foto: freepik.com
Brilio.net - On April 1 2024, a 58-year-old man named Matthew David Keirans pleaded guilty to charges that he had stolen the identity of another man. No half-hearted, Keirans has been using this fake identity for 35 years. So the owner of the real identity was made to go to prison and was put in a mental hospital.
Kierans was arrested while working at the University of Iowa Hospital under the name William Donald Woods. That's the name he's been stealing since 1988. Previously he had worked at the same place as the owner of the real identity at a hot dog cart in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Reporting from odditycentral.com, it is not clear how Keirans can use the name Woods in every aspect of his life. However, the court heard that he obtained a fake identity card with Woods' name and date of birth in 1990.
Even in 1991, he was able to buy a car using his fake identity. Instead of paying off the bill, two checks issued in Woods' name were not cashed. So this unpaid car becomes a stolen car.
Because of this action, the local police finally handled this case and chased a man named Woods. Even though he was targeted, Kierans could still live his life safely. He married a woman in 1994 and even became the father of a child with the last name Woods.
photo: freepik.com
In 2012, Kierans' cover deepened with his fake identity. How could it not be, he managed to illegally obtain a copy of Woods' birth certificate from the state of Kentucky. The deed was created using information Kierans found about the Woods family on Ancestry.com.
He is known to have worked in the IT Department at the University of Iowa hospital under the name Woods, between 2016 and 2022, he took out several vehicle and cash loans in Woods' name totaling approximately $200,000. If converted into today's exchange rate, the total loan is IDR 3,247,340,000.
This figure is quite fantastic for the real William Donald Woods. In 2019, it became known that he was a homeless man living in Los Angeles. Woods realized that someone had owed a large amount using his credit card.
Not remaining silent, he tried to explain to the bank. However, there were security questions submitted to him by the bank that he could not answer. Meanwhile the bank contacts Kierans, who is thought to be Woods. Kierans was also able to answer all questions from the bank.
Because of this incident, the bank immediately contacted the police. Remembering that the real William Woods was homeless at the time. The police sided with Kierans and arrested the real Woods for identity theft.
The real Woods was arrested and tried on charges of identity theft and falsehood, as he continued to insist that he was actually William Donald Woods, in 2020, a judge ruled that he was mentally incompetent to stand trial and he was sent to a mental institution in California. There, he was given psychotropic medication and other mental health treatment.
In 2021, after two years in a mental institution, the real William Woods pleaded no contest to identity theft charges. This means he accepted the punishment but did not admit his guilt. He was sentenced to two years in prison, including time spent in a mental hospital, and later released. He was also ordered to pay a fine of several hundred dollars and stop using the name William Woods.
photo: freepik.com
At this point, Woods became convinced that someone was using his identity, and he couldn't just surrender like the judge ordered him to. He then began contacting several law enforcement agencies, including the Hartland Police Department where Kierans lived. When the application was accepted by University of Iowa Police Detective Ian Mallory, the investigation finally began.
After obtaining an exact copy of the birth certificate, detectives compared their DNA to Woods' biological father to see who was lying. To confirm, Mallory interviews Kierans, and when asked about his father's name, Kierans gives the name of his adoptive father. The detective informed him of the DNA test results.
Kierans finally admitted to using someone else's identity for 35 years. He was arrested the next day and charged with using a fake birth certificate and manipulating identities. Until now, a sentence in this case has not been handed down. But Kierans risks up to 30 years in prison on the charge of making false statements to an institution insured by the National Administration of Credit Unions, and an additional two years on the identity theft charge.
(brl/wen)
