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The family of a baby boy who died in Texas in 1972 have discovered a 44-year-old man had stolen their little boy's identity after a family tree search on genealogy website Ancestry.com.
Key points:
- Nathan Laskoski died as an infant in 1972
- Ancestry.com search showed Nathan was alive and working as nurses aide
- 44-year-old Jon Vincent charged with fraud and identity theft
Jon Vincent was arrested on Monday in Lansdale, near Philadelphia, on charges of social security fraud and aggravated identity theft.
The Philadelphia man stole baby Nathan Laskoski's identity after escaping from a Texas halfway house in March 1996, and used his new name to start another life.
Vincent had been convicted in Texas of indecency with a child, although the precise sentence he was serving was not immediately clear, said Michele Mucellin, a spokesperson for the US attorney's office in Philadelphia.
The real Nathan Laskoski died aged two months in December 1972.
Authorities said Vincent first obtained a Social Security card as Laskoski in 1996. He lived in Mississippi, Tennessee and Pennsylvania, under the assumed name, authorities said.
He held jobs, received a driver's licence and even got married and divorced as Laskoski before the scheme unravelled late last year, according to online court records.
That is when Nathan's aunt did a search on Ancestry.com.
Strange 1996 phone call finally makes sense
In researching her family tree, Nathan's name came up as a green leaf on the website, meaning public records showed he was alive.
Nathan's mother told the Social Security Administration investigator she remembered a strange telephone call sometime in 1996, from someone asking questions about her deceased son, including his Social Security number.
After answering some of the questions, she questioned the caller, who hung up. When she called the police, they told her it was likely a scam, but nothing more happened, court records show.
Social Security records show Vincent has been employed as Laskoski and earned income every year since 1996.
Most recently, he was working as a nurse's aide, according to licencing records of the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
Court records don't say where Vincent was working under Laskoski's name, and Mucellin, the prosecutor's spokeswoman, also couldn't say.
The Social Security fraud charge carries up to five years in prison upon conviction. The aggravated identity theft charge carries a penalty of two years in prison consecutive to any sentence imposed for the fraud count.
Vincent remained jailed on Wednesday. His federal public defender did not immediately return a request for comment.
AP
Topics: law-crime-and-justice, united-states
First posted