Criminal Genius Uncovered At Columbia
It's the kind of story with all the ingredients for a great movie: a 30-year-old woman from Montana has pleaded guilty to fraud and identity theft, which she undertook in order to attend Columbia University and, says her attorney, "escape a painful past." How intriguing. Since 2001 Esther Elizabeth Reed had juggled 6 different identities, and variously claimed to be a chess champion and in the witness protection program. She got into Columbia with a genuine SAT score of 1400 and by using the identity of a missing woman from North Carolina, whose disappearance investigators "don't think" Reed was connected to. Well, in the film she will be! And she won't face 47 years in jail either, but elude capture by always staying one step ahead of the feds.