Current Event for Week of 1/22/07
Woman steals another's identity, gets into Ivy League
Two 20-year olds went missing a few years ago. Both were presumed dead until one of them showed up in New York...but is she who she says she is?
Fake IDs allowed one of them to get into an Ivy League school, despite her poor grades in high school.
Read the article here.
What do you think should happen to Reed? How do you think this has affected her family? How has it affected Henson's family? Click "comment" to weigh in with your thoughts on the article.
Two 20-year olds went missing a few years ago. Both were presumed dead until one of them showed up in New York...but is she who she says she is?
Fake IDs allowed one of them to get into an Ivy League school, despite her poor grades in high school.
Read the article here.
What do you think should happen to Reed? How do you think this has affected her family? How has it affected Henson's family? Click "comment" to weigh in with your thoughts on the article.
posted by cldaily at 8:30 AM
20 Comments:
I think reed should be found and be set to prison for no longer then 9 months on the count of stolen identity.
I think that Reed's family was probably happy to hear that she's not dead but dissapointed in the fact that she committed a crime.
I'm sure that for the Hensen's they were probably very interested in seeing their daughter for the first time in years,but was shocked and dissappointed in hearing about the scam and their daughter's identity. I'm figuring that they're not very happy with the Reed's daughter and want punishment on Esther's crime.
i think her family would be dissappionted but happy at the same time. there is a saying, its hard to be what you are, harder to be what your not, hard to know what you need to get and harder to know what youve got! there is no point in being someone your not just to get into a school of all things.
This whole event must have been horrible for that Henson family. I think it was wrong of Reed to take the idenity of Brooke Henson. It seemes to me though that Reed was the kind of person that never liked being acknoledged so she most likley wanted a life where people didn't know who she really was. I think that must be why she stole Brooke's idenity because she wanted to get away from her past and start new. Also Reed didn't really steal the idenity of Brooke for money gain. She used it to apply to colleges. That is further eveidence that Reed was just trying to better herself and get away from her past. If Reed is ever caught I think that her punishment should be mimimal.
Well considering she stool the girls identity she should go to jail for about 6 months to learn her lesson.
Reed's family was definitly happy to hear that she was alive and well but i mean i would be upset with her and i think they are dissappointed.
They were totally happy when they heard the news but of course when they heard that reed stole hear identity they went back to they horrible feeling you get when you know your child is gone and probably not coming back and i'm pretty sure they would suspect that Reed did it and stuff but i mean i would be pissed if i found out they stole my identity!
I think Reed should be found and sent to jail for years. She stole a missing person’s identity and used it to get into an Ivy League school! Students work so hard to go to college and to get into an Ivy League school is difficult. Reed got in on false pre-tenses and I think the scam should come with serious consequences.
It astounds me how she even managed to do this let alone get away with it so long. Not only did she steal Henson’s identity but she also put her family through another terrible let-down. I can’t even imagine someone telling me my daughter who has been missing 7 years has been found and then ripping it all away again.
I think Reed’s family has to be very embarrassed and disappointed. I’m sure they are happy she is alive but let down with the news of her past actions. I think the fact that she is running away from the police makes the situation even harder for them.
I think Reed needs counseling and a sentence in prison for stolen identity. She needs and yearns for attention, but I don't think she got it until joining the speech team. The article said she has a high IQ so she was probably pushing her limits to the extreme to see what she could get away with.
I think this has caused agony on Reed's family, but not nearly as much as on the Henson family. The Reed's had to go through the same trauma of a family member gone missing, but in reality, Reed was just trying to pull off another person's indentity. I am perplexed at the whole idea of a high school dropout trying/wanting to get in an Ivy League school; if she cared so much about getting into a college with that prestige, she should've tried harder in school.
I feel the Henson family was put through so much torment throughout the last seven years. First, a family member goes missing, and then the phone call and false hope that she was still alive and well, and then the actuality that someone was stealing her identity. Reed should definally pay for all the pain she caused the Henson family.
This whole story is extremely sad for the henson family but at the same time was extremely good news for the reed family. i'm not sure if reed should be sent to jail or not though, afterall its pretty obvious she had nothing to do with henson's disappearance and the only thing she did with henson's name was use her grades to give herself a chance in college, which im slightly impressed by because it must have taken a lot of plotting and thinking to come up with an idea like that. it might be somewhat morally wrong, but that reed girl must be resourceful if she disappeared from her home in montana and ended up in new york with a south carolina girl's name.
Wow. That's crazy, I've got to say. First I have to still wonder what happened to the real Henson girl. Perhaps, did Reed kill her and then steal her identity? who knows? anyway, that would be really hard to deal with, i'm sure, for the henson family, to hear that your child is alive and then find out that the person the officials had thought to be your child actually turned out to be the person who stole her identity. I personally think that Reed should be made to suffer maximum penalty for identity theft. Greater, though, should be the guilt she feels for the pain that she caused the henson family. i would be interested to find out what happened to the henson girl, still, though.
I think that Reed should be sent to jail for a long time because not only did she steal an identity but she made Henson's family believe she was alive!
Hensons's family may have been starting to get over her death, but when Reed came back and said she was someone she wasnt it sent them on an emmotional rollercoaster, and they probably more upset now then they started off.
I think this whole situation is very interesting. I don't know how someone could have the audacity to steal someones identity after they have been missing for more than 7 years. Im curious as to how she decided to take Brookes identity over any others. I think that as soon as they find Reed she should be locked away for a long time. Hensons family must have been extremely happy to hear the good news about finding Brooke, but then to hear that it was just someone who stole her identity must have made them feel even worse than they did when she was lost. There is no excuse to take someones identity and she should be punished.
I think Reed should be in serious trouble for this. I feel really bad for Hensons family because after they heard their daughter was alive and were happy, they find out its another girl. If that happened to me i would cry for days.
I have to agree with the fact that Reed should be sent to prison for identity theft, but she should also make some kind of restitution for Henson's parents for giving them false hope and then smashing it to pieces. The emotional trauma they went through when their daughter went missing, coupled with her stolen identity, had to be hard on them both. It was a terrible thing Reed did, and then she just dissapeared on everyone again. Either she is a cold-hearted con artist, or mentally unstable.
I can't believe that Reed would do something like that to the Henson’s. It was bad enough that their daughter had went missing and was presumed dead but then to give them hope and immediately crush it. It is just sad. I'm wondering what she was thinking. Was she thinking that she could just go on using someone's identity when they disappeared 7 years ago? I think she should have to at least talk to the Henson’s and explain why she did it to them. Explain why she drug up such painful memories and made them relive the horror of what happened 7 years ago. Also, why did she put her family through that when obviously she ran away to escape her own problems in life. They didn’t know if she was alive or dead or what she was doing yet they still love her and support her but she won’t give them the time of day.
Stealing another persons identity is for sure a horrible thing to do. The womans family thought she was dead and never knew that she was actually alive and well. Stealing someone elses identity for your own self gradification is wrong on so many levels and she should be sent to jail for her crime.
I think that Reed should be put in jail. She lived a double life as someone who people still cared about. I'm sure that her family is concerned for her and this other family. I think that they still love her, but I don't think that Henson's family will ever forgive her.
Wowerz!!! I give this Reed girl props!!! She fooled an "Ivy League" school!! I can't help but wondering now how hard it really is to get in these colleges...hmmmm.... I mean really now, a girl to boot, not that I'm bashing girls or anything, but honestly.... I have one question though, how in the world could Reed live every day of her a life a big lie??? I know that I would not be able to pull that off. Then again thats propbally why im never gonna steal anyones idenity.
I really dont know if Reed deserves any punishment. She had to first of all go through everyday of her life as being someone else, someone that was completely different then her. And next she had to spend all that time plotting and planning the next what 7 years of her life. That I know is hard to plan becuase I can't even plan two weeks in advance. And to live everyday with the risk of being caught; now that is a lot of anexiety. So for Reed to be that genius, and having to live a secret life, I think that in itself is already timed served.
I think Reed should go to jail for a few years, for stealing Hensen's identity. I feel bad for the Hensen family because they thought they were going to be getting their daughter back and had started gaining hope again, and then had it ripped away from them yet again. Reed should turn herself in because just think of what she's putting her family thru, she isn't thinking of anyone but herself.
I think Reed wanted to take Henson's identity because she with her poor grades and the reputation she had at school, she wanted to be someone shes not. There is no reason in the world for someone to steel someone else's identity which is why she sould be sent to jail for a very long time. If I was a part of Reed's family I would be upset with her. I would be happy at the same time though, knowing she is okay, but I would still be very upset.
I also do not understand why the people at the colleges or where ever she went didn't realize that Reed really is not Henson. Most fake identifications never look exactly like the person, therefore it should have been noticable that it really wasn't her.
The fact that Reed was able to beat the system at two Ivy League schools brings up an interesting dilemma. Identity theft is becoming a larger problem in today's society than ever before, but how can it be stopped? The obvious solution is to increase security measures, but that would be widely unpopular with the public. No one wants to go through invasive security measures to do something simple that requires ID.
The internet provides more opportunities than anything else when it comes to identity theft. Because of a lack of security checks, it would take very little effort, time, or money to use the internet to create a fake identity. Signing up for email accounts and AIM screennames is both free and quick. No one is able to check to see if you really are who you say you are because there is no face-to-face contact. Many colleges now enourage students to apply online, and money transfers are extremely common over the internet. Stuff like this makes me wonder how much we really can trust the internet for personal things.
I don't understand if Reed isn't linked to the disappearance of Brooke, how exactly did she steal her identity. From old reports? Of course I think it's horrible that Brooke's family was victimized and feelings and emotions were stirred up again when they were probably starting to settle. Although, I do agree that Reed might have been escaping her past to better herself, but I don't understand how people can live with the guilt. If she is found or does report herself she should have some sort of short-term sentence.
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