, Oglesby must also pay $17,521 in restitution to Southwest Baptist University and to Hays, according to reports.
In 2017, Oglesby used the Social Security information to enroll at Southwest Baptist University and to get financial aid to attend.
In August of the following year, local police were contacted by Arkansas authorities, who said they were looking for Oglesby, adding that she had stolen Hays’ identity in the state the previous year.
Moutain View Police tracked Oglesby to the city library and later pulled her over during a traffic stop.
Oglesby told police she was "just running because she was in a domestic violence relationship, and she’d been running for years,” the police chief said.
Read the full story in the New York Times here.
