Laura Oglesby is a 48-year-old woman from Missouri who apparently woke up one day and decided to take her estranged daughter's identity and run wild with it.
As authorities have revealed, the first step of Oglesby's plan was put into motion in 2016 when she applied for a Social Security card in the name of her daughter. Once she received it, she began claiming to be her daughter, Lauren Hays.
Oglesby then began dating younger men, many of whom had no idea she was really 20 years older than her actual age. Oglesby deceived the men through a combination of clothing, makeup, online filters, and personality.
Chief Jamie Perkins of the Mountain View Police Department explained how Oglesby pulled this off, saying, "Everyone believed it. She even had boyfriends that believed that she was that age: 22 years old."
Detective Stetson Schwien also shared more about the ruse, explaining, "She had completely adopted a younger lifestyle: clothing, makeup and personality. She had completely assumed becoming a younger person in her early 20s."
The woman even moved in with a couple who lived nearby named Avery and Wendy Parker. The Parkers believed she was a young woman in her 20s who was attempting to escape a domestic violence situation at home.
Oglesby also used her daughter's identity to enroll in college classes and to get college financial aid to the tune of $9,400 in federal student loans, $5,920 in Pell Grants, and $1,863 in finance charges. She got a job at a nearby library and seemed pretty committed to living the rest of her life this way.
Eventually, Oglesby's plan came crashing down around her when authorities in Arkansas alerted those in Missouri to what they suspected was going on. Oglesby admitted to the fraud and could now spend up to five years in prison on the charge of intentionally providing false information to the Social Security Administration. She also owes $17,521 to her daughter and to the university she enrolled in classes at.
